When you write fiction, you will inevitably have to ask yourself some difficult questions: What are my characters working toward? In which genres am I writing? What is my story really about? And while there are countless writing resources out there that offer excellent answers to these questions, there’s much more to writing a good story than simply following good advice.
“There’s a whole bunch of books on creative writing, and they seem very worthy. But actually it doesn’t matter what’s in them if, as a writer, you come to them and it doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t click with you.”
Much like on Coffee Break, fellow podcaster and creative writer Andrew Chamberlain interviews and gleans advice from authors on his show, The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt. His recently published companion book, The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt Handbook, showcases the very best and most applicable advice from his first 100 podcast episodes. The handbook offers motivation and insight on everything from story structure to character development.
“It takes courage and vision to make your character do something.”
In today’s episode, Andrew shares the best ways to share and receive writing advice and shares his own useful tools on the craft. We also talk about building believable characters from the ground up, the stages and structure of stories, an author’s love/hate relationship with genres, and trusting in your own innate storytelling abilities.
“If we’re honest as writers, we wouldn’t want it to be totally a science. We wouldn’t want it to be just a pure formula, writing. Because there is always that magic ingredient, that piece of imagination, that spark that writers have to work towards.”
If you’re in the process of writing fiction, you’ll probably have as much fun listening to today’s episode as I did! I hope we touch upon some piece of advice that pushes your story further. Be sure to stop by Andrew’s website and social medias to see what new and interesting writing advice he’s come across. Thank you so much for listening and remember—no amount of writing advice can replace the creative spark in you!
Mentioned in this episode:
- The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt Handbook
- The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt Podcast
- Andrew’s website
- Andrew on Twitter
#TheCreativeWritersToolbelt
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Thanks so much for doing this podcast! I really enjoyed and learned from it; the comments on setting gave me a much needed boost for my “work in progress”!
Great podcast! Thank you so much for presenting it and thank you to Andrew Chamberlain for speaking. I’m walking away feeling like I have some new tools and some sharpened tools in my “toolbelt”.