S36E1 – Dark Psychology: The Use of Gaslighting in Fiction
Enough with the lights, Rapunzel! You are not leaving this tower! Ever! … Great. Now I’m the bad guy. – Mother Gothel, Tangled
Writing Roots
S35E9 – The Confusion Caused by Bad Blocking
I can’t separate the process of writing from the visual process. I’m speaking only for myself here, but I’m a highly visual writer. In my imagination, when I’m thinking of a scene, I think of every last detail of it: the space, the color palette, the blocking of the actors, the placement of the camera. – Stephen Gaghan
S35E8 – When the Cliché is Too Cliché
My fear now is of cliche, of complacency, of not being able to feel authenticity in myself and those around me. – John Hawkes
S35 Bonus – Bad Writing Distracts from the Book
Read good books. Read bad books – and figure out why you don’t like them. Then don’t do it when you write. – Patricia Briggs
S35E7 – Slow Beginnings Ruin Stories
I don’t get far enough into a boring book to hate it. – Gary Wills
S35E6 – The Problem with Annoying Main Characters
Think of your main characters as dinner guests. Would your friends want to spend ten hours with the characters you’ve created? Your characters can be loveable, or they can be evil, but they’d better be compelling. ― Po Bronson
S35E5 – When Characters Make Bad Decisions
Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them ― in order that the reader may see what they are made of. ― Kurt Vonnegut
S35E4 – One Impossible Thing in Fiction
In older science fiction stories, they had to rely on storytelling as opposed to spectacle. The old run of the Twilight Zone, the star was the writing and the storytelling, and the characters and the twists and the cleverness in the setup and payoff and execution. – Josh Trank
S35E3 – When There’s Buildup Without a Payoff
When telling a story, you should have three primary phases in order: the setup, the buildup, and the payoff. – Tynan
S35E2 – Bad Beginnings Ruin a Story
The opening lines of a book are so important. You really need to somehow charm your reader. If you can’t get her attention in the first pages, you may have lost her. There has to be an ambiance. – Tatiana de Rosnay