The Taylor Stevens Show

In this week’s episode, Taylor shares her thoughts on the importance of going deeper with your characters and how that helps to bring them to life in the minds of your readers. As you’ll hear, it doesn’t take a lot of additional words to make this happen. Again this week, we’re pulling from The Informationist, […] The post TSS225: How Going Deeper than the Obvious Makes Characters Feel Real and Alive appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor discovers an interesting source for teaching material, her first book, The Informationist. As you may know, she’s reading The Informationist for the first time as a reader, and she’s finding teaching moments inside the material. In this week’s episode, she shares part of a scene in chapter 15 as an […] The post TSS224: How to Develop Character in a Plot-driven Story appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor shares some recent experience with gardening and how it relates to refilling her creative well. Then we get into an in-depth discussion of the Hack The Craft concept of Thought, Action, Speech. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If you have questions or suggestions for future shows, […] The post TSS223: Thought, Action, Speech, and… Gardening. appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor and Steve discuss the idea that we don’t all “hear” the same things in our minds. Some have thoughts that form as words and sentences, while others have thoughts as concepts, or what Taylor refers to as bolts of lightning. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If […] The post TSS222: The Way Thoughts Present Themselves In Your Mind Can Affect Your Writing appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, we start with chit chat (as usual) and Steve shares his reaction to Liar’s Legacy. Then we get into questions that we’ve gathered over the past few months for Taylor. For those who can’t get enough of Taylor, check out her podcast on Corks and Conversations, here: https://gameofbookspodcast.com/corks-and-conversation-with-taylor-stevens/ And here is […] The post TSS221: We’ve Got Questions, Taylor Has Answers appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor shares her thoughts on teleportation issues, how they differ in movies and writing, and how to avoid them with your stories. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If you have questions or suggestions for future shows, we’d love to hear from you. You can leave your suggestions […] The post TSS220: How To Avoid Teleportation Issues In Your Writing appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, which comes from a reader question, we consider the difference between showing emotions to your readers and evoking emotion in those readers. If you don’t yet have your copy of Liars’ Legacy, you can get it wherever books are sold, or if you want to support an indie bookstore you may […] The post TSS219: What’s the difference between showing emotion and evoking emotion in your readers? appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, we discuss putting your best foot forward with readers if you choose to give away free books as lead generation for your email list. If you don’t yet have your copy of Liars’ Legacy, you can get it wherever books are sold, or if you want to support an indie bookstore […] The post TSS218: Should You Give Away a Free Book to Encourage Readers to Signup to Your Email List? appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, we dig into the strength of your protagonist, and how that strength depends upon your antagonist. If you don’t yet have your copy of Liars’ Legacy, you can get it wherever books are sold, or if you want to support an indie bookstore you may still be able to get an […] The post TSS217: Do You Know Your Villain as Well as You Know Your Hero? appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, we dig into the idea of flow — one of the three primary components of the Hack The Craft™ process. We talk a lot about Anchoring and Perspective on the podcast, but this is our first lengthy discussion of Flow, or what Taylor calls the heartbeat of the story. If you […] The post TSS216: Keep the Flow Moving Smoothly In Your Story appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, we (finally) have the opportunity to have an in-depth discussion of Taylor’s new book, Liars’ Legacy. We discuss the characters, the complexity of the story, and the challenges that complexity brought to the writing of the book. We also discuss favorite characters for each book, and the addition of a major […] The post TSS215: The Liars’ Legacy Episode appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, we dig into the need to avoid the easy route in our writing. This will become an over-arching topic for us, but in this episode, we’re focusing on Dialogue. Taylor also mentions that autographed copies of Liar’s Legacy will be available at Interabang Books in Dallas, and they can also be […] The post TSS214: Don’t Make it Easy with your Dialogue appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor and Steve expand on the idea that every scene needs a purpose, with a focus on description. She also shares some thoughts on how unnecessary details can bog down readers, and she reminds us of the ultimate purpose for description. The Ultimate Purpose of Description is to provide the context […] The post TSS213: Every Scene Needs a Purpose: Description appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor and Steve discuss a process for dealing with manuscripts that you’ve written and tucked away in a (digital) drawer. We also discuss a chance meeting Steve had with author Echo Miller at the 20books Conference in Las Vegas. Echo’s book is The Insider Club, which you can check out at […] The post TSS212: What Should You Do With That Manuscript You’ve Tucked Away In A Drawer? appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor shares some thoughts on avoiding aimless scenes in your books. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If you have questions or suggestions for future shows, we’d love to hear from you. You can leave your suggestions as comments or find our contact information on the Connect page. Please consider supporting […] The post TSS211: Avoiding Character Aimlessness to Improve Pacing and Characterization appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this episode, we apologize for being unable to record an episode for this week, but we will be back next week. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If you have questions or suggestions for future shows, we’d love to hear from you. You can leave your suggestions as comments or find […] The post Yikes! The Apology Episode appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In our final episode from Bouchercon, Taylor shares some thoughts on confirming that all scenes have a purpose and how to create that purpose when ‘bookending’ flashbacks in your writing. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If you have questions or suggestions for future shows, we’d love to hear from you. You […] The post TSS210: Creating Purpose with the Bookends to your Flashbacks appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

Episode 209 marks the first-ever (drum-roll…..) face to face podcast recording session for The Taylor Stevens Show. Taylor and Steve meet up for the first time ever in Dallas Texas at Bouchercon 2019. In this episode, there a little bit of conversation about writing, but we focus our conversation on the Bouchercon conference and the […] The post TSS209: The Bouchercon Edition (Where Taylor & Steve finally meet) appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor and Steve discuss the upcoming conference schedule, and then get into a discussion of “why” and how your why relates to your writing. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If you have questions or suggestions for future shows, we’d love to hear from you. You can leave […] The post TSS208: What’s the Why For Your Writing? appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.

In this week’s episode, Taylor and Steve discuss the long-time writing maxim of “killing your darlings.” We discuss what can qualify as a writing darling, and how to decide which of your darlings should be removed. Thanks so much for joining us again this week! If you have questions or suggestions for future shows, we’d […] The post TSS207: How to choose which darlings to kill appeared first on The Taylor Stevens Show.