Writing Roots

S31 Bonus – Using Writing Skills from Multiple Mediums

Part of why we’ve taken this whole month to introduce you to the writing skills involved in various kinds of storytelling is because all of those skills can be useful while writing any story. News articles will show up in novels, commercials may be part of the game you’re writing, or you need a stage performance inside your screenplay. It also applies for taking a story written originally for one medium, and translating it to another. The Witcher is a great example of this, going from books to games to a TV series.
Hosts Leigh and Ley take a look at why you should know how to use these different mediums in order to determine which one works best for your story in the end, or if maybe you need to use multiple.
First aired April 30, 2022.
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S31E8 – The Art of Writing Monologues for Actors

If you’re not looking for much notoriety, but enjoy writing flash and short fiction, consider getting into the world of actor monologues. These timed pieces are designed to help actors express a range of emotions in order to get hired into roles. They range from comedic to dramatic to everything in between. The important part is writing so the piece can be performed.
Monologues have been performed since ancient times. They can be part of larger productions (Shakespeare is known for monologues within his plays), or a individual pieces. It’s an opportunity for you to focus on character development within just a few hundred words. You can even use monologues to help find the voice for characters within your other works. But as mentioned earlier, there’s not a lot of notoriety. And when you’re writing for a single actor, it means writing a single character. There’s no conversation with anyone but the performer.
Listen to this episode for more about how and why to write monologues.
First aired April 28, 2022.
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S31E7 – Finding Story Within Gaming

It’s no secret that our hosts are into gaming. We talk about Dungeons & Dragons constantly, especially how to use it to build characters. It’s more than that, though. We understand that through games, you have a chance to tell amazing and intricate stories. This includes all kinds of games, from board games to tabletop to video games. Each one, even Monopoly, tells a story of some kind.
If you’re looking for a writing career and enjoy choose-your-adventure style creation, consider venturing into the gaming industry. Companies hire dozens of writers to help on a single project, especially if it’s something as large as an MMO or even a tabletop game universe. You have the chance to explore and build incredible worlds, characters, and possible plots. You get the chance to let your players have a say in how the story unfolds. And you also get a guaranteed massive audience, since games are wildly popular.
In this episode, we break down storytelling for games of all kinds, as well as the advantages and disadvantages.
First aired April 25, 2022.
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S31E6 – Artistic Storytelling Through Comics

One of the easiest ways to consume a story is through a visual medium, which includes comic books or web comics. All it takes is a bit of artistic skill and the desire to tell a story. The art doesn’t even have to be detailed or complicated. Take xkcd for example, which is make, usually, through simple stick figures and has been an active and popular web comic series for more than a decade.
Whether you write and illustrate comic books, manga, or comic strips for newspapers, this medium has no bounds in the kind of story you can tell. It’s also a good way to build a dedicated audience, since there is a deep-seated fan culture surrounding each type of comic-based story. We talk in this episode about how that is an advantage, as well as a disadvantage, when pursuing a career in writing.
First aired April 21, 2022.
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S31E5 – Journalistic Storytelling

If you’re looking to get paid to write, a good place to look is in journalism. Even if you don’t want to stay in the field, it’s a wonderful learning opportunity.
Being a journalist is difficult work. You write under strict, hard deadlines. Research often means going out to investigate and interview. Probably worst of all, you’re not writing about the bright and happy news in the world. What you write is about current events. Murders, crime, chaos. However, it is a guaranteed way to have readers. If you work for the right outlet, you get paid well to do it. You will also have a lot of opportunity to hone your writing skills and learn to pay attention to the important details. In this episode, we break down more of the advantages and disadvantages of such a career path.
First aired April 18, 2022.
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S31E4 – Stories in Advertising and Commercials

If you’re interested in making money with flash fiction, consider advertising. Honestly. Good commercials and ads tell some kind of story. They present a problem, and then the product provides the solution. And what is storytelling but writing a problem and a solution?
You don’t have to look far to find examples of stories within advertisements. One of the first that comes to mind would be the Allstate Mayhem commercials, or even something as simple as this ZipTax commercial. Each tells a story in just a few sentences.
There’s a lot that makes writing advertisements unique, which also makes it a challenge. We break it down in this episode.
First aired April 14, 2022.
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S31E3 – What Makes Playwriting Unique

If you decide to write a script for a play, there are certain things you need to know and understand about the world of stage acting. Though some of the formatting may be similar to screenplays, writing for the stage means giving some of the control over to directors and actors. After all, they’re the ones that will be taking your words and giving them life.
As Brian Greene once said, “Writing for the stage is different from writing for a book. You want to write in a way that an actor has material to work with… and pulling out the dramatic elements in a bigger way for a stage presentation.”
That last part is important. Dramatic elements need to be bigger, need to show up bigger. That way the audience in the nosebleeds can still experience the emotion of the actor. While much of that is the actor’s responsibility, it’s also up to the writer to give them enough room to make it possible. Listen to this episode for more on how to be a playwright, as well as its advantages and disadvantages.
First aired April 11, 2022.
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S31E2 – Writing for the Silver Screen

Probably the second most-desired route to take as an author, besides writing for novels, would be writing screenplays. Choosing to write for movies or television takes an entirely different kind of skillset, as well as a focus on elements unavailable to those who write books.
In this episode, we discuss what it means to write screenplays, as well as the advantages and disadvantages to it.
First aired April 7, 2022.
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S31E1 – Storytelling for the Internet: Blogging, YouTubing, and Podcasting

If you’re looking to get into writing but the idea of writing a whole novel is daunting, this series is for you. We’re starting off our series about different mediums for writing by discussing short form mediums written specifically to be shared online. This includes things like blogging, vlogging, and podcasting.
What we mean by a short form medium is a piece of self-contained writing which may or may not be part of a larger series, but which can stand on its own regarding the plot. Basically a bunch of short stories, but compiled together in a place easily accessible to anyone. Podcasting is widely popular for this. Not only do you have non-fiction and educational podcasts like ours, but there are fiction podcasts which tell stories in bite-sized segments for entertainment.
Though there are plenty of advantages to writing something for a short form medium, there are downsides as well, especially depending on where you choose to publish. Hosts Leigh and Ley break down how to write for something like an online blog in this episode.
First aired April 4, 2022.
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S30E9 – Coming of Age Stories

One of the main staples in any Young Adult fiction is the Coming of Age theme. This is when the main character experiences personal growth and change which relies on their emotional responses and ties to the larger plot around them. It’s when the character discovers something integral about themselves or the world. They’re learning what it is to be.
This trope most often accompanies drama and slice of life stories, and it is a common theme in LGBTQ+ stories. Often you’ll find the characters don’t fit in, or at least feel out of place somehow, and the story is tied to them finding a place in the world.
Coming of Age stories, especially in the slice of life genre, are not simple progressions of someone’s normal life. There still need to be challenges, a plot, and real struggle. That is, after all, how the character makes the key discovery. No one has an epiphany about their role in life without facing trials. For more on how to write a story using this plot trope, listen below.
First aired March 31, 2022.
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