Mentors / Discovering Characters

 Yoda. Q. Nanny McPhee. Spock. Gandalf. JARVIS. Dumbledore. Mary Poppins. Merlins.

All mentors.

A mentor is a wise elder who teaches, provide gifts, motivates and plants seeds. They are wise, mysterious, a little deranged, and incredibly awe-inspiring. They can be much-loved … or dark and dangerous. They can provides gifts willingly … or present challenges difficult to overcome.

Mentors can act for or against the protagonist, wish him/her well or curse to oblivion, and know the answer yet give wrong directions. Whatever their goal and motivations, mentors have four functions in story even as they improve our plots OR DESTROY THEM.

TIMINGS

• 0:39 Intro
• 3:25 Beginnings
• 6:30 4 Functions of the Mentor
• 9:51 Good & Bad
• 13:42 Mentors and Plots
• 15:00 Closing

Total Run Time = 16:39

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 Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

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. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.

·        Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

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 4 easiest:

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

YouTube direct link to the Discovering Characters playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KJY0D5Kl8M7J3zTP-hMxgs

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

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

Writing Short Stories ~ Presentation

 Last May, The Write Focus had a four-part series explaining and showing how writers use the Plot Formula developed by Lester Dent.

Then, my local chapter Smoking Guns of Sisters in Crime asked for a presentation (in the fall). Events happened that prevented the presentation then (unexpected sickness on my part), and we postponed the presentation.

This past Saturday, April 22, the presentation finally occurred ...

... and wouldn't you know it? We had tech problems. So I reverted to whiteboard from a powerpoint presentation and managed to talk for over 1 1/2 hours.

Here's a link to find a pdf of the powerpoint presentation (no, it wasn't filmed, thank God!). The link takes you to my nonfiction website and contains not only a downloadable link to the pdf but also a link to the first episode of the four-part Writing Short Stories series on Podbean.

So, if interested, off you go: click! 

It's necessary to go to the Word Press site because I could not get the pdf to load onto this stripped-down blogger site. I'm beginning to think that Blogger is not great so lots of things. Easy to use. Easy to create. Limited on what it can do. Oh well. If someone knows another way, I do like to learn.

Tests from Enemies / Discovering Characters

 Conflict moves stories. 

The protagonist faces the conflict, battling with it and dealing with it. Whether our focus is Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, George R.R. Martin or Dean Koontz, the swiftest action-adventure or the highest literary fiction, the protagonist battles a conflict-creator.

The antagonist creates the deepest and longest conflict, yet other characters can also be conflict-creators, even if that character is not evil. These characters offer tests for our primary character. One such character is the Love Interest. That’s a curious addition to an episode on Enemies. I’ll explain at the end of the episode. For now, we have the Tests that come from Active Enemies of the Protagonist.

TIMINGS

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:41 Opening
• 3:28 1^st Test
• 6:43 2^nd Test, in 2 forms
• 9:35 3^rd Test
• 11:40 4^th Test, with 2 choices
• 15:43 Love Interest
• 18:32 Closing

Total Run Time = 20:11

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. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.

·        Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

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.

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

YouTube direct link to the Discovering Characters playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KJY0D5Kl8M7J3zTP-hMxgs

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

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

Allies and More

 

While Teams actively engage with the primary characters and the story’s conflict, many other characters will populate stories.

Whether in a short story, a simple anecdote in nonfiction, or in novels and epics, these other characters flesh out the skeleton of our writing. Allies, Foils, Love Interests, Blocking Figures, and more all participate in the conflict, driving it forward or directing the protagonist or antagonist.

In this episode, we present five of the key types of Allies and More.

CONTENT

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:22 Allies, Enemies, and More
• 4:16 Allies for the Protagonist
• 5:07 Ally
• 7:04 Foil
• 10:06 Neither Ally nor Enemy
• 10:53 Herald
• 12:31 Blocking Figure
• 14:10 Idol
• 16:11 Trickster
• 17:30 Closing

Total Run Time = 19:08

 Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
• https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Direct Link to the Audio https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/416-allies-and-more-discovering-characters/?token=d81ea23ae1c30a0116d92f62cf7d54c3  

Direct Link to the Video Playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KJY0D5Kl8M7J3zTP-hMxgs

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 Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

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. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.

·        Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

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.

Look for Our Logo!

Team Roles / Discovering Characters

 For writers, teams offer greater opportunities than a single protagonist or antagonist.

We are not limited to character’s perspective throughout the writing. We can have two who alternate or a group of characters whose diverse perspectives open a wider opportunity for conflict and tension.

Writers can have a lot of fun with teams. We can build a book or a series around a team. We can follow a single protagonist and the team through a series OR have a single protagonist with a changing team OR have alternate team members serve as the protagonist.

Teams give options … and every writers love options.

CONTENTS

• 0:38 Intro to Team Roles
• 2:36 Basics of Teams (*My apologies for my poor attempt at 4 Chinese art terms.)
• 6:46 4 Team Members ~ Alpha / Beta / Gamma / Delta
• 9:09 Team Members in Conflict
• 12:04 Conflict Reactions of Team Members
• 16:10 3 Leadership Styles
• 18:03 10 Team Roles ~ the Skeleton
• 20:55 Peck vs. Pack
• 21:57 Peck
• 24:13 Self-Selection of a Group
• 25:10 Pack
• 26:36 Closing

 LINKS

Flow by Cyrus Molavi https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Classic-Achieve-Happiness-Introduction/dp/0712657592

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

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 Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

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. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.

·        Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

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 4 easiest:

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

YouTube direct link to the Discovering Characters playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KJY0D5Kl8M7J3zTP-hMxgs

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

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