This month’s episode is a deep dive into how to Nail Your Narration.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA. You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also start getting Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode Christa and I discuss:

• Why narration is so important in your writing
• What to keep in mind when choosing a point of view and narrative voice
• Gabriela’s top tip on how to nail your narration

Link to Episode 474

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Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 474: Craft Jam: Nail Your Narration appeared first on DIY MFA.

This month’s episode is a deep dive into how to revise your writing like a pro.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA. You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also start getting Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode, Christa and I discuss:

• Key aspects and methods to focus on during the revision process.
• The importance of feedback from others during revision.
• A helpful type of mindset to keep throughout your progress.

Link to Episode 473

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 473: Craft Jam: Revise Your Writing Like a Pro appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA. You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also start getting Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode Christa and I discuss:

• Should one attend a conference as a beginner writer?
• How to choose the right conference to attend.
• The nuts and bolts on how to prepare for a conference. 

Link to Episode 472

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 472: Craft Jam: Conferences appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA. You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also start getting Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode Kathy Reichs and I discuss:

• How to write each book in a series with different aspects while keeping it entertaining. 
• Keeping the main character consistent but also allowing room for them to grow and change throughout a series. 
• Adapting a series to television, the differences and challenges of writing a television script vs. a novel. 

Plus, Kathy’s #1 tip for writers.

About Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs’ first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. To date, she has written twenty-two novels featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Kathy was also a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama, Bones, which was based on her work and her novels. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Kathy divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The Bone Hacker

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with her twenty-second high-stakes thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan who, following a series of bizarre disappearances on the islands of Turks and Caicos, enters a sinister labyrinth in which a new technology may wreak worldwide havoc.

Called in to examine what is left of a person thought to have been struck by lightning, Tempe traces an unusual tattoo to its source and is soon embroiled in a much larger case. Young men—tourists—have been disappearing on the islands of Turks and Caicos. Seven years earlier, the first victim was found in a strange location with his left hand hacked off; subsequently, two other visitors vanished without a trace. But, recently, tantalizing leads have emerged and only Tempe can unravel them.

Maddeningly, the victims seem to have nothing in common—other than the odd places where their bodies turn up, and the fact that none seems likely to have been involved in criminal activity. Do these attacks have something to do with the islands’ seething culture of gang violence? Tempe isn’t so sure. Disturbingly, she discovers evidence that what’s at stake may actually have global significance.

It isn’t long before the sound of a ticking clock grows menacingly loud. Then Tempe herself becomes a target.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 471

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 471: A Behind the Scenes Look at How to Craft a Bestselling Thriller Series – Interview with Kathy Reichs appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA. You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also start getting Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode Lori and I discuss:

• What exactly Draft Zero is and what comes next.
• Finding a routine that works for you and how to keep it from getting stale.
• Why you need to practice finishing and what to do when you get stuck.

Plus, our #1 reading recommendation on craft books.

Link to Episode 470

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 470: Craft Jam: Draft Zero appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA. You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also start getting Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode M.T. Anderson and I discuss:

• Weaving events from your real life into a fantastical story
• Why you need to have rules for the magic you create in order for it to be fun.
• How to reverse engineer and perfect the opening of your novel.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About M.T. Anderson

M. T. Anderson has written stories for adults, picture books for children, adventure novels for young readers, graphic novel adaptations of ancient French tales, and several books for older readers (both teens and adults). His satirical book Feed was a Finalist for the National Book Award and was the winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize. Both Time Magazine and National Public Radio have included it on their lists of the best 100 YA novels of all time. Another satirical science fiction novel, Landscape with Invisible Hand, has been turned into a movie starring Tiffany Haddish and Asante Blackk. 

The first volume of Anderson’s Octavian Nothing saga, The Pox Party, won the National Book Award and the Boston Globe / Horn Book Prize. The second volume, The Kingdom on the Waves, was a New York Times best-seller. The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, a tragicomic spy story for young goblins written with Newbery-Honor winner Eugene Yelchin, was a Finalist for the National Book Award in 2018. 

Anderson’s nonfiction book Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad was long-listed for the National Book Award. 

He has published stories for adults in literary journals like The Northwest Review, The Colorado Review, and Conjunctions. Several of his stories have appeared in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror collections. His nonfiction articles and reviews have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Slate, and Salon. 

He has curated concerts that bring together text and classical music all over New England. 

You can find him on his website or follow him on Twitter.

Elf Dog and Owl Head

From the singular imagination of National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson comes a magical adventure about a boy and his dog—or a dog and her boy—and a forest of wonders hidden in plain sight.

Clay has had his fill of home life. A global plague has brought the world to a screeching halt, and with little to look forward to but a summer of video-calling friends, vying with annoying sisters for the family computer, and tuning out his parents’ financial worries, he’s only too happy to retreat to the woods. From the moment the elegant little dog with the ornate collar appears like an apparition among the trees, Clay sees something uncanny in her. With this mysterious Elphinore as guide, he’ll glimpse ancient secrets folded all but invisibly into the forest. Each day the dog leads Clay down paths he never knew existed, deeper into the unknown. But they aren’t alone in their surreal adventures. There are traps and terrors in the woods, too, and if Clay isn’t careful, he might stray off the path and lose his way forever. Graced with evocative black-and-white illustrations by Junyi Wu, Elf Dog and Owl Head is heartfelt and exhilarating, wry and poignant, seamlessly merging the fantastic and the familiar in a tale both timely and timeless.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 468

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 468: Raise Your Story’s Stakes with Tension and Surprise – Interview with M.T. Anderson appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA. You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also start getting Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode Ginny Kubitz Moyer and Lori discuss:

• Why she prefers the term “discovery writer” instead of “pantser.”
• The importance of reading widely and re-reading books.
• How she picked up the tone of her novel, The Seeing Garden.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Ginny Kubitz Moyer

Ginny Kubitz Moyer is a California native with a love of local history. A graduate of Pomona College and Stanford University, she’s an English instructor and avid weekend gardener. 

Her articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including Bella Grace and America Magazine, and she is the author of several books on women’s spirituality. 

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two sons, and one adorable rescue dog. The Seeing Garden is her first novel. 

You can find her on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The Seeing Garden

It’s 1910, and Catherine Ogden is aching to live a creative and meaningful life. That’s not easy to do when her aunt and uncle–and all of New York society–consider a good marriage to be the pinnacle of feminine achievement. But when Catherine visits Oakview, the Northern California estate of handsome bachelor William Brandt, she thinks that it might be possible to satisfy her family’s hopes as well as her own. In that beautiful place, she finds the promise of a new start and the opportunity to use her artistic gifts in designing the garden.  But as Catherine is drawn into William’s hidden life, as well as the secrets of his estate staff, she discovers that Oakview holds both more opportunity and more risk than she ever imagined. It will take all her courage—and the lessons of some shocking revelations about the past—to choose the path that leads to real freedom. 

Full of rich period detail and complex characters, and set against an unforgettable backdrop, The Seeing Garden explores what it takes for a woman to discern her most authentic life.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 461

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 461: Start with a Setting: Creating a Rich World for Your Story – Interview with Ginny Kubitz Moyer appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you signed up to be a DIY MFA Radio Insider yet? This is an exciting new monthly newsletter especially for our podcast listeners. Every month, you’ll get an email from our podcast producer with recaps of the most recent episodes, a curated Listening List of episodes on a particular theme, and other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! The theme for April is Word Choice and Micro Craft, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Anne Marie and Lori discuss:

• Choosing poems for a collection and deciding on their chronology.
• Using poetry as a way to deal with grief and its power to heal.
• The significance and symbolism behind white space.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Anne Marie Wells

Anne Marie Wells (She | They) is an award-winning Queer poet, playwright, memoirist, and storyteller navigating the world with a chronic illness. She is a faculty member for The Community Literature Initiative through the Sims Library of Poetry and Strategic Partnership Fellow for The Poetry Lab. She earned the 2021 Peter K. Hixson Memorial Award in Poetry, the 2020 Wyoming Writers Milestone Award, and was a 2021 Wyoming Woman of Influence nominee in the arts for amplifying the voices of the LGBTQ and disabled communities with her writing. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Survived By: A Memoir in Verse + Other Poems, debuts with Curious Corvid Publishing on April 30, 2023. 

You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Survived By: A Memoir in Verse

Anne Marie Wells’ debut collection of poetry, Survived By: A Memoir in Verse + Other Poems, chronicles her experience coping with her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis, his death, and her subsequent bereavement. She will be traveling this summer on tour with her book as well as a writing workshop, Finding the Poem in the Pain, in which she provides participants writing prompts to process and explore their grief.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 459

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 459: The Power of Poetry to Survive, Heal, and Connect – Interview with Anne Marie Wells appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you signed up to be a DIY MFA Radio Insider yet? This is an exciting new monthly newsletter especially for our podcast listeners. Every month, you’ll get an email from our podcast producer with recaps of the most recent episodes, a curated Listening List of episodes on a particular theme, and other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! The theme for April is Word Choice and Micro Craft, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Donnaldson and Lori discuss:

• The impact of secrets on multiple generations.
• Starting a project with an image and painting it into prose.
• Directing a reader’s imagination through clues and cues.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Donnaldson Brown

Donnaldson ‘s debut novel, Because I Loved You, is due out in April 2023 with She Writes Press. An attorney and former screenwriter, she worked with Robert Redford’s film development company for several years. Her spoken word pieces have been featured in The Deep Listening Institute’s Writers in Performance and Women & Identity Festivals, and in the Made in the Berkshires Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She’s been awarded several residencies.

A longtime resident of both Brooklyn, New York and western Massachusetts, Ms. Brown grew up riding horses on a family ranch in East Texas as well as in her native Connecticut. She is a facilitator and trainer with The Equus Effect, offering somatic-based experiential learning with horses for veterans, first responders and others struggling with PTSD, and is also certified to teach meditation and several forms of yoga. 

She is a proud mother, and loves to sing, cycle, and hike with her dogs. 

You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Because I Loved You

At sixteen, Leni O’Hare Dreams of escaping her family’s rundown East Texas farm to become an artist, but that means leaving behind both her grey mare, Foggy, and her beloved older brother, Foy. When she rescues and returns Caleb McGrath’s horse from a storm out on the chaparral, this second son of the largest rancher in the area catches her heart with his gentle nature and his own big dreams. Together they begin to imagine and plan a future beyond the limiting confines of their small town. But Leni’s hopes soon run as dry as the land itself, driven by a family tragedy for the O’Hare’s and a secret that Leni stores deep in her heart. Hastily, Leni makes a decision that she believes will protect Caleb’s future. Her ill-conceived and painful choice transforms not only their lives but impacts the next two generations.

In this epic love story and rich family saga, Donnaldson Brown takes readers from the East Texas chaparral in 1972, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, to New York City’s vibrant downtown art scene in the mid-1980’s, to the (pre-pandemic) present day, and from dreams lost to dreams rediscovered. Brown weaves together a powerful story of abiding love—romantic love, parental love, and the kind of love that sets a person free to choose one’s own path and maybe, hopefully, return.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 458

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 458: Intuitive Writing: Capture Your Character’s Energy and Paint with Your Words – Interview with Donnaldson Brown appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you signed up to be a DIY MFA Radio Insider yet? This is an exciting new monthly newsletter especially for our podcast listeners. Every month, you’ll get an email from our podcast producer with recaps of the most recent episodes, a curated Listening List of episodes on a particular theme, and other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! The theme for April is Word Choice and Micro Craft, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Danielle Mitchell and Lori discuss:

• Adding emotional stakes to poems to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
• The magic of tapping into things you don’t understand.
• Her process for annotating poems and poetry collections.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Danielle Mitchell

Danielle Mitchell (she/her) is an intersectional feminist, poet, and teaching artist. She is the Founding Director of The Poetry Lab, an online learning platform that rallies in service of working-class writers around the globe. Danielle is the author of Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry, winner of the Clockwise Chapbook Prize (Tebot Bach, 2017). Her poems have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl, Four Way Review, Transom, New Orleans Review, Nailed Magazine and others. Danielle has received scholarships to travel to Patmos Island, Greece to study poetry, as well as grants from Poets & Writers and the Ashaki M. Jackson No Barriers Grant from the Women Who Submit. She is the inaugural winner of the Editor’s Prize from Mary Magazine and the Editor’s Choice Award from The Mas Tequila Review. She has performed on stages all over Southern California including the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Danielle holds bachelor’s degrees in Women’s and Gender Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Redlands and is an alumna of the Community of Writers. She is currently working on a manuscript of poems about misogyny and the Internet.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn.

You can also check out The Poetry Lab website or follow The Poetry Lab on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Goodreads.

The Poetry Lab

The Poetry Lab is a community learning space for creative writers. We are dedicated to mentoring and encouraging poets and writers to craft their learning journeys through non-traditional means. We are based in the Greater Los Angeles area, but most of our workshops and classes are now held online via Zoom. A creative journey itself, The Poetry Lab was co-founded by friends Markus D. Manley and Danielle Mitchell.

Originally housed inside Markus’ co-work space, Work Evolution Laboratories, in Downtown Long Beach, California, The Poetry Lab started as a bi-monthly generative workshop. We offered folx a chance to learn new skills, elements of craft, and techniques for submitting their work for publication. This collaborative community space offered writers something rare: a chance to learn in a relaxed setting, away from the stern trappings of Academia, and a space to gather in community outside of the open mic limelight. As our classes grew, we began inviting visiting teaching artists to lead workshops on topics like ekphrasis, image and metaphor, silence, new and invented forms. Eventually, our members also became Poetry Lab instructors. From the beginning, we have followed a collaborative model, celebrating diversity and the unique gifts that every writer brings to the table.

For Markus, it was always about nurturing the creative spirit. He dedicated his life’s work to arts and tech collaborations all over Long Beach. He was known in the community as the guy who would do whatever he could to help others thrive. It was this spirit that drove Danielle, a budding community organizer herself, to take the leap to bring this vision of The Poetry Lab to life.

Be sure to get The Poetry Lab’s newest guide on 5 Forms We’re Curious About this Year and other fun goodies.

Link to Episode 456

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 456: Therapy for Poets: On Reading and Writing Poetry – Interview with Danielle Mitchell appeared first on DIY MFA.