Sometimes you can't keep the good times from rollin'. First, we got a great question from a listener, Joseph, over voicemail. But this week also happened to be the annual Associated Writing Programs Conference in Seattle. The AWP Conference is a fun ex

This week on Fiction School, we let our actions speak louder than words...by using words to talk...about action. Anyway, we discuss what makes for awesome action scenes in fiction, how to avoid the Show, Don't Tell trap, how character and plotting give l

Lots of people are saying it's the best time in the history of the world to be a writer. It may be true. There's lots of cool stuff going on, amazing opportunities writers couldn't have dreamed of years ago. But there are some new jobs for a writer in

On this episode, we tackle the dilemma of point of view and tense: which genres have POV trends or expectations, what advantages you get with plot and character through your choice of POV and tense, how tense affects the kind of tension your story can cas

Fiction School is so stoked to have Megan Abbott on the show this week. She's one of the best writers of noir and crime fiction in the business today, and she's also an awesome and nice person. (It's good to chat with a nice person about, as she says, "p

On the podcast, we crack open the story on book covers. Tommy tells us about how his Messiah Trilogy covers came together; we talk about the intricate tango the cover has to dance between the story itself and the marketing, genre-promising, and reader bas

On the show this week, Fiction School gets courageous and gives the last word on story endings. But we don’t stop there--we talk about chapter endings and cliffhangers, and endings to books in the middle of a series. Want to know how endings can be to

Literary agent Bree Ogden, "The Wonder Woman of Horror," talks with Fiction School about her love for horror, her sense of the literary marketplace, and her bets on new directions writing will go. It's a fascinating talk on the pulse of the literary scen

We ring in the new year discussing good resolutions for writers, the habits that keep you creative all year long, ways you can expand your writing repertoire, and how to kill writer's block forever. Full show notes at http://www.fictionschool.com/new-year

Choosing a name for your fictional character: How to use subtlety and stereotype, how names affect the way readers frame a character, how the poetry of a name's sound works, and how a name reveals the way a character interacts with his or her parents, and