The Write Focus

6:02 / Writers = Scott Ellis Talks the Narration Biz

In this episode we have All Things Narration ~ clearly, concisely, professionally ~ explained by the award-winning narrator / producer Scott Ellis of Scott Ellis Reads.

From the various unseen and unheard jobs of the narrator before beginning, through major job of recording sessions and re-recording and the pick-ups after, to making the many files easily available for the writer’s use, the role of a great narrator is to help the writer’s story become more accessible to a wider audience.

And Scott Ellis knows all of these jobs.

He’s narrated over 100 audiobooks and coached several authors through the production or narration of their first audiobook. Being a retired teacher, Scott is all about performing and teaching. Scott Ellis Reads, his audiobook production company, started in 2019 and has a team of over 20 people that work in narrating, editing, marketing, and managing the business.

Awards

Audiobook Producer of Magda, Standing - IBPA 2024 Gold Medal Winner Young Adult Fiction Audiobook of the Year

Narrator of Puck and Minnie: All That Is - named 2021 Young Adult Fiction Audiobook of the Year by Audiobook Reviewer.

LINKS

Visit his website:www.scottellisreads.com

Visit his Classroom www.serclassroom.com

TOTAL RUN TIME = 37:29

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. The previous series was Fall into Poetry, at this link ~ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg&si=Te8Jo1vLeu3rVkS4

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

· You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.

· Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Listen on your favorite podcast site: from Apple to YouTube, Spotify and Podbean (my favs), Google Play, Amazon Music and Audible, Samsung and Player FM, Deezer and Podcaster, the rivals iHeart and Tune-in, and too many to list.

Here are the easiest. Make us a favorite, and follow along easy-peasy, once a week, while you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

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YouTube direct link to the Current Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7IZWMlW9kLwMNEkuLMySGnq

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Content copyright is 2020 to 2025, Writers Ink Books.

6:01 / Writers on Writing / Marie Still

Welcome to Writers on Writing, interviews with active writers to inspire us all for our great start to 2025.

In this week’s episode, our focus is Marie Still, an award-winning thriller and horror author. She’s a marketer turned writer in the coronacoaster year. She took the giant step upon the urging of a friend.

Marie Still torments her characters from Tampa Bay. She also writes women's fiction under Kristen Seeley. Her novels include My Darlings (currently in development as a television series with Amazon MGM Studios), Bad Things Happened in This Room, We're All Lying (named by Buzzfeed as one of the most anticipated mystery/thrillers of 2023), and Beverly Bonnefinche is Dead (a Silver Falchion Award finalist).

Off the page, Marie can be found attempting to corral her five mostly friendly cats for a cuddle, surviving the affection from her very cuddly 150 lb Rottweiler, or keeping up with her four children. She's also known to surprise her incredibly supportive husband with a new cat, to which he doesn't complain (too much).

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:41 Introduction / Marie’s technology use

06:18 How Marie Writes

10:00 Roller Coaster Writing

13:00 Deciding to be a Writer

17:33 Marketing a Book vs. a Product

23:13 My Darlings’ Release / Hurricane Interference

27:08 Closing

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/yPg_aLzMHr8?si=CHXO0EVUmArhYiVX

Listen to the Podcast at your favorite service or free on Podbean: https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/601-writers-on-writing-marie-still/

LINKS

MarieStill.com

Instagram: instagram.com/mariestillwrites

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mariestillwrites

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:00 / Welcome to Season 6 / New Series to Start January 8

Click to View 6th Season Info

5:49 / Fall into Poetry / Journey with TS Eliot

Our poem for the Christmas holidays has two lessons for all writers. It comes from T.S. Eliot.

My introduction to TSE came in college, either a survey course in modern poetry or as part of a literature survey. Professor C. Hines Edwards, dry and erudite, was one of two that I admired for his knowledge of poetry classical and structure-less.

He introduced TSE’s “The Wasteland” to us, a long poem known for its allusions. The literary device allusions has its place in writing. In a few brief words, it opens doors to additional meaning … much as Christina Rossetti’s “From Sunrise to Starshine” did, with our realization that she’s a sleeping beauty, briefly awakened, now in her thorn-guarded tower.

The allusion is the first of our two lessons, but it leads into the second, a contradictory lesson and our final one for this series.

In January, The Write Focus starts a new series called Writers on Writing, active writers who share their knowledge of tech tools, productivity, and process, with a few snippets on the craft.

Here’s Eliot’s poem, perfect for the holiday season.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction

01:17 Allusions / Easter Eggs

03:11 First Lesson

04:40 Symbolic Motifs

05:17 Re-Connecting with TSE

07:45 Second Lesson: Two-Sided

10:13 “The Journey of the Magi”

16:40 Closing

Total Run Time = 17:38

#TSEliot #JourneyoftheMagi #Wasteland #HollowMen #allusion #discoverability #symbolicmotifs #motif #writingadvice

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

TSEliot bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot

“The Wasteland” https://genius.it/www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

“The Hollow Men” https://poets.org/poem/hollow-men

“Journey of the Magi” https://allpoetry.com/The-Journey-Of-The-Magi

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

· You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.

· Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Here are the easiest. Make us a favorite, and follow along easy-peasy, once a week, while you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

YouTube direct link to Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73Pe3yKV5HixAUjBNOg47A

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d

Amazon/Audible https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/062ecc60-d61c-432a-ad99-8234c1044ef1

ListenNotes https://lnns.co/y_Jg5rpaMNo

Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VkZW41Njk1L2ZlZWQueG1s

Tune-In https://tunein.com/podcasts/p1608565/

IHeart Radio https://iheart.com/podcast/90647163

Content copyright is 2020 to 2024, Writers Ink Books.

5:48 / Celebrate Thanksgiving

The Write Focus wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving week ~ full of rich holiday food, joyous time with people we love, awkward encounters with other people, and a money blast on Black Friday—which usually extends to Cyber Monday.

This episode doesn’t fit with our Fall into Poetry series ~ although it does gift you with poems stuffed with thanks—and not so stuffed. No analysis or advice to writers, just poetry.

It’s a Cornucopeia of Poems to share for Thanksgiving.

TIMINGS

00:00 Introduction

00:40 “There’s Nothing like the Sun”

2:00 “November Night”, a cinquain

2:23 “I went to thank her”

3:10 Two called “November”

4:30 “Winter”

Total Run Time = 5:37

Listen to the Audio

Fall into Poetry / Prepare for 6 Lessons

We’re a week to Thanksgiving here in the USofA, and we have not one or two but three poems of gratitude to examine, giving us 6 lessons of Advice for All Writers.

These three poems have quirky ways of matching to the holiday, thanks-giving and gratitude.

The gratitude doesn’t take the gushing that usually fills most writings about thankfulness. The individual poets present their heartfelt emotion in a realistic manner. They’ve lived real lives and experienced pain and heartbreak, and they share this reality in the hopes that we can gain from their experiences.

Reality rather than gushy platitudes? I’m in for that, every time.

Like writing strong, rational characters with strong counterparts, allies and antagonists rather than weak straw-men which doesn’t prove anything about strength and intelligence and logic.

Oops, preaching again. Herewith, our six lessons and three poems for this episode.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / Lessons 1 & 2
03:40 Lessons 3 & 4
06:22 Cowper “Gratitude”
08:45 Sandburg “Our Prayer of Thanks”
13:20 Lesson 5
14:45 Nesbit “Gratitude”
16:15 Lesson 6
17:25 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 19:31

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

William Cowper bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper

Cowper’s poem https://allpoetry.com/Gratitude-And-Love-To-God

Carl Sandburg bio https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-literature-biographies/carl-sandburg

Sandburg’s poem http://carl-sandburg.com/our_prayer_of_thanks.htm

Edith Nesbit bio https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-Nesbit

Nesbit’s poem https://www.poetry.com/poem/8831/gratitude

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

· You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.

· Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Here are the easiest. Make us a favorite, and follow along easy-peasy, once a week, while you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

YouTube direct link to Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73Pe3yKV5HixAUjBNOg47A

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d

Amazon/Audible https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/062ecc60-d61c-432a-ad99-8234c1044ef1

ListenNotes https://lnns.co/y_Jg5rpaMNo

Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VkZW41Njk1L2ZlZWQueG1s

Tune-In https://tunein.com/podcasts/p1608565/

IHeart Radio https://iheart.com/podcast/90647163

Fall into Poetry / Writing Dark and Bright

When we live our life in the present, being in the moment, we can develop a love-hate relationship with people and things we encounter daily.

We don’t “love to hate” these; we love them at some times while at other times we hate them. We may happily encounter and deal with them, then on a day not too far away, we groan and say, “Not today, please, not today.”

That contradiction, that contrariness, is engrained in our human nature. We aren’t changing our minds. Five days from now, love will re-emerge. When someone reminds us “You said you hated thus-and-so,” we retort “When did I ever?”, conveniently forgotten.

As writers, we work to keep the predominant mood of a work. We don’t wish to confuse a reader. In longer works, we can gradually shirt the mood, dark to bright, Shorter works are better with one mood.

We have strong tools to create mood and manipulate our audience with that mood. Our words are influencers upon the world.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction / Mood / Lesson 1

2:53 Tools to Influence Mood / Lessons 2 and 3

5:35 Frost and Clare

6:19 Frost’s “My November Guest” / Lesson 4

9:57 Clare’s “November”

13:00 Writer as Influencer

14:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 16:07

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Bio of Frost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost

Bio of Clare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clare

“My November Guest” https://poets.org/poem/my-november-guest

“November” https://pickmeuppoetry.org/november-by-john-clare/

#johnclare #robertfrost #novemberpoems #mood #connotation #imagery #tone #atmosphere #poetaslegislator

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

· You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.

· Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Here are the easiest. Make us a favorite, and follow along easy-peasy, once a week, while you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

YouTube direct link to Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73Pe3yKV5HixAUjBNOg47A

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d

Amazon/Audible https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/062ecc60-d61c-432a-ad99-8234c1044ef1

ListenNotes https://lnns.co/y_Jg5rpaMNo

Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VkZW41Njk1L2ZlZWQueG1s

Tune-In https://tunein.com/podcasts/p1608565/

IHeart Radio https://iheart.com/podcast/90647163