This Podcast Will Make You A Better Writer Than Most Writing Courses Would
Become a better writer by learning how to show, not tell
I’ve been a victim of clickbaity courses. The ones that were advertised as 5 stars. This is not to say that all of them are terrible, but I’ve had my own share of bought courses that didn’t live up to the hype. At some point, I started doubting my own comprehensive skill when I couldn’t get past the 5th module before I gave up. Forever.
I have a very short attention span and a short fuse which is a very bad and toxic combination. But another thing I have is the ability to know exactly what I’m looking for when I see it. And not one of those 5 purchased writing courses on Udemy had the answer I sought.
I recently quit my writing job because I felt like there was something missing from my writing. It needed an upgrade. I was no longer comfortable with my style of writing so I went hunting for materials to help me become better.
During this search, I downloaded over 20 books on writing and fiction. Only then did I confirm that I’m not a big fan of softcopies. It might sound like an excuse but it’s real. At least for me. With hardcopy, I can determine when to finish a book. And the smell of books gives me the same orgasmic feeling as mint money. But hardcopies are shit expensive and scarce. I believe that’s an acceptable and legit excuse.
Then it dawned on me that perhaps I’d been looking at the wrong places. Why not try writing podcasts? If there’s anything like it. But why shouldn’t there be? There are podcasts for everything now, so best believe there are tons of writing podcasts. I took the search to Spotify and found a lot of them that I became very confused. I didn’t know which to pick, so I started listening to the first one that was suggested. Most were great, but they didn’t have what I was looking for. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I knew I would know once I heard it — I did.
The Essential Guide To Writing A Novel is a podcast (also a book) that is hosted by Jim Thayer. He’s an author of 14 novels. He taught novel writing at the University of Washington extension for over 10 years. He deserves more than a few lines of introduction but I will now tell you how I felt while listening.
The things that made sense about this podcast;
- His introduction was less than 5 seconds. I appreciated his ability to get to the point and still convey his message like a master in his craft. His voice certainly does not match his face. I don’t mean it in a bad way — his voice sounded younger, enthusiastic, and dEEp. You already know how we women appreciate men with low vibrating voices. To get the feel of the depth and beauty of his voice, kindly put your headset or AirPod on noise cancellation mode and let this man’s voice take you on the best journey — a learning journey.
- It’s a very clean audio. Absolutely no noise. Just you and him. It felt like a private session but only he talks and you listen. Not even his breath interrupted the session.
- Now, this is my best part. He broke down writing into understandable bits. My best episode is episode 9: showing versus telling. It’s my fave because I’ve heard about this writing method from almost every guru but a lot of them seemed not to really understand what it means. Or they don’t know how to explain it. But my guy Jim understood the assignment. He used the show method to teach it. He would give an example with the tell method and make it better with the show method. I used to have issues imagining how some movie scenes were written. I couldn’t understand how someone could write a scene that would be acted out exactly how it was written. For example, if a writer writes that Jenny dressed sexy for the party. How would an actor interpret that? It’s bland. But if he/she writes “Jenny wore a short gown that would expose her panties if she tries to scratch her knees, that’s showing right there. And any actor already knows how to bring that to life. See? I’m already getting good at this show thing.
I hope you take a listen and you will never buy another hyped course again. Even when you do, you will know exactly what to look for.
When you do listen, come back and drop a review in the comment section so that others can benefit from your honest POV.
