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5×15 Events

5×15 is one of the UK’s leading producers of public-facing spoken-word events. Founded by Rosie Boycott, Daisy Leitch and Eleanor O’Keeffe, 5×15 brings world leading figures to speak to audiences to spark ideas and inspiration.

Renowned for the quality of curation, skilled storytelling, and inspirational and informative speakers, our events have featured Gloria Steinem, Emma Watson, Werner Herzog, Jung Chang, Ben Okri, Christiana Figueres, Ralph Fiennes, Rebecca Solnit, Daniel Kahneman, Mary Beard and Malcolm Gladwell, to name but a few.

Videos

Our YouTube channel has hundreds of videos with millions of views to date. everything you need to keep informed, inspired and entertained!

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5 Unconventional Tips for Writing a Book Series

By Patricia J. Parsons

Episode #54

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7 Reasons Why Writers Need to Belong to a Book Club

By Colleen Story

Do you belong to a book club? If not, it’s time you joined, and not just to market your books! Find out all the benefits a book club has to give you. You may be surprised!

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Advice for Writers

By David Lynch

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Anatomy of a Scene

By Diane Callahan

Scenes are the building blocks of stories. Every scene in a novel contributes to the story in some way, whether through characterization, atmosphere, or plot progression. In examining the anatomy of a scene, we’ll start with the big-picture skeleton, then dive into the essential organs, and end with the skin—the outward appearance of the writing itself.

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The Beachbum Bookworm

The Cozy Mystery Wrap Up
Book Reviews on YouTube
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Becoming a Crime Writer — Michael Connelly

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Beginnings: How to Start Your Book

By Alexa Donne

First line? First act? Common pitfalls, things to watch and avoid!

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Best Books of 2020

By emmie

Welcome to a somewhat emotional ride through so many of my most beloved books, enjoy!!

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Book Marketing Tips for Authors

16 free videos

By David Gaughran

A book promotion template that anyone can follow. Learn how to create your own marketing plan to put your book into the charts.

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Building Story Structure

By Film Riot

How to use the 6-act structure to construct stories!

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Book Riot YouTube Videos

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Bookshelf Tour

By Jessethereader

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BookTube

By Danica Ellis — Book Riot

BookTube is the bookish community on YouTube, made of up a wide range of different channels making regular book reviews, hauls, tags, discussion videos, reading vlogs, and more.

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Boomers on Books

By Vince Stevenson

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Bosch

a conversation with Titus Welliver
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Bosch — The Final Season

interview with titus welliver
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Bosh Family

Titus Welliver and Madison Lintz
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Bosch’s Titus Welliver & Michael Connelly

It has taken more than two decades for Michael Connelly’s LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch to make it from the page to the screen.

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Brainstorming Strategies

By Tamu Writing Center

Coming up with ideas can be the most frustrating part of the writing process. Here are some brainstorming strategies to help when you’re feeling stuck.

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James L. Brooks Interview

James L. Brooks, creator and co-creator of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, TAXI, THE SIMPSONS and many, many other groundbreaking television shows and critically acclaimed movies, talks about his life as a writer. Interviewed by John Sacret Young.

Free video
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Central Booking interviews on YouTube

huge list of FREE writer interviews here
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Character Arcs

positive change character arcs explained
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Character Driven or Plot Driven?

how many can you get right?

By Christina Escamilla

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A.A. Chaudhuri

talks about books and her novels
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Lee Child and Steven King

Talk About Jack Reacher
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Harlan Coben Interview

Harlan Coben joined in conversation with internationally bestselling author Shari Lapena.

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A Collection of Author Interviews on YouTube

By Vince Stevenson

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Compelling Dialogue

a proven process

Jerry Jenkins explains how to write compelling dialogue.

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A Conversation with Ananyo Bhattacharya

Author of John von Neumann: The Man from the Future

Interviewed By Jørgen Veisdal

We talk about von Neumann’s upbringing in Budapest, his years pursuing two degrees in two different universities simultaneously, his work in Göttingen, admiration of Gödel, relationship with Turing, work on game theory, contributions to the Manhattan Project, fascination with computing and much much more.

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A Conversation with Jack Carr and Conner Sullivan

Montana Book Festival
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A Conversation with Author Les Edgerton

on youtube

By Allen County Public Library

Les Edgerton is an American author of 14 books, including two about writing fiction.

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S.A. Cosby Interview

By The Crew Reviews

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Craft of Fiction

Lee Child and Andy Martin in Conversation
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The Crew Reviews

go behind the scenes with the world’s best storytellers
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Crime Fiction Secrets and Suspense

Interviewer Paula L. Woods — Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Escape the humdrum of everyday life into worlds filled with gangsters, grifters and gut-wrenching suspense from three crime fiction writers that are at the top of their game. The conversation will be guided by mystery reviewer Paula L. Woods.

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Creating Negative Tension

By Bill Johnson

How to create and sustain narrative tension in a novel, screenplay, or play.

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Dead End Jobs

Day Jobs That Bleed into Stories and Characters

This video is for Dead End Jobs, a featured LIVE event of Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime for the Southwest Florida Reading Festival. It’s original air date was March 6, 2021.

The featured authors include:

  • Elaine Viets – The consummate Dead End Jobber, Elaine, passed a death investigator course. She is the author of the Dead End Job Mysteries and the Angela Richman, Death Investigator Mysteries.
  • Lisa Black – A Crime Scene Investigator and Latent Fingerprint Analyst, Lisa is the author of the Gardiner and Renner Thrillers.
  • J.J. Hensley – This former police officer and Secret Service Agent is now a trainer at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia. He is the author of the Trevor Galloway Mysteries.
  • Annette Dashofy – Annette draws on her work experiences as a former Emergency Medical Technician and 911 Dispatcher in her Zoe Chambers Mysteries. Music: “Marvelous Mischief,” courtesy of Fesliyan Studios, www.FesliyanStudios.com
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John DeBoer — The Amazon Encounter

By Boomers on Books

Dr. DeBoer is a member of International Thriller Writers and is the author of eleven published novels.

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Emotion

10 best tips for evoking emotion in your writing

By Writing with Jenna Moreci

Everyone’s always asking how to write emotion in fiction, so I’m opening up a big old can of writing advice! Here are my ten best tips for evoking emotion through your writing, including show vs. tell, using the five senses, cutting filter words, and pacing.

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Evil — The Psychology

Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.

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Facebook Ads for Authors

By David Gaughran

Comprehensive tutorial on Facebook Ads for authors looking to scale up and sell more books.

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Famous Authors Talk About Writing

By Amber Lee Starfire — Writing Through Life

5 videos of famous authors talking about their lives, processes, and ideas about the craft of writing.

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Famous Writers Talk Ideas!

Stephen King, John Irving and Alan Hollinghurst reveal their secrets.
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Finish That First Draft

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Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime — Videos

This is the YouTube Channel for the Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime. On our channel, you will find recordings of our virtual programs, including meetings, workshops, panel presentations, and more.

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Jonathan Franzen Interview

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Jonathan Franzen Talks with David Remnick

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FREE Author Videos!

Over 135 FREE Videos Here!

By Vince Stevensen

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William Goldman Interview

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Another William Goldman Interview

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CLICK HERE!

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GoodReads Guru Series

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John Grisham and Stephen King in Conversation

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John Grishman in Conversation with Stephen King

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Carl Hiaasen in Conversation with John Grisham

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Carl Hiaasen in Conversation with John Sanford

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Helping Writers Become Authors

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Hemingway’s Amazing Writing Rules

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Meghan Holloway Interview

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How to Edit and Publish a Book for FREE!

By Fawn Tiffanie 

This video explains how to edit, format, and publish for free; with help from other sites.

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How to Find a Literary Agent

By Faith Prince

If you wrote a book and would like to be traditionally published, the first step is finding a literary agent. At times, the agent search and submission process may seem daunting. In this video, I demonstrate how to use querytracker, a website that helps aspiring authors find literary agents

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How to Read Like a Writer

By Diane Callahan — Quotidian Writer

Reading like a writer means reading to learn from other authors. By understanding the creative choices used in novels you admire, you can better apply those tools and techniques to your own writing.

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Improve Your Dialogue

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Thomas Kies Interview

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Stephen King Interview

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Stephen King interview

2016 National Book Festival
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Stephen King Interview

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Dakota Krout Interview

Dakota Krout – Author of the best-selling Divine Dungeon, Completionist Chronicles, Full Murderhobo, and Artorian’s Archives series, was chosen as Audible’s top 5 fantasy pick of 2017, top 10 best seller on Audible, and top 15 best seller on Amazon. He draws from his programming

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The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn’t

The Godfather
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Ian McEwan on His Writing Process

Ian McEwan, author of Solar describes his writing process, how he schedule’s his day and about his homemade desks.

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Mind Mapping

Want to learn better? Start mind mapping

By Hazel Wagner

Hazel shares her work on mind mapping and what it can do for understanding, memorization, and retention.

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Murder By The Book

A listing of author interviews on YouTube
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The Naked Sun — Book Review

The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov reviewed by Megan Darragh.

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The Novel: Who Needs It?

By Joseph Epstein

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Plot a Thriller Backwards

By Alexa Donne

I’m sharing my strategies for plotting a mystery/thriller which is… backwards! I start with the motive or twist and work back from that. I’m sharing all my tips for how I do it, and the important elements of your mystery/thriller to consider before you start writing.

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Plotting Pitfalls

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Plotter vs. Pantser

What’s the difference 
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The Psychology of Evil

Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.

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CLICK HERE!

Publishing

What i hate  about the traditional publishing industry

By Alyssa Matesic

As a professional book editor who previously worked at major US publishing houses, I have a love-hate relationship with the publishing industry. Here are the biggest traditional publishing cons as I see them, as well as general publishing advice for anyone who is working on a book project.

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Publishing Your Book

Traditional / Vanity — What’s the difference 
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Publishing Contract

5 reasons authors should reject a traditional publishing contract

By Patrick Walsh

Lots of authors lust after traditional publishing contracts BUT authors are rejecting these traditional deals more and more. In this video, I dive into the 5 main reasons why you should reject a traditional publishing contract.

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Ian W. Sainsbury Interview

By Mark Stay

We discussed Alpha/Beta Readers, book covers, Facebook Groups, the joy of editors, the wonders of notebooks, Ursula Le Guin and why whenever Ian hears my voice he thinks of dog poo . . .

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Screenplays

why most screenplays don’t sell

By Brooks Elms — Indie Film Hustle

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Screenwriting Secrets in The Godfather

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Self-Publishing Advice

& Inspirations Podcast

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Series Secrets

With Elizabeth George, Robert Dugoni, Tracy Clark, Gregg Hurwitz and Hank Phillippi Ryan (moderator).

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Show, Not Tell

the complete writing guide

By Diane Callahan — Quotidian Writer

I define “telling” as any time in the story when an important moment lacks depth in terms of detail or narrative voice. However, telling can also be an excellent tool for controlling the story’s pacing and delivering important information.

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Six Words Not to Use

By Patrick Walsh

In this video, we cover 6 words that editors and proofreaders will immediately cut from your story. We discuss words that often sneak in as fillers but don’t add anything to your story.

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Split Infinitive

what it is and why you should avoid them

By Pro Writing Aid TV

Infinitives are two-word forms of verbs, such as to run, to research, or to suggest. A split infinitive happens when you insert an adverb in between to and its verb. These can have a negative impact on your writing if you aren’t careful.

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Splitting the Infinitive

By The Comma Queen — The New Yorker

If I had a hammer,
I’d split an infinitive,
I’d split an infinitive
All over this mag!

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Start Writing Your Book NOW!

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Starting Writing After 40

By Lee Child — On YouTube

In this interview, bestselling novelist Lee Child (Jack Reacher novels) explains why it’s better to start writing later in life.

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Steinbeck’s Rules for Writing

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Story Clues

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Story Structure

the 3-act story structure explained
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Story Structure Matters

and what happens when it’s not there

By Michael Hauge

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Story Structure and Character Arcs

By Kiingo

How can story structure be driven by a character arc? How is story structure more than just an external journey? And how can we make our character arcs more believable? Let’s look at how structure and characters intertwine.

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Story Structure and Formulas

By The Futur

What is the story circle? How did George Lucas write an epic story like Star Wars? Are there common story types? What is the Monomyth? How does the hero’s journey overlap with the inner journey? How do I improve my writing? Are there story formulas that I can use?

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Gay Talese Interview

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Talking Jack Reacher

Lee Child and Stephen King
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TED Talks for Writers

By SCRIBENDIINC

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Lisa Thomas Talks to Boomers on Books

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Hunter S. Thompson

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Tips for Overwriters and Underwriters

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Titles

5 tips for choosing better titles

By Patricia J. Parsons

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Robert Towne Interview

Screenwriter Robert Towne discusses his life and career. He is most notable for his Oscar-nominated screenplays of The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), and Shampoo (1975) and has worked steadily in the entertainment business for five decades. Interviewed by Barbara Corday.

Free video
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Video Interviews by Lee Goldberg

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Video Interviews with Lee Goldberg

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Kurt Vonnegut

Interview on 90 Minutes Live
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Kurt Vonnegut

The Shape of Stories
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Kurt Vonnegut

Interview on the Dick Cavett Show 1989
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Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules of Writing

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John Waters Discussion

David Lynch
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Website Mistakes

Vicky Wu Marketing to a Million

Making these errors can mean fewer sales because your site will be less user-friendly.

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K.M. Weiland YouTube Channel

Tons of excellent videos about writing!
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World-Building in Fiction

the importance

By Writer’s Digest Presents

We’re talking all about the importance of world-building in fiction in this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents!”

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Writing a Book in 13 Steps

By Jerry Jenkins

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The Writing Community Chat Show

interviewing indie and established authors

Live streaming on YouTube with the with the best authors around!

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Writing Compelling Dialogue

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Writing in First Person

By Diane Callahan

Most writers are already familiar with the definitions of first, second, and third person, but in this three-part series, I’ll delve deeper into the effect each of these perspectives can have on characterization and the reader’s experience.

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Writing a Screenplay

7 steps 
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Writing Subtext in Dialogue

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Writing Tips from Helga Schier

Great Videos Here!

By Helga Schier — With Pen And Paper

Check out this extensive collection of FREE writing videos!

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Writing in Third Person

By Diane Callahan

Third person (he, she, they) is one of the standard points of view for writing fiction. In this video, I’ll explore the advantages and disadvantages of this perspective, along with some other concerns unique to this POV.

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Writer’s Mindset

If you want to be successful in your writing endeavors, you need to start with the right mindset. Understand the process and the importance of getting out of your own way (watch the video to understand exactly what that means).

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A Writer’s Secrets to Catching Creative Ideas

By Brad Herzog

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