Writing Roots

S27 Bonus – What Is a Query Letter, and How Do I Write One?

For those taking the traditional publishing route, querying is the first step in the process (after finishing the manuscript, of course). That letter is what will get you an agent and a publishing deal. Which means it’s incredibly important. It needs to stand out and grab the attention of an agent who likely gets hundreds of similar queries.
In this episode, we discuss the tips and tricks from published authors to write the best query letters, along with the first steps in the process of traditional publishing.
First aired December 25, 2021.
Resources mentioned in the episode:– Writers Write: Janet Evanovich’s 12 Tips for Writing a Query Letter– New York Book Editors: How to Write a Darn Good Query Letter– Jane Friedman: How to Write a Novel Synopsis– Query Tracker– publishedtodeath.blogspot
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S27E7 – How Do I Know Where My Story Begins?

Great stories begin somewhere important. Somewhere catching. You want to draw the reader in within the first chapter. Better yet, within the first page or even sentence. Knowing exactly where that is, though, is the tricky part. We know where our characters being, where they are before that inciting incident. We know where we want them to end up. We think we know what the readers need to understand before any of that occurs. Most often, we’re wrong.
Stories don’t always begin at the beginning. Books often start right at the cusp of important things – and sometimes right in middle of those important things. That means the answer to this question is most often found at the end. Once you’ve finished that first draft, you can finally know, really, where a story needs to start.
Listen to this episode for more on how to identify a good beginning, tips for a strong start, and how to get past the need to know the start at the start.
First aired December 23, 2021.
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S27E6 – Can I Use Swear Words in My Novel?

You probably know that word choices are important in writing. Different words have nuances that can change their meaning. Consider how “angry” is different from “frustrated” or “irritated.” The same principle applies with swear words. We’ve had many writers question whether or not they can or should use swear words in their stories. The short answer is yes, but it gets a little more complicated as you dig into the writing.
There are a few important things to consider before diving in and using all the swear words in your vocabulary. The first and foremost is you target audience. On this podcast, we always tell you to not worry about the audience in the first draft. That applies here. In your first draft, write whatever words you think work best in the moment. When you edit, though, consider the best words for the audience. Especially if you are traditionally publishing, there will be different considerations for things like the target age and the book’s genre.
We discuss target audience as well as other considerations when choosing whether or not to use swear words in this episode, as well as creating your own fictional curses that fit the world and setting.
First aired December 20, 2021.
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S27E5 – How Do I Write Morally Gray Characters?

Morally gray characters are quickly becoming some of the most popular kinds of characters in fiction. Part of that is because they’re actually relatable. No one is as perfect as a hero appears, nor usually as evil as a villain in the classic senses of the words. Instead, people are somewhere in between those two. Creating a compelling character that lives in that gray area between right and wrong can be challenging.
One of the best things to help is to look at their motivation. Why do they make the decisions they do? Usually, it’s something selfish. They could be doing good things, but it’s never for the heroic reasons. Listen to the episode for more about morally gray characters, including the antihero archetype, and how to best create ones for your own story.
First aired December 16, 2021.
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S27E4 – How Do I Write a Fight Scene? How Accurate Should It Be?

Whether you’re writing contemporary action, swords and sorcery fantasy, or science fiction, most authors will come across a fight scene or twenty during their books. Most of us, though, don’t have any actual fighting knowledge. It’s not like we’re out there swinging swords at people on a daily basis (unless you’re a LARPer, which is awesome). This means we need to cross over that mistaken idea of “write what you know” into the territory of writing the unknown. How, though?
It starts with knowing your characters and the purpose of the scene. What do you need to accomplish? Does someone need to get injured? Does someone need to save the day? Write towards that. Also know what kind of style your characters will have. Their builds and history make a lot of difference in how they’ll fight. An archer or marksman won’t have the same hand-to-hand skills as an assassin.
There are also a lot of misconceptions about what’s important in a fight. It’s not all fists and feet. You also need to consider what’s around the characters that may hinder or help them. Listen for more tips as Ley and Leigh discuss what really matters in a fight and how to work through one even if you don’t have any combat experience.
First aired December 13, 2021.
Fight Grid
This is an example grid from one of Ley’s current works. Use the columns to track people and objects, and the rows to track beats in the story (what everyone is doing in each key moment). Just because it’s in the chart doesn’t mean it needs to be written into the scene, and not everything needs to be doing something every moment.
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S27E3 – How Important is Being Unique?

One worry that consistently nags at writers is the belief that their story is not unique. We often compare our ideas to those of writers and storytellers before us and think they may be too similar to be interesting. The good thing we all need to remember is that people actually like stories to not be entirely unique.
Tropes exist for a reason. There are some tropes people will seek out. For example, one of the common ones now is the “enemies/rivals to lovers” trope, or the “found family.” While the framework of each story with these may be similar, the story itself is still unique because only the author can create that tale.
The first step in overcoming this idea is to consider what it means to be unique, then what elements of the story actually need to be unique. Structure, tropes, some plot elements, and even some character ideas can all come from other places. In this episode, Leigh and Ley discuss the term “unique” and how it applies to writing your own fictional narratives.
First aired December 9, 2021.
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S7E2 – How Do I Describe Characters Without Boring the Reader?

Today’s FAQ is all about descriptions, especially character descriptions. It’s difficult to find the balance between enough description to actually give readers a mental image of what’s happening, and inundating them with three pages about a tree. Descriptions are vital for a story. They immerse readers into the world, and help make characters real. Just think of all the fan art of popular books out there. That wouldn’t be possible – or they’d all be wildly different – if the author didn’t have detailed and interesting descriptions.
Ley and Leigh discuss how and when to provide your readers with details about a character’s looks, whether from their perspective or another’s.
First aired December 6, 2021.
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S27E1 – How Do I Write a Good Short Story?

Short stories are a wonderful way to practice all kinds of writing techniques. Writers can use short stories to explore ideas, work on weaknesses, and try new techniques. You’ll also find that most awards are given based on short story competitions. That doesn’t mean that short stories are easier. They are still a challenge in their own way.
Writers often have big ideas. We want to fill pages and pages with our words. Short stories are the opposite. We need to take a grand idea and condense it into less than ten-thousand words. This means knowing how to cut out the exposition, cut out the unnecessary scenes, and jumping into what really matters.
Listen to this episode for a breakdown of how and why to write short stories.
First aired December 2, 2021.
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S26E9 – How to Avoid Crippling Your Language

There is no faster way to convey a sense of uncertainty than including hedging and crippling language in your writing. Words have power, meaning, and convey more than just the definitions. Choosing to write in certain ways will weaken what your saying, thus weakening your message. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to identify those words as the author.
You might have heard these in classes on public speaking or other business-related writing courses. Works that convey apologies will always weaken phrases, as well passive phrasing. Each author will also have their own red flag words which – because they are used too often – will also weaken your message.
In this episode, Leigh and Ley discuss the words they struggle with, as well as how to spot those things which harm your overall product.
First aired November 29, 2021.
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S26 Bonus – Playing with Language

Language can be fun. It’s not always the dry, boring material you learned in school. Those are important for fundamentals, but when you learn to play with language, you reveal new potential in writing. Because english is a strange combination of several different language, there are lots of opportunities for wordplay. Just look at Shakespeare’s writing. There are puns galore. Same with authors such as Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. They all know how to play with language to make their writing more interesting.
In this episode, we talk about different ways you can have fun and provide more entertainment for your readers. That includes using alliterations, pangrams, puns, and even malaphors.
First aired November 27, 2021.
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