Video Tutorials

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 116 of The Taylor Stevens Show, where, together with my good friend and co-host Steve Campbell, we kick writing in the butt one word at a time.

The first three to four minutes are audio only. Worry not. The black screen is temporary and the entire tutorial itself includes video. Pinkie promise.

This is the first of two sessions in which we utilize a potential rewrite draft of the opening chapters to A SHOT IN THE BARK, the already published first book in C.A. Newsome's successful Lia Anderson series. (Many thanks to Carol for her bravery and willingness to share unfinished material with the world and for her generosity in allowing us to use these chapters as our teaching blackboard.)

In this segment we show how to strengthen an already solid piece by:

• Giving “disembodied voices” a body,
• Replacing vague words with detail and description,
• Converting questions to statements,
• Utilizing small detail to create depth of character,
• Ensuring the reader has all the information s/he needs to see what the author sees.
• Using vivid words to create vibrant description so the reader can vicariously experience what the character feels. (The Three Vs of Emotional Engagement).

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 117 of The Taylor Stevens Show. This is the second of two sessions in which we utilize a potential rewrite draft of the opening chapters to A SHOT IN THE BARK, the already published first book in C.A. Newsome's successful Lia Anderson series. In this segment we show how to strengthen an already solid piece by:

• Giving “disembodied voices” a body.
• Anchoring story elements to keep them connected.
• Creating structure and order when introducing multiple characters.
• Shifting sentences and paragraphs to where they create the biggest impact.
• Adding small detail to create a sense of place.
• Adding dialogue anchors and tags to keep ideas and personalities connected.
• Creating story logic and flow.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episodes 119 and 120 of The Taylor Stevens Show. Here we show how to increase tension in a scene by:

• Slowing it down beat by beat.
• Removing unnecessary words.
• Adding words to slow down the pacing.
• Restructuring sentences so the important parts come first.
• Repeat focus on the main point of the scene.

NOTE: I am notorious for butchering pronunciation and I do it badly (or, perhaps excellently, depending on your point of view) in this episode.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 122 of The Taylor Stevens Show and begins a three-episode series on how to extract a scene's essence and save it from over description.

The author's intent was to introduce the main character, establish the type of man this character was, and breathe life into a miserable and wretched location. The writing is solid and the word pictures vivid, but there's too much of a good thing. In totality the over description dulls the impact and swallows the story.

In this first episode we focus on paring away the excess to discover each paragraph's essence. The process eliminates about half the word count and gives us the basis for our second draft. Here we learn:

• How to spot basic redundancies (head-slap, how-did-I-not-see-that, learn to spot 'em once and you'll never be able to not see them again.)
• How to spot more complex redundancies (makes total sense once it's pointed out, but takes more practice to regularly spot and avoid them.)
• How to get words to pull double duty so you can eliminate the rest.
• Why what stays, stays and why what goes gets cut.
• What it looks like to be ruthless in “killing the darlings.”

In the next episode we'll begin fresh with a second draft rewrite and begin the work of line editing to shape it into a compelling narrative.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 123 of The Taylor Stevens Show and is part two of a three-part series on how to extract a scene's essence and save it from over description.

In the first episode we focused on paring away excess description to discover each paragraph's essence. The process eliminated about half the word count and gave us the basis for a second draft. Based on those suggestions, the author submitted a rewrite.

In this second episode we begin fresh with the rewrite and begin the work of tightening up the scene. Here we focus on sentence structure and word usage by looking at:

• Cutting away redundancies.
• How to increase sentence weight by changing word choice.
• Word precision and why it matters.
• Tricky and hard to spot point-of-view head hopping.
• Where we can say less with more.
• Situations where word order can become problematic.
• Situations where word order can strengthen the scene.

In this episode we found and highlighted the potential pitfalls and need-work areas and challenged listeners and viewers with the homework assignment of fixing these highlighted issues in their own way.

In the next episode we'll go back over the material line by line with potential fixes. These will double as a reference to which listeners and viewers can compare their own homework notes.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 124 of The Taylor Stevens Show and is part three of a three-part series on how to extract a scene's essence and save it from over description.

In the first episode we focused on paring away excess description to discover each paragraph's essence. The process eliminated about half the word count and gave us the basis for a second draft.

In the second episode we began fresh with the new draft and did a line by line highlight of potential sentence structure and word usage issues to create a working copy for a line edited rewrite.

In this third episode we go segment by segment with suggestions on how to fix each issue. We learn:

• Why it's so important to get characters in motion.
• How to create compelling description through character motion.
• How to convert info dumping into engaging story.
• How to use inner dialogue and character motion to transition between scene segments and avoid reading jolts.
• How to rearrange elements for maximum effect.
• How to make subtle word changes for enormous impact.
• And a reminder that craft is hard—even for someone whose been doing it as long as I have—so don't beat up on yourself if you struggle.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 126 of The Taylor Stevens Show. Here we work with source material that is already quite clean and, at first blush, doesn't seem to need any help. The scene is written in first person and involves a group of young people having a discussion at the school lunch tables. The author's concern was the POV character's voice got lost within the banter among the many other characters and that, because of this, the scene felt more third person than first person.

In this episode we show how even an already solid draft can still benefit from writing hacks. We learn:

• Hands on application of where and how to utilize the thought->action->speech rule.
• And how sometimes that rule is meant to be broken.
• How using hard stops can create a stronger impact.
• The importance of clarity within multi-character interaction.
• How lack of clarity in the dialogue between characters can present an opportunity to loops back to the POV character.
• How to utilize inner dialogue to keep the POV character immediate.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episodes 129 and 130 of The Taylor Stevens Show. This video contains an edited compilation of parts one and two of a three part series. The material covers roughly 1200 words and is taken from within chapter 5 of a contemporary romance.

In this scene the main character experiences a panic attack during a grappling session while at judo practice. The author's biggest concerns were avoiding clichés and making sure the character's actions and reactions didn't create confusion.

In this first video we go over the material line by line highlighting the various areas that would benefit from a rewrite. There are plenty of benefits in watching and following along but for those who are ready to take their craft to the next level these episodes provide the hands-on homework challenge to rework the material on your own.

In the next video we'll go back over this same material segment by segment with before-and-after solutions. For those that did the homework assigment this is an opportunity to compare your reworked material against mine, analyze what I did on a line by line basis, and discover what works best for your particular style and why.

In this series our primary focus is on:

• How to spot out-of-order character movements.
• How to reorder elements within a sentence or paragraph for clarity and emotional impact.
• How to avoid feeling words.
• How to avoid vagueness.
• The issue with “ing” words and the “Don't Start a Sentence with a Gerund” rule.
• Why and how it's okay to break that rule.
• How to utilize thought -> action -> speech within multiple paragraphs.
• How paragraph breaks and white space can become one of your most powerful writing tools.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 131 of The Taylor Stevens Show. It is part 3 of a 3 part series that started with roughly 1200 words taken from within chapter 5 of a work-in-progress contemporary romance.

In parts 1 and 2 we go over the material line by line highlighting the various areas that would benefit from a rewrite. For those ready to take their craft to the next level it provided a hands-on challenge to do your own rewrite before moving on to the potential solutions found here.

In this tutorial we go back over the material segment by segment with before-and-after solutions. For those that did the homework assignment this is an opportunity to compare your reworked material against mine, analyze what I did on a line by line basis, and discover what works best for your particular style and why.

We had a lot of ground to cover in limited time so the tutorial moves rather quickly, focusing on the bigger changes and leaving off discussion about smaller line editing type tweaks that work together with the bigger stuff to make the before-and-after what it is. You'll get max benefit on this tutorial and be able to spot the smaller tweaks if you pause between segments to do your own line by line analysis of original vs. rewrite.

In this series our primary focus is on:

• How to spot out-of-order character movements.
• How to reorder elements within a sentence or paragraph for clarity and emotional impact.
• How paragraph breaks and white space can become one of your most powerful writing tools.
• How converting vague words into action can transform a scene.
• How to write a scene as your character sees it and why this is so important.
• The ultimate goal is maximum reading clarity.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 136 of The Taylor Stevens Show. It is part 1 of 2 in which we cover the opening chapter of a YA novel.

With this piece, we take a big picture look at the material with the goal of coming back for an overhaul rather than a line edit.

In part one we read through the segment to get a sense of the story and then go back to mark out the trouble areas. Here, our focus is on:

• Navel Gazing: What it is, the problems it causes, and how to avoid it.
• How to feed visual elements to the reader in the right order.
• Why we must establish a sense of time and place for anything that follows to make sense.
• Why we have to show the reader what the character sees as she sees it and,
• How failing to do this creates confusion and a jarring reading experience.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 137 of The Taylor Stevens Show. It is part 2 of 2 in which we go over the opening sequence of a YA novel.

In part 1 we highlighted the big picture issues that resulted in a lack of clarity and left the reader without the pieces needed to get a sense of time and space. We also addressed naval gazing and the importance of providing visual elements in the right order.

In part 2 we introduce 6 key questions to use as a guide when writing a scene. These questions are:

• Whose eyes are we seeing this from?
• Where are we?
• Who are the characters?
• What is the conflict?
• What are the key points this scene must convey?
• What is the character doing?

We then revisit the original material, introduce the author's second version, and run both through these questions. We use the answers as a foundation to rewrite the sequence. Through this rewrite process we learn:

• Why getting character in motion is critical to story movement.
• Why character in motion is critical to depth of character.
• Why character in motion is the basis for good description.
• Why character in motion is what creates a vivid sense of place.
• Why we cannot have character in motion without place, and cannot have place without character in motion.
• How to use one to build the other.
• How this automatically resolves big picture issues such naval gazing and misordered visual elements.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 143 of The Taylor Stevens Show. It is the prologue to episode 144 in which, at the author's request, we'll attempt to show how to go about converting a segment from first person present tense to third person past tense.

Person and tense can sometimes be confusing—doubly so for those who write in English as a second language—so in this episode we first use the opening paragraph of the submitted material to provide a visual representation of

• first person, present tense
• first person, past tense
• third person, present tense
• third person, past tense

and compare them against each other to show how verbs and pronouns change from one to the next, and examine the difference in “feel” that each provides.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 144 of The Taylor Stevens Show. It is part 3 of a 5 part series in which, at the author's request, we go through the process of converting a first person present tense piece to third person past tense.

In part 2 (TSS episode 143) we used the opening paragraph to provide a visual of the differences between first person present tense, first person past tense, third person present tense, and third person past tense, to show how verbs and pronouns change from one to the next.

In this tutorial we go through the actual conversion process step by step with:

• Search terms used to auto-convert pronouns from first to third.
• Search terms used to auto-convert present tense to past tense.
• The manual cleanup process to catch what the auto conversion missed.

We then move on to the fully converted piece which allows us to see:

• The three reasons overuse of pronouns weakens your writing.
• How writing in first person can create an over reliance on pronouns.
• How any over-reliance on pronouns that was invisible in first person will become glaringly obvious in third person.
• How small tweaks can eliminate unnecessary pronouns.
• Areas that may need attention to keep tenses correct.

In the next episode we will line edit the fully converted piece.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 145 of The Taylor Stevens Show. It's part 4 of a 5 part series in which, at the author's request, we go through the process of converting a first person present tense piece to third person past tense and then move on to line editing.

In part 3 we cleaned up errors introduced by the search and replace feature. By the end we had a story segment fully converted from first person present tense to third person past tense. In this tutorial we begin the line editing process where we learn:

• How to rewrite to avoid overusing pronouns.
• How to rewrite to keep key concepts close together for impact.
• How to organize information within a paragraph to eliminate unnecessary words.
• Where extra information needs to get added to allow the story flow to make sense.
• How small textural details and characterization can create instant depth that will draw the reader in.
• How and where to include those types of details.
• How to avoid a character inadvertently coming across as cold or selfish with humanizing touches.

Due to the length of the material we were only able to complete half of the line edit in this episode. The next episode will see us to the finish line.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 146 of The Taylor Stevens Show. It is part 5 of a 5 part series in which, at the author's request, we go through the process of converting a first person present tense piece to third person past tense and then move on to line editing.

In part 4 we began the line editing process but due to time constraints were only able to complete half. This episode picks back up where we left off and finishes out the line editing. We learn:

• How to rewrite to keep key concepts close together for impact.
• How to organize information within a paragraph to eliminate unnecessary words.
• Where extra information needs to get added to allow the story flow to make sense.
• How small textural details and characterization can create instant depth that will draw the reader in.
• How and where to include those types of details.
• How to use humanizing touches to avoid a character inadvertently coming across as cold or selfish.

This tutorial comes courtesy of episode 161 and 162 of The Taylor Stevens Show. It is parts 1 and 2 of what will likely be a four-episode series in which we line edit a segment of Steve's work in progress. In this tutorial we learn:

• What is/isn't “mindreading” that results in hopping POV perspectives.
• How to strengthen a paragraph by keeping description/ character opinion/ plot points flowing in sequential order.
• How to organize information within a paragraph to eliminate unnecessary words.
• Subtle changes that strengthen action beats.
• What weak vs. strong verbs look like in a practical sense.
• How to add/ create inner dialogue to avoid a sequence reading like a dialogue transcript.
• How small word tweaks and alternative word choices can change the feel of a paragraph.
• We also learn that, while I'm perfectly capable of distinguishing between “redundant” and “repetitious” in real life, my mouth is too much of a dummy to get it right while creating a tutorial. If nothing else, the frequent of this mistake and other mispronunciations make for a good drinking game.

There is also a bonus post-session discussion between Steve and I that isn't included in the podcasts and can only be found in this tutorial.

This HACK THE CRAFT tutorial comes courtesy of episodes 185 and 186 of The Taylor Stevens Show. Here we learn:

• What key story elements are.
• The order they must go in.
• Why they must show up on the page.
• Why they must arrive in a specific order.
• A step by step guide that uses a real-life scene break example to walk through what each of these elements looks like when properly ordered and when not.
• We also discuss visual details (description), where it belongs, and the specific order details must be presented for the reader's mental movie to engage.

Not included in this tutorial but available as a HACK THE CRAFT bonus is a PDF file that contains:

• All the material used to build this tutorial.
• Additional explanation clarity on a few points.
• What these same techniques look like on the finished product of one of the most difficult chapter openings I worked through in LIARS' PARADOX.
• How I used this story element hack to find the solution for what wasn't working.

An in-depth guide on how to analyze a scene from a big picture perspective to spot contrivances and filler dialogue, and how to convert contrived scenes and filler dialogue into textured elements that will enliven the story and deepen the reading experience.

To show how to do this in tutorial form requires that the teacher (me) be familiar with more than just the snippet that's being worked on. Steve and I had discussed this story as he wrote it and I was already familiar with the characters and the overall plot. This allowed me to approach the piece the way I approach my own material. Steve's willingness to let me be as brutal with his work as I am with my own makes this the most in-depth scene breakdown and reconstruction we've done or might ever do.

The video clocks in at just over two hours, a considerable time investment, but covers areas that even experienced and published novelists stumble over. If you're serious about avoiding contrived scenes, wasted words, and unnecessary dialogue, and/or are looking for guidance on how to fix those issues in scenes that already exist, you'd be hard pressed to find anything that comes close in terms of hands-on, easy-to-understand, easy-to-replicate, show-and-tell on how to do that. Here, we cover:

• The two reasons all scenes exist.
• What those reasons are and why one of them leads to contrivance.
• How to give a contrived scene purpose, so it's no longer contrived.
• How to tell if that purpose is clear to the reader and, if not, how to make it clear.
• A brief recap of the two key elements of dialogue.
• How to analyze dialogue to see if contains those key elements.
• How to rework dialogue to ensure it serves its purpose.
• How to eliminate filler dialogue.
• Why character inconsistency creates unlikable characters.
• How to maintain character depth, motivation, and consistence.

NOTE: We had internet connection issues when recording this episode. The audio and video glitches even out after just a bit.

This HACK THE CRAFT tutorial is a close-up, hands-on look at flashbacks courtesy of The Taylor Stevens Show podcast. It is the fourth of a five-part series that starts at episode 316. [I highly recommend episode 318, “What are Stakes and Why They Matter” as a master class on how to engage reader emotion.]

In this episode we discover our flashback might not actually be a flashback and set out to make sure that it is. We learn:

• The difference between memories and flashbacks.
• The importance of clarity when working with flashbacks.
• The importance of anchoring for time/ place/ space.
• How to enter a flashback.
• How to avoid slipping out of flashback.
• How to exit a flashback.
• How to strengthen the scene within a scene.

This HACK THE CRAFT tutorial is a hands-on line-edit that focuses on using character movement within a scene to increase tension. It comes courtesy of The Taylor Stevens Show podcast. It is the fifth of a five-part series that starts at episode 316. I highly recommend episode 318, “What are Stakes and Why They Matter” as a master class on how to engage reader emotion.

In this episode we learn:

• How sparse, clean prose can sometimes be too sparse and too clean.
• The importance of understanding a character's physical position in time/ space/ place, and how to convey that information without dragging the scene or killing tension.
• How body movement interacts with a scene as a whole.
• How to tell the difference between necessary and unnecessary spatial detail.
• How to use character movement to heighten tension.
• How to convey a sense of violence and danger without showing the graphic details.
• How to use combine character insight with character motion to amplify tension and conflict.

Sometimes everything about writing isn't roses and rainbows. Sometimes days on end of trying and failing can take an emotional and psychological toll. This is a really difficult video to post. It's a side of life I really hate showing. Ever. And I've debated for the past few days whether I should just delete it instead. But maybe it will be worth it to someone, somewhere, so I'm posting before I change my mind again.