The Taylor Stevens Show

This week’s show is the second of a three-part discussion of story structure, where we break down the three-act structure and try and apply it to Taylor’s writing style. The focus of this week’s show is the middle. In this week’s call to action, Steve mentions an interview featuring Suzanne Orchard, the owner of the […] The post TSS106: How to Avoid the Muddle in your Middle of Your Book appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

This week’s show is the start of a three-part discussion of story structure, where we break down the three-act structure and try and apply it to Taylor’s writing style. The focus of this week’s show is beginnings. The episode begins with… drum roll…. big news from Taylor where she’s finally able to announce some news she’s […] The post TSS105: Exciting News from Taylor and The First in A Series on Story Structure appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

Taylor returns from a visit to New York where she spent time at Thrillerfest and finally met her long time narrator, the incredible Hillary Huber. We discuss Taylor’s travels, Steve’s visit to a fabulous to Key West Island Books, a fabulous little indie bookstore in Key West, Florida and we consider a listener (thanks, Robert!) […] The post TSS104: Thrillerfest, Indie Bookstores, Travel Tales and Italics appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

Even if you get critiques that tell you ‘no, this isn’t working,’ don’t let that stop you. It just means you’re not there yet. —– Taylor This week’s show is all about advance readers, or beta readers.  How they can help with your writing as well as some specific advice on what roles they can […] The post TSS103: Should You Use Beta Readers to Judge Your Work? appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

  If you’re really doing it right then almost the entire narrative, that is not external dialogue is going to be internal monolog. — Taylor In this episode, we get caught up on Taylor’s summer, discuss The Dunning-Kruger Effect then discuss a blog post from Anne R. Allen’s blog titled, Stupid Writing Rules: 12 Bad […] The post TSS102: Purple Hair and Stupid Writing Rules appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

What I think is really important, and really key to remembering character aspects is how the character behaves, how they’ve responded to situations. That sort of character consistency is far more important than descriptions. — Taylor Today’s topic comes via email from Sue who asks if Taylor uses a notebook with photos of her characters and […] The post TSS101: Keeping Track of the Characters Throughout Your Book appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

  In this week’s episode, Taylor and Steve recap the first 100 episodes of the podcast and discuss plans for going forward.  We also discuss Taylor’s use of the term grit and how it can mean different things to different people. If you remember episodes 87 and 88, Taylor worked on some material from a […] The post TSS100: A recap of the first 100 episodes of the Taylor Stevens Show appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

  In this week’s episode, Taylor, a veteran of numerous book events in a variety of different venues walks us through a planning blueprint that can be used for your next book event. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If you have questions or suggestions for future shows, we’d love to hear […] The post TSS099: How to Plan for Your Next Book Event appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

I think a lot of the quick switch of POV really comes about through inexperience, in the sense that the author has had a lot of chance to learn how to bring those important thoughts, things that the reader need to know, how to bring them on to the page, in any other way. —– […] The post TSS098: First or Third, A point of View Discussion appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

If you’re going to write something that’s very normal…and I don’t mean that disparagingly, just something that readers are familiar with, then the importance of creating the world in which those characters inhabit, is not as critical, because it’s easier for the reader to suspend disbelief. —– Taylor Show Notes This week’s show is all […] The post TSS097: Considerations for Developing your Next Series appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

I think an illusion, is that if you did every single thing in this book you would write a novel that’s a breakout novel and you will go on to the bestseller lists. And that’s simply not true. — Taylor In this episode, we discuss books on the craft of writing.  Several members of the Facebook […] The post TSS096: Taylor’s Favorite Books on the Craft of Writing appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In writing a place and getting it accurate, you’re tasked with the challenge of capturing the essence of a location within sparse details and bringing that to life on the page. —- Taylor In this week’s show, Taylor, who is famous for the authenticity of her settings, discusses the two options for settings.  Real or fictitious. […] The post TSS095: Should your Setting be Real or Imagined? appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

When you’re foreshadowing something you want to have it earlier in the story and you also want it to be organic. — Taylor This week’s show opens with a discussion of Taylor’s plans for Thrillerfest in July, then we get into the topic of foreshadowing in fiction.  We’ll start with the basics and then get […] The post TSS094: How to Use Foreshadowing Effectively in Your Work appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

Your character’s inner dialogue is like the mold, the form through which the story is shaped. —– Taylor This week’s show starts with a specific example of what can happen when story elements that are inside the author’s mind don’t make it onto the page for the reader.  As is often the case, what’s missing […] The post TSS093: How Developing Character Depth Can Improve Your Story appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

The creative process is excruciatingly difficult for me. It’s really hard for me to sit there and focus, so of course, I’m going to do anything possible to avoid it because it’s just hard. —– Taylor This week’s episode is about juggling the projects that make up the writing life.  Taylor explains her strategies for […] The post TSS092: Writers Life: Juggling Multiple Projects appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

I don’t consult experts, I do a lot of reading on the Internet because I’m not trying to teach somebody how to pick a lock. I need to know just enough about it to make sure that I’m not saying something stupid and then move on, because otherwise it turns into The Anarchist Cookbook or something. […] The post TSS091: Consulting with Experts and Writing in Different Genres appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

You have a mostly chronological story, but the opening chapters are not the strongest or most interesting, but they are important, in which case a single chapter, or a couple of chapters in the beginning that are out of chronology and then moving on from there might be the best solution. —- Taylor Thanks to […] The post TSS090: How to Manage Non-Sequential Chronology in your Stories appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

  … I got to the end and I realized oh, somethings missing and as an author, you can go back and rewrite history in a way that everything fits.  So, if you need something like that, you have that ability to go back and put it in. —- Taylor This week’s episode begins with […] The post TSS089: Going from Concept to Story – A real time example appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

That’s how, in writing, you turn chaos into flow. It cannot happen the same way that you would see it in your mind or on a movie screen. In writing, in order for it to make the proper movie it has to happen point by point by point, everything grouped together. — Taylor Show Notes […] The post TSS088: Calming the Chaos Part 2: Turning Chaos into Flow appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

Scenes that involve more than two characters can be unforgiving in a way that those with only one or two are not. This is amplified when multiple characters are thrown into chaos. The more characters and the greater the chaos, the less wiggle room for author error. In a scene like this, it’s critical to […] The post TSS087: Calming the Chaos: how to keep your reader anchored within confusing scenes. appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.