Drive Write

Drive Write: Support Structures

Drive Write: Episode 15 – Support Structures https://arogers907.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/drivewrite_015_supportstructures.m4a This week I’m talking about personal support structures. In particular, I’m expressing appreciation for everything my wife does to help me perform on my creative projects. I’ve been reminded of just how much having a teammate and partner means during this past holiday season. She was overseas for the past several weeks and it has been difficult to balance all my personal projects against family, parenting and the day job. Let me know if you’ve had similar experience or challenges in the comments. And definitely let me know if you have any tips!

Drive Write: Empower Your Verbs

https://arogers907.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/drivewrite_014_verbchoice.m4a Drive Write: Episode 14 – Free your… No. Empower… Hmmm… Unleash your verbs! We’re talking about verbs on Drive Write this week. Action! Verbs are all about the ‘doing’ of a thing. They are motion. They are intent. They are what spurs a story relentlessly forward over forty-miles of rough prose. I don’t know about you, but I frequently don’t take time to ensure that I’ve picked chosen selected the best possible verb for any given action in my stories. This week’s podcast is a short one, but I like the writing/editing tip enough to make it a cast all its own. I’d encourage you to carefully consider each and every word you write. That’s probably good advice in general and for any type of writing. But in this case, pick one of your stories and try focusing on getting the most bang for your buck out of each verb.  You might be surprised (and pleasantly so) by the amount bloat and vagary that can be pruned away. Until next week, uh… cheers ‘n’ stuff.

Drive Write: Writing Out of Order

https://arogers907.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/drive-write_-episode-13-writing-out-of-order.m4a DriveWrite: Episode 13 – Writing Out of Order This week on Drive Write I’m talking about writing out of order. The gist of my argument is, if there’s a piece of your book that you’re excited to write… write it. Stitch everything together later. You’re going to have to write the entire story eventually. Might as well write the stuff you’re excited to write when you’re excited to write it. Right? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo this year, you should be past the half-way mark at this point. Great job! Regardless of how you’re doing this year on your NaNoWriMo project, you might benefit from a little encouragement and strategic advice. If you’re not already listening to them, I’d encourage you to check out Mur Lafferty’s daily I Should Be Writing podcasts. She’s posting every day through the month of November to help us all accomplish our 50k word goal. Thanks, Mighty Mur! =) Until next week. Good luck, be well and write hard.

Drive Write: Droblar.com Launches

https://arogers907.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/drivewrite_012_droblar.m4a Drive Write: Episode 12 – Droblar.com Launches This week on Drive Write, I give a mid-month update on my NaNoWriMo progress. I also introduce (formally, and kinda/sorta for the first time) the Droblar webcomic. I talk about why I started drawing, how the story came to be, and some technical and scheduling challenges that I’m learning to navigate as I go. The artist I mentioned who got my attention focused on #SundaySketch-ing is Jake Powning. Find Jake and examples of his incredible swordsmithing at his website. Enjoy, please visit the comic site at droblar.com, and feel free to leave questions/concerns/critiques in the comments.

Drive Write: Word Count

https://arogers907.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/drivewrite-11-word-count.m4a Drive Write – Episode 11 – Word Count Hello and welcome to Drive Write, the podcast about one storyteller’s journey to becoming a published author. Today on Drive Write, I talk about word count. What is it, why is it important, and why is it timely to talk about word count in November? For those unaware, November is National Novel Writing Month. Or, NaNoWriMo, for short. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. And why, you might ask, does NaNo measure progress by number of words? Great question! If you’re interested in writing fiction (or writing anything, for that matter) then word count is a great way to track your progress. Much better, I think, than page count or time spent. Setting and tracking your performance against a word count goal is a fine way to keep you moving on your projects and to keep you honest. And that’s what I cover in today’s Drive Write podcast. As a brief aside… I also mention that Droblar.com launched today. Droblar is a weekly web comic that started as a bedtime story for my kids. I’ll update the site each week on Tuesday morning. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.