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The Shit No One Tells You About Writing

How to Ensure Your Characters Aren’t Just Puppets Being Manipulated Through a Plot

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing

Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra

How To, Books, Education, Fiction, Arts

4.8733 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2023

⏱️ 92 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today's Books with Hooks segment, Dongwon Song, an agent at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency who specializes in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, joins Bianca to look at four query letters. The two discuss the difference between sci-fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction; the very specific sub-genre of magical realism; the length of queries in sci-fi/fantasy genres; being deliberate with the limited real estate in a query, even when world building; driving forward plot at all times; the concept of looking through a 'keyhole' when writing a query; when to italicize foreign words; the importance of using stakes to pull in an agent in the query; starting with grief in a query; and the importance of using author names when comping.

After which, Bianca chats with Kristen Bird, author of I Love It When You Lie, about how to choose your characters; multi-POV stories; subverting the mystery genre; interviewing your characters to understand character motivations; basing characters on people IRL; using setting as a tool to develop characters; and factoring in a character’s misbelief.

Find us on our socials:

Twitter: @TSNOTYAW @BiancaM_author @carlywatters @ceciliaclyra

Instagram: @biancamarais_author @carlywatters @cece_lyra_agent @ the_shit_about_writing

Facebook: @tsnotyaw

Websites: www.theshitaboutwriting.comwww.biancamarais.comwww.carlywatters.com and www.cecilialyra.com

Kristen can be found on Instagram @kristenbirdwrites and on Twitter @kbirdwrites. Her website is www.kristenbird.com.

 



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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

It's a new year and time to get fresh eyes on your work in progress.

0:04.8

Are you looking for beta readers, some of whom might potentially become writing group members

0:09.2

down the line?

0:10.2

Are you wanting to be matched up with those writing in a similar genre and or time

0:15.0

zone so they can critique your work as you critique theirs at the same time?

0:19.5

Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up

0:22.1

for this 3,000 word evaluation. This matchup will be open to registrations from now until the

0:28.5

2nd of March with the matchup emails going out on the 3rd of March. Always such an exciting day.

0:35.4

For more information and to register, go to Bianca Moray.com and go to

0:39.7

the beta reader matchup tab. And please spread the word, even if you aren't joining the matchup this

0:45.7

time. The more writers we have signed up, the better the matches will be. Hello from CC.

0:52.6

I'm so excited to announce an all new class called Starting It

0:56.4

Right, which is all about how to begin your story in the best place and in the best way. Now,

1:01.6

this is going to be a four-day class, so come prepared to take lots of notes. We'll cover the different

1:06.9

types of beginnings and how to choose the best one for your story, how to frame your

1:11.6

inciting incident in a compelling way, common mistakes writers make when starting a story,

1:17.3

how to balance exposition and mystery, how to make readers connect with your protagonist, and how

1:23.6

to make the reader want to turn to the next chapter and so much more.

1:28.3

And guess what?

1:29.3

For the first time ever, there will be an interactive component to my class.

1:34.3

Everyone who is registered will have the option of sending in the opening scene of their work

1:40.3

for a chance to be critiqued during the webinar.

...

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