Writer Unleashed

 Writing is solitary.  And if you’re anything like me, you like to dip into some inspiration from time to time for a creative boost or deeper insight into the craft. So much of our progress depends o…

Have you ever thought, Writing should be easier for me than this?  I sure did. I didn't know there was a craft to writing a novel. I thought talent and sheer  passion would see me through. And then I…

How do you keep a consistent writing routine when you're life is hectic as all hell?  How do you find time to write and  fulfill life's never-ending hamster wheel of responsibilities?  And where do y…

How can you be more efficient with structuring your story? How do you balance structure while keeping the story fresh and surprising? In this episode we're going to talk about 5 essential storytellin…

Do you ever feel like you're tying yourself up in knots with all the different points of view your story has?  POV is one of the most misunderstood and often poorly taught story elements. It's also o…

You have your first draft. Or maybe you're stalled in your current work in progress. Now what?  How do you finish what you started? Today, you'll learn how to move forward with your work in progress,…

There's a lot of writing advice floating around. But most of it shackles writers more than it helps, and sometimes leads to paint-by-number stories.  In this episode, learn common traps when it comes…

What does character thought have to do with plot? It's the connective tissue that brings continuity to your story, scene by scene. It helps fill in all those plot holes. And it keep your reader groun…

How do you harness the depth and complexity of your story material? And orchestrate all those story threads so that they intensify your plot?  By creating subplots. Learn two ways subplots work,  plu…

What’s the most overlooked way to show how a character feels?

The vowel scale - the poet's secret weapon.  Just like musical notes, vowel sounds have frequencies that create vibrations in the reader's…

 How do you create the kind of suspense that keeps readers riveted to your pages, hanging on every sentence? 

Suspense doesn't happen in the broad strokes - trouble, cliffhangers, sympathetic charact…

Readers crave novelty and surprise. They don't want the same cliched description of a sunset. Or the expected character response to betrayal.  But coming up with original ideas, especially  for ordin…

How do you keep writing when you're paralyzed by self doubt?

By reprogramming faulty thought patterns.

In today's episode of Writer Unleashed, we'll re-frame common misconceptions about writing, and ev…

Style can be the downfall of an otherwise stunning story.

That's because the writing calls  too much attention to itself and upstages the characters. It fights against your story and keeps your reade…

What's one of the quickest way to get your manuscript in the reject pile?

Too many adjectives and adverbs. 

Writers often think adjectives and adverbs describe vividly. But nothing could be farther f…

Don't  think or write chronologically? No worries. Stories bend to their own laws of time.

In today's episode, we'll look at 4 ways to manipulate time in your story. These will give you more range as…

Flashbacks need to be handled with craft and intention. Just like any other interruption from the present story, a flashback can kick your reader out of the story.  And that's precisely what we want …

Bonnie Lykes Bigler is a writer and spoken word performer and host of The Writers' Voice on WIOX 91.3 FM.  In this radio re-broadcast,  we talk all things writing - why we write, what stops us in our…

Show, don’t tell has got to be the most canned advice bandied about.

Yes, you should show. But that doesn’t mean you never tell. Telling does have its place.

So the question becomes, when is it better …

 POV is the thing that flummoxes writers the most. 

A big part of the confusion is a misguided focus on which person you write from.  But this has virtually nothing to do with POV and  confuses writer…