Writer Syndrome

Are video games art? What elevates a video game narrative to make it memorable? Will Russ and Tim ever stop playing and get back to writing their second novels? In this special video game-themed episode, we tackle these questions and more.

Author Geoffrey Morrison joins us again for a great chat about his new nonfiction book, Budget Travel for Dummies. We discuss his move from fiction to nonfiction, hostels, deadlines, editing, and more.

Similes are metaphors; metaphors are not similes. In this episode, Russ and Tim explore more tools in the author's toolbox with metaphor and simile usage. What are they? How are they different? And how they use them in their own stories. Along with soup analogies. It's the most fun you can have while learning about figures of speech.

Have you found your voice as a storyteller? What does that even mean? This episode Russ and Tim explore the many factors that can shape an author's voice, and how they found (or are still looking for) their own.

There are a slew of writing myths out there. In this episode, Russ and Tim walk through some common myths and even bust a few of the big ones.

The query process can be a daunting, self-doubt-inducing part of getting published. In this episode, Russ asks Tim about his experience with the query process, the good, the bad, the ugly, and most importantly, how to stay focused on writing.

A good theme can provide the heart and glue that binds your story together. Characters, dialogue, setting, and symbolism are important in conveying your theme to the reader. In this episode, Russ and Tim dive into the common themes and how they used them in their writing.

J.D. Edwin, author of the sci-fi fantasy trilogy Headspace, joins us as we discuss querying, marketing, plotting vs pansting, and how to stay sane while writing a series.

Character archetypes were just the beginning, in order to further refine your characters you need to utilize direct and indirect characterization. This episode Russ and Tim discuss the finer details about characters, and the ways to tease that information to readers.

Looking to build out characters for your narrative? Character archetypes can help! This episode Russ and Tim discuss the various archetypes with examples and how they might be used to create interesting and unique characters.