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Dogs Are Smarter Than People via Anchor

Dogs Are Smarter Than People via Anchor

By Carrie Jones

Welcome to Dogs are Smarter Than People with NYT and internationally bestselling quirky human author Carrie Jones, her slightly more normal husband, Shaun, and their dogs. Life tips. Writing tips. Dog noises. It's all here.

Bonus episodes of BE BRAVE FRIDAYS (telling people's stories of bravery) and LOVING THE STRANGE (all about celebrating the weird) and author-to-author interviews.
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Losing Your Junk and Swimming in the Pool of Commoners

Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorJan 10, 2023

00:00
22:38
Losing Your Junk and Swimming in the Pool of Commoners

Losing Your Junk and Swimming in the Pool of Commoners

So, over on our substack, LIVING HAPPY, I’ve been talking a lot about creating our own realities in relation to success and meaning.  This is really just sort of diving deep to realize that maybe your perspective isn’t the one you want.

When you attain your goals, do they satisfy you? That’s really the question. Listen to us talk about this, losing your junk (and word choice) and finding success your own way.

LINKS WE REFERENCE

Crafting Realities: Work, Happiness, and Meaning

Video Series on Managing Our Inner Worlds

https://shepherdexpress.com/puzzles/news-of-the-weird/news-of-the-weird-week-of-january-5-2023/

SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

Jan 10, 202322:38
Please Don’t Fart On Me: Making Systems For Success

Please Don’t Fart On Me: Making Systems For Success

Yep, we’re going there, because we’re the only self-development podcast that will.

Join us as we talk about brawls in the Waffle House, farting, and creating systems to actually achieve your goals.

DOG TIP FOR LIFE

Sometimes you have to review the system to stop having resource guarding. Cough. Pogie. Cough.

SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It’s pretty awesome.

AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW!

We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here.

Carrie is reading one of her poems every week on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!

LINKS WE TALK ABOUT

https://www.thirstyfornews.com/2022/12/29/customers-start-wwe-style-brawl-in-texas-waffle-house/

We also talk about a link from Medium that won’t embed up there, but the link is in the narrative. Thanks for joining us and here’s to a good 2023!

Jan 03, 202319:20
The Ask
Jan 02, 202301:22
Eight types of drunkards and law-breaking Santa clauses a scene in the UK

Eight types of drunkards and law-breaking Santa clauses a scene in the UK

Since it’s the time of holidays for many religions, we thought it would be a great time to talk about the ancient types of drunk-foolery from the 1500s and how they still exist today.

And, a random story about a sleigh-riding Santa.

There’s a great post on Medium from back in November by Jack Shepherd one of Buzzfeed’s former directors. I know nothing about Jack Shepherd but he has a post “These Are the 8 Types of Drunk, According to the 16th Century” and since NYE is coming up, I wanted to have a podcast about it.

All of Shepherd’s list comes from Thomas Nashe wrote a pamphlet called “Pierce Penniless: His Supplication to the Devil.” Nashe was on this Earth in the late 1500s and he was a silly man.

DOG TIP FOR LIFE

Don’t wait to be drunk to tell people you love them. Embrace who you are without the intoxicating liquors, human.

Links We Reference:

https://nypost.com/2022/12/14/sleigh-riding-santa-claus-ticketed-by-grinch-cop-petty-to-say-the-least/

SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It’s pretty awesome.

AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW!

We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here.

Dec 20, 202222:38
Christmas Cheer
Dec 19, 202201:40
To e.g. or to i.e., that is the question

To e.g. or to i.e., that is the question

Sometimes you see these little bastards in text or sometimes you might want to put them in there yourself. Gasp!

We aren’t here to tell you how to be fancy or not, but we are here to let you know how to be fancy correctly and not look like a schmuck.

E.g. is short for exempli gratia, or “for example.” But this is a REAL example, so you can use it when you mean, “here are examples.”

I.e. is short for id est, which pretty much means “that is” or “in other words.” This one you use like you’re saying “in other words” or “in essence.” It usually clarifies things.

So, you could say,

I like books, e.g. big books, small books, happy books, cook books, all books that rhyme, all books about crime, all books about time.

Someone might punch you if you say that, but whatever. You do you.

For i.e., you would write,

I like books, i.e., anything that I can read and is bound or on my Kindle or Nook. You’re clarifying what books are. Or you could say,

I like some books, i.e., anything by Carrie Jones and only Carrie Jones.

Shameless self plug up there.


Thanks for listening to Write Better Now.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.

For exclusive paid content, check out my substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the other tips and submission opportunties and exercises are there.

Dec 14, 202203:08
Weird Junk Finds and Key Take-aways From Spending Time with Spiritual Leaders
Dec 13, 202221:58
Grammy Barnard Poem: A Dream
Dec 11, 202201:37
Weather vs Whether: It’s sexy to know the difference.\

Weather vs Whether: It’s sexy to know the difference.\

Weather vs Whether

It’s sexy to know the difference.

So, a lot of people mess up weather vs whether. I actually had one writer who just spelled the word consistently wrong as a totally made up word wether.

Anyway these bad boys are homophones which means they sound the same aloud, but they have different meanings and different spellings.

WEATHER – This is a noun or a verb. It can be what it’s like outside (hot, rainy, stormy, sunny_ or it can mean that you’re a bad ass and you’ve withstood some crap.

You have weathered the zombie apocalypse with nary a scratch.

Whoo, the weather today is amazing. It’s legit snowing glitter fairies.

WHETHER is no noun. It is no verb. This bad boy is a conjunction and it basically is the same thing as saying if. It connects choices in a sentences.

Yo, I plan to have a Bigfoot love affair whether or not he’s real.

Whether you think it is or not, I am so in love with how cool your rainbow farts are.

And there you go.

WETHER never works.

You can check out my blog here. 

Thanks for listening to Write Better Now.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.

For exclusive paid content, check out my substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the other tips and submission opportunties and exercises are there.

Dec 07, 202202:30
Humping with half-eaten burritos or dealing with sexual hangups part two
Dec 06, 202223:11
Fluff
Dec 05, 202201:38
Cause and Effect in Novel Writing

Cause and Effect in Novel Writing

Last week, I took a little break because of the holiday in the U.S., but this week, we’re talking about cause and effect in fiction novels.

Troubleshooting Your Novel by Steven James has a big section about this:

He suggests asking yourself these questions to fine-tune your story.

  • “Do realizations or insights occur after the event that caused them (as would naturally happen), or do I have things in the wrong order?
  • “Does this scene move from cause to effect? If not, why not? Can I tweak the story to show the natural flow of events rather than stop after they’ve happened to explain why they did?
  • “Does context dictate that I reverse the order to effect to cause? Rendering the story this way will force readers to ask, “Why?” Do I want them to do so at this moment in the book? Would lack of clarity about the character’s intention help readers engage with the story at this point? If it won’t, how can I recast it?
  • “What will I do to ensure that each ball rolls naturally away from the one that just hit it, both in action sequences and in dialogue?”

And for a quicker fix, he suggests:

“Analyze every scene, as well as every paragraph, to weed out cause-and-effect problems. Pinpoint the connections between events. Does each action have an appropriate consequence? Does the emotional resonance of a scene fit in congruently from the actions within that scene?”

Thanks for listening to Write Better Now.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.

For exclusive paid content, check out my substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the other tips and submission opportunties and exercises are there.

LINKS TO LEARN MORE FROM THE SOURCES

https://www.writersdigest.com/there-are-no-rules/cause-effect-telling-story-right-order

https://www.amazon.com/Troubleshooting-Your-Novel-Techniques-Identifying/dp/1599639807


Nov 30, 202205:50
Uptight About Sex And How To Get Over It, Part One

Uptight About Sex And How To Get Over It, Part One

So, this podcast episode is probably going to be Shaun’s favorite because he grew up in a family that was not uptight about sex.

I, however, grew up in a family where a couple of the branches pretended we were all born out of the immaculate conception or just maybe sperm drops on a toilet or something.

We have some friends—good friends—who are currently exploring all things sexual in a consensual, relationship way.

They aren’t uptight.

Shaun’s not uptight.

And one of these things are not like the others.

Spoiler: Me. I’m the thing that’s not like the others.

But, it turns out that a lot of people are like me. Join us as we talk about five ways people are uptight and our bonus random thought about people who received a letter about secret spaces in their new home.

DOG TIP FOR LIFE

Sometimes you just got to grab on and go for it (consensually, of course)

LINKS

https://www.womansday.com/relationships/sex-tips/advice/a1004/get-over-your-sexual-hangups-92993/

https://nypost.com/2022/11/25/couple-gets-letter-revealing-creepy-secret-rooms-in-their-130-year-old-home/

SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It’s pretty awesome.

AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW!

We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here.

Carrie is reading one of her poems every week on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!

Nov 29, 202221:13
Messages from Ghosts
Nov 28, 202201:27
Those malicious mo-fos aren’t evil, they are just stupid

Those malicious mo-fos aren’t evil, they are just stupid

Over on Medium, Michael Lin has a post of short tidbits that he’s learned from reading 100 self-development books.

That’s a lot of books.

And it’s a lot of two-three sentence tidbits that he has, but one of them leapt out at met his week.

And it’s this:

“Don’t attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity. Most of the world is not trying to fuck you over. Most of the world can do stupid things though, especially me.”

DOG TIP FOR LIFE

You might expect everyone to throw you into the dog pound or the UPS man to come steal your bacon, but it’s just fear. Not reality.

LINKS TO LEARN MORE

https://news.yahoo.com/woman-mistakes-seasoning-packet-for-bath-salts-has-very-weird-bath-i-just-turned-myself-into-literal-soup-203340089.html

https://medium.com/curious/how-i-turned-my-fears-into-my-greatest-weapon-c40781643f97

https://medium.com/@michael-lim/40-short-life-lessons-i-learned-from-reading-over-100-self-development-books-4f6c4a75d914 SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It’s pretty awesome.

AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW!

We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here.

Carrie is reading one of her poems every week on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!



Nov 23, 202221:60
Listening to Butt Faces and Writing Dialogue
Nov 16, 202204:50
Kitty Pee in the Pantry, The Chicken Man and Scale of Positive Experiences

Kitty Pee in the Pantry, The Chicken Man and Scale of Positive Experiences

Let’s say your cat gets trapped in the pantry overnight and manages to chew through two bags of cat nip, spread it throughout the pantry and then have a panicked pea on top of a bucket of cashews before knocking over a vase, which smashes to the ground alerting you to the fact that she’s been stuck in there all night.

Or let’s say you’re a guy who decides to eat 40 whole chickens for 40 days.

You can take those experiences and be . . . something? This episode we look into the chicken man and the cat peeing in the pantry and the scale of positive and negative experiences.

SOURCES NYT article

Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi. D., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (In press). New measures of well-being: Flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research.

https://psychologyroots.com/scale-of-positive-and-negative-experience-spane/

Schimmack, U., Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2002). Life-satisfaction is a momentary judgment and a stable personality characteristic: The use of chronically accessible and stable sources. Journal of Personality, 70, 345-385.

Schimmack, U. & Reisenzein, R. (2002). Experiencing activation: Energetic arousal and tense arousal are not mixtures of valence and activation. Emotion, 2, 412-417

Schimmack, U., & Grob, A. (2000). Dimensional models of core affect: A quantitative comparison by means of structural equation modeling. European Journal of Personality, 14, 325-345.

Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2008) Happiness: unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Nov 15, 202223:41
Writing Isn't About Being Clever; It's About Story

Writing Isn't About Being Clever; It's About Story

This week’s podcast focuses on some advice from Roy Peter Clark. I hope you’ll join me for one of our short weekly writing tips!

Thanks for listening to Write Better Now.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.

For exclusive paid content, check out my substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the other tips and submission opportunties and exercises are there.

Nov 09, 202204:57
Eat a Frog For Breakfast And Being More Efficient
Nov 09, 202222:46
Truth
Nov 07, 202201:50
The Power of Personal Narrative

The Power of Personal Narrative

I'm breaking format this week, for once. Our high school had a credible and serious threat yesterday, staff and teachers and kids were locked down for hours and I want to talk about how people telling their stories makes things much more real than cut-up newspaper reports.

And that’s important.

Don’t forget how powerful writing is, okay? Don’t forget how powerful you are either.

Nov 02, 202204:58
Naughty Ghosts and Is Hard Work and Consistency Really The Key To Financial Success

Naughty Ghosts and Is Hard Work and Consistency Really The Key To Financial Success

Let’s talk about life lessons, you know those pity-ass short messages that are meant to give us massive epiphanies that turn our lives around completely.

I want to tell you that I hate life lessons.

And we talk about naughty ghosts in a house in Texas, too.

Come hang out!

SOURCES

https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-homeowner-hooker-ghosts-taken-over-rental-property-trying-stir-up-business

https://www.anxietyculture.com/puritan.htm

https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/the-national-study-of-millionaires-research

SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW!

We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here.

Carrie is reading one of her poems every week on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!

Nov 02, 202221:50
Let’s Talk About Trolls

Let’s Talk About Trolls

A poem


Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called "A Feather" and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy. Please like and subscribe. 

Oct 31, 202201:58
Making a Scene Memorable
Oct 26, 202204:33
Meth In Your Underwear And Is Farting Your True Purpose
Oct 25, 202222:51
Looking Up
Oct 24, 202201:24
Super Important Writing Tip For When You Think Your Story Is a Little Boring
Oct 19, 202204:40
Addicted to Self Help and Puppy Dog Eyes
Oct 18, 202216:50
The Cafeteria

The Cafeteria

A quick poem by me Carrie Jones. 

Oct 17, 202202:24
I Don't Know How To Fangirl Even About Writers and Some Advice
Oct 12, 202209:06
The Dog You Love Tells A Lot About What Kind of Person You Are

The Dog You Love Tells A Lot About What Kind of Person You Are

This week we talk about how the type of dog you have allegedly tells a lot about the type of person you are AND also David Levitin’s tips for an organized mind. Yep, it’s sexy talk about the hippocampus. And apologies. Shaun was extra this time.

DOG TIP FOR LIFE

Organize your toys and leave them in one happy place so you always know where they are.

Oct 11, 202219:07
The Paternity of Dogs
Oct 10, 202203:18
I'm Going To Pretend I'm Not Tired
Oct 10, 202201:28
Not So Wild and Crazy Writing Advice

Not So Wild and Crazy Writing Advice

Steve Martin had a catch phrase from his time on SNL and standup that he was a wild and crazy guy. He had an entirely different persona in the skit but you could feel it and tell he’d been inspired by something in real life and turned it into comedy through exaggeration.

Now, decades after that Wild and Crazy Guy skit, Martin has this masterclass and in it he says, “Everything you see, hear, experience is usable.”

He’s mostly talking about comedy, screenplays and skits, but it works for the other arts and writing other genres, too.

How people go about scratching their nose, trying not to pick at their wedgie, argue with their kids; how they greet someone at a school board meeting, or even your own observations like the feel of bad indoor-outdoor carpet under your butt, the way this particular headache throbs like an almost perceptible bass beat coming from a car down the street, right at your left temple and the base of your neck—all of it can be used in your story.

Martin suggests being “an active observer in life” which to him means always being “on the lookout.” And he says you should grab a notebook that fits in your back pocket to write down what you observe. He forgets apparently that women’s pants often don’t have pockets? And also about the notes app on your phone. But it’s still good advice. Write what you see and taste and fear and feel.

This advice isn’t new. Richard Powers, who wrote The Overstory, which won a Pulitzer has said this. Powers says, “Be present, practice attention, and the story you are working on will feed on everything in front of you.”

Writers need to be mindful not in the power of positive psychology sort of way, but just in a way of being fully present so that we can notice what’s going on around us and within us.

Maya Angelou says:

Angelou“I try to pull the language in to such a sharpness that it jumps off the page. It must look easy, but it takes me forever to get it to look so easy. Of course, there are those critics – New York critics as a rule – who say, Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer. Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.”

To understand language that sings, you have to understand the sounds of language, observe and pay attention to the details of conversations around you, how people choose different words for arguments than they do when talking about their day or asking for some water. Paying attention to the language on the page means paying attention to the sound of language in the air and using it.

Martin. Powers. Angelou. They all have and had it together. They know that writing is observing and translating, being present and recreating sharpness on the page and on the tongue.

Hey, thanks for listening to Write Better Now.

These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in us, so thank you for your support.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.

For exclusive paid content, check out Carrie’s substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the regular stuff is there.

Oct 05, 202205:48
Woman Wipes Her Dog's Bum ALL THE TIME and No Talent No Problem
Oct 04, 202220:10
How To Make Your Characters Flawed As F And Why You Should

How To Make Your Characters Flawed As F And Why You Should

Sep 28, 202205:05
 Beers All Over the Highway and How To Get to that Flow State
Sep 27, 202217:60
She has a poem
Sep 26, 202201:52
Oh Baby, Look at that Backstory, Quick Writing TIps

Oh Baby, Look at that Backstory, Quick Writing TIps

Last week on the podcast and over on our substack, we talked about creating amazing characters and the role of backstory.

I’m going to talk a little bit more about that today.

Again, backstory is the events that happened to your character before the actual main story starts.

So backstory, once you have it, allows you to give your character goals in the beginning of the novel and throughout the novel because it allows you the writer (and reader) to know what forces and history make that character who they are today and drive them.

THE TWO GOALS (THANKS TO BACKSTORY) WHICH GIVES YOUR CHARACTER DIMENSION

One goal is usually physical or tangible. They want something. Let’s say they want to drive a car. They are 15 and want to learn how to drive. That’s a tangible goal. The author wants to get her novel done. The puppy wants a bacon treat.

The other goal is usually emotional. This goal has to do with yearning. This goal is the reason for the tangible goal.

They want to learn how to drive (tangible) because they yearn to get out of their claustrophobic home (emotional).She wants to get her novel done (tangible) because her brother always said she couldn’t get anything done because she’s lazy and she yearns to prove him wrong (emotional).The puppy wants a bacon treat (tangible) because he yearns for bacon because that’s what he used to get in his first house before he got lost (emotional).

Without knowing the backstory, we wouldn’t know the emotional goals of the character, the why for their tangible goals. Instead we’d be reading and thinking, yeah, he wants to finish the novel. So what?

Tomorrow over on LIVING HAPPY, I’ll dive in a tiny bit more into this.

Hey, thanks for listening to Write Better Now.

These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in us, so thank you for your support.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.

For exclusive paid content, check out Carrie’s substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the regular stuff is there.

Sep 21, 202203:43
Warped Brains for the Win
Sep 20, 202219:32
Melancholy
Sep 19, 202201:54
Writing Exceptional Characters Part One Backstory
Sep 14, 202206:40
Is Fear Keeping Us Dumb?
Sep 13, 202218:36
I Am Small

I Am Small

A poem. 

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy.

Sep 12, 202201:36
Writing Tips Putting Scene and Sequel Together

Writing Tips Putting Scene and Sequel Together

It’s the last in our three-week series on scene and structure the Dwight Swain way. Let’s go.

Like we said in the first week, Swain makes us writers think of basic elemental structure and creating our novels in four steps:

  1. Making cool characters.
  2. Grouping your sentences and paragraphs into motivation reaction units.
  3. Grouping those motivation reaction units into scenes and sequels.
  4. Grouping those scenes and sequels into story patterns.

Last week we talked about scene and sequel and how it helps keep our novels not-episodic and logical because it’s all about cause and effect.

A quick recap.

Scenes have goals, conflicts and disasters. That is the sequence.

Sequels have the character’s reaction to the disaster, a dilemma where she figures out what to do next, and then a decision where they decide what the hell to do now.

So how do you make those scenes and sequels that we talked about in last week’s podcast work together?

You have to think of scene and sequel as a single unit, says The Manuscript Shredder.

They write, “One builds to the next, establishing a chain of causes that leads the reader through the character’s story. They are two sides of the same coin. Bring them together and make them both work for you.”

Or as Raven Oak writes.

“Scenes and sequels should continue to alternate the entire length of the novel, and in doing so, they’ll create a natural flow for both plot progression & character development. Many authors plan or outline the sequence of events using scene & sequel on index cards before writing.

“Just about any novel you read will follow this rhythm. It seems simple, but structure usually is.”

Tomorrow on the blog, I’ll be talking a tiny bit more about this and the types of disasters that can happen in scenes.

RESOURCES OF AWESOME

http://themanuscriptshredder.com/scene-and-sequel-making-them-work-together/


Hey, thanks for listening to Write Better Now.

These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in us, so thank you for your support.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.

For exclusive paid content, check out Carrie’s substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the regular stuff is there.

Sep 07, 202204:21
Baby Wipes, Drug Farts and How Foreplay All Day Helps Your Relationship

Baby Wipes, Drug Farts and How Foreplay All Day Helps Your Relationship

This week’s podcast is all about Belgian psychologist Ester Perel who has two great podcasts and talks all about relationships and sex and you know, the stuff that gets us an explicit rating.

Listen in! There’s some great stuff in there!

RESOURCES

https://www.ted.com/speakers/esther_perel

https://www.estherperel.com/about

IN OUR RANDOM THOUGHTS, WE MENTION THIS ARTICLE AND THE LINK IS HERE

https://www.npr.org/sections/strange-news/

SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It’s pretty awesome.

AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW!

Our brand-new-amazing-creepy podcast is DUDE NO! It’s true crime with an occasional foray into the paranormal and macabre and it’s awesome.

Sep 06, 202217:34
“FINDING THE STORIES," a poem about book banning

“FINDING THE STORIES," a poem about book banning

“FINDING THE STORIES”

What does it mean to find story when you are the one who is oppressed?

What does it mean to find story when you are the one who is barely surviving in your own life?

When your mother cries to sleep every night because she can’t find a job, pay bills, fix the furnace. When the food she feeds you comes from  the government line even though she’s too proud for that, too smart for that, too strong?

What does it mean to find a story full of magic when you are dying for magic in your own life?

When your body doesn’t work the way other kids’ bodies work? When your body gets used in ways it is not supposed to be used?

When people make fun of your clothes, your sex, your gender, the way you say your s’s, the shade of your skin, the curl in your hair, your last name, your first name, the way you see letters backwards, the way you see or don’t see at all, the way you learn?

What does it mean when there are these stories out there – these magical truths – these enchanted people and places when you are just barely managing to survive?

It means there are tiny life lines.

It means there are little pieces of help.

Story is powerful. We’ve know that for forever.

Books are burned and banned because people fear them.

Books are powerful because they are information wrapped up in empathy, they are reflections of our world as it is, how it was and how it could–it should– be.

And people fear that.

Instead of coming together to celebrate the enchanted, they attack it, call it evil, ban the ideas that do not match their own and say that they are doing what?

Protecting us, the children, the enchanted, the country, the people, the stories.

We do not need that kind of protection.

Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy.

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection

Check out my website if you have a hot second. And please like and subscribe. 

Sep 05, 202203:52
The sexy part of story structure: Scene and Sequel

The sexy part of story structure: Scene and Sequel

So last week on the podcast and on our blog where we elaborated a bit, we talked about the four main elements of story structure according to Dwight Swain, who wrote The Techniques of the Selling Writer.

THOSE WERE:
  1. Making cool characters.
  2. Grouping your sentences and paragraphs into motivation reaction units.
  3. Grouping those motivation reaction units into scenes and sequels.
  4. Grouping those scenes and sequels into story patterns.

And we talked about motivation reaction units, the sequence of cause and effect within a scene.

Swain describes a scene as a “blow by blow” account of the character as they take the time to get their goal despite the fact that someone or something is opposing them. The scene propels the story. The scene takes place in the a certain space of time.

AND WITHIN THAT SCENE ARE THREE STEPS, HE SAYS:
  1. A goal
  2. A conflict to achieving that goal (or opposition).
  3. A disaster.  The disaster in Swain’s structure means that the character is not any closer to her goal and might be even worse off. So sad.

This does not work in the third act of the story when there is a positive change arc and the character ends up in a better place. But it’s great for the beginning and middle of your novel.

AND WHAT’S A SEQUEL?

It’s what connects the scenes. It’s where the main character thinks about what just happens and often creates a new goal. It’s where you make the character’s motivation really obvious. It gives the reader a pause between the more active scenes.

AND THERE ARE THREE STEPS OF THE SEQUEL:
  1. A Reaction to what just happened
  2. A Dilemma that’s what she is dealing with now that the disaster happened
  3. A Decision that’s where she determines what the heck she’ll do next.

A lot of writers that I work with get super confused about the term SEQUEL. Is it not a scene, too? They wonder that. So, sometimes I call them LOUD scenes and QUIET scenes. You can think of them that way, too.

I’ll be going into this a bit more deeply on my blog Living Happy. I hope you’ll check it out.

SOME SOURCES!

Writing the Perfect Scene, by Randy Ingermanson
Scene and Sequel: The Ebb and Flow of Fiction, by Mike Klassan

Hey, thanks for listening to Write Better Now.

These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in us, so thank you for your support.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.

For exclusive paid content, check out Carrie’s substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the regular stuff is there.

Aug 31, 202205:60
Alligator Hunting and Why Shaun Is Gone, Plus New DUDE NO Podcast Preview

Alligator Hunting and Why Shaun Is Gone, Plus New DUDE NO Podcast Preview

So, Shaun is off in Florida HUNTING ALLIGATORS (!) leaving me alone to podcast, which means that all the talent is gone! I explain that in the podcast, but this whole episode is short and sweet. And it's mostly about what we're going to start on September 6 if Shaun survives with all his limbs and everything. 

Check out our upcoming true crime podcast for people who don’t like to sleep, DUDE, NO! The website is here. The site for private bonus stuff is here.

And thanks for hanging out with me even when Shaun is off adventuring.

SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It’s pretty awesome.

AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW!

We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here.

Carrie is reading one of her poems every week on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!

Aug 30, 202207:02
The Enchanted
Aug 29, 202201:55