The Write Focus

Our poem for the Christmas holidays has two lessons for all writers. It comes from T.S. Eliot. My introduction to TSE came in college, either a survey course in modern poetry or as part of a literature survey. Professor C. Hines Edwards, dry and erudite, was one of two that I admired for his knowledge of poetry classical and structure-less. He introduced TSE’s “The Wasteland” to us, a long poem known for its allusions. The literary device allusions has its place in writing. In a few brief words, it opens doors to additional meaning … much as Christina Rossetti’s “From Sunrise to Starshine” did, with our realization that she’s a sleeping beauty, briefly awakened, now in her thorn-guarded tower. The allusion is the first of our two lessons, but it leads into the second, a contradictory lesson and our final one for this series. In January, The Write Focus starts a new series called Writers on Writing, active writers who share their knowledge of tech tools, productivity, and process, with a few snippets on the craft. Here’s Eliot’s poem, perfect for the holiday season.   TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome 00:40 Introduction 01:17 Allusions / Easter Eggs 03:11 First Lesson 04:40 Symbolic Motifs 05:17 Re-Connecting with TSE 07:45 Second Lesson: Two-Sided 10:13 “The Journey of the Magi” 16:40 Closing Total Run Time = 17:38   #TSEliot #JourneyoftheMagi #Wasteland #HollowMen #allusion #discoverability #symbolicmotifs #motif #writingadvice Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used LINKS TSEliot bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot “The Wasteland” https://genius.it/www.bartleby.com/201/1.html “The Hollow Men” https://poets.org/poem/hollow-men “Journey of the Magi” https://allpoetry.com/The-Journey-Of-The-Magi   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/12/549-fall-into-poetry-journey-with-ts.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

The Write Focus wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving week ~ full of rich holiday food, joyous time with people we love, awkward encounters with other people, and a money blast on Black Friday—which usually extends to Cyber Monday. This episode doesn’t fit with our Fall into Poetry series ~ although it does gift you with poems stuffed with thanks—and not so stuffed. No analysis or advice to writers, just poetry. It’s a Cornucopeia of Poems to share for Thanksgiving. TIMINGS 00:00 Introduction 00:40 “There’s Nothing like the Sun” 2:00 “November Night”, a cinquain 2:23 “I went to thank her” 3:10 Two called “November” 4:30 “Winter” Total Run Time = 5:37

We’re a week to Thanksgiving here in the USofA, and we have not one or two but three poems of gratitude to examine, giving us 6 lessons of Advice for All Writers. These three poems have quirky ways of matching to the holiday, thanks-giving and gratitude. The gratitude doesn’t take the gushing that usually fills most writings about thankfulness. The individual poets present their heartfelt emotion in a realistic manner. They’ve lived real lives and experienced pain and heartbreak, and they share this reality in the hopes that we can gain from their experiences. Reality rather than gushy platitudes? I’m in for that, every time. Like writing strong, rational characters with strong counterparts, allies and antagonists rather than weak straw-men which doesn’t prove anything about strength and intelligence and logic. Oops, preaching again. Herewith, our six lessons and three poems for this episode. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction / Lessons 1 & 203:40 Lessons 3 & 406:22 Cowper “Gratitude”08:45 Sandburg “Our Prayer of Thanks”13:20 Lesson 514:45 Nesbit “Gratitude”16:15 Lesson 617:25 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 19:31 #audiencereaction #eclecticaudience #discoverability #williamcowper #gratitude #carlsandburg #edithnesbit   Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used LINKS William Cowper bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper Cowper’s poem https://allpoetry.com/Gratitude-And-Love-To-God Carl Sandburg bio https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-literature-biographies/carl-sandburg Sandburg’s poem http://carl-sandburg.com/our_prayer_of_thanks.htm Edith Nesbit bio https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-Nesbit Nesbit’s poem https://www.poetry.com/poem/8831/gratitude   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-prepare-for-6-lessons.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

When we live our life in the present, being in the moment, we can develop a love-hate relationship with people and things we encounter daily. We don’t “love to hate” these; we love them at some times while at other times we hate them. We may happily encounter and deal with them, then on a day not too far away, we groan and say, “Not today, please, not today.” That contradiction, that contrariness, is engrained in our human nature. We aren’t changing our minds. Five days from now, love will re-emerge. When someone reminds us “You said you hated thus-and-so,” we retort “When did I ever?”, conveniently forgotten. As writers, we work to keep the predominant mood of a work. We don’t wish to confuse a reader. In longer works, we can gradually shirt the mood, dark to bright, Shorter works are better with one mood. We have strong tools to create mood and manipulate our audience with that mood. Our words are influencers upon the world. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome 00:40 Introduction / Mood / Lesson 1 2:53 Tools to Influence Mood / Lessons 2 and 3 5:35 Frost and Clare 6:19 Frost’s “My November Guest” / Lesson 4 9:57 Clare’s “November” 13:00 Writer as Influencer 14:00 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 16:07   Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used Bio of Frost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost Bio of Clare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clare “My November Guest” https://poets.org/poem/my-november-guest “November” https://pickmeuppoetry.org/november-by-john-clare/   #johnclare #robertfrost #novemberpoems #mood #connotation #imagery #tone #atmosphere #poetaslegislator   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-writing-dark-and-bright.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

“Share your innermost life,” marketing gurus advise writers, “with your readers, your newsletter folks, with everyone. Make it all public Make it pop-ular.” That’s a certain way to burn out most of your audience, who just want the knowledge you have or just want to be entertained. “Open the window. Let them see into part of your life.” That’s reasonable and rational marketing advice. A window doesn’t give access to every room of your home, and it certainly doesn’t give access to what you’ve stored in closets or tucked deep in drawers or hidden in old boxes in the attic. We writers have a constant push-pull dynamic of revealing ourselves. Heartfelt emotion is one of the four requirements of song, applicable to all writing. It speaks to us, touches us soul-deep, and leaves us weeping because we have a similar wound. In this segment we have two poems by a man who wrote for public consumption but also purged his private anguish in a poem meant only to be published posthumously. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome 00:40 Introduction / Public vs. Private 2:20 Deceit with Reader / Heartfelt Emotion 4:23 Longfellow / Long Rant 7:05 HWL Public vs. Private Poems 8:53 Lessons 1, 2, and 3 9:50 “The Harvest Moon” 11:00 Lessons 4 and 5 12:30 “Mezzo Cammin” 14:45 Lesson 6 15:50 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 17:58   Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used   #henrywadsworthlongfellow #marketingadviceforwriters #harvestmoonpoem #mezzocamminsonnet #sonnet LINKS Bio on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow “Harvest Moon” https://poets.org/poem/harvest-moon “Mezzo Cammin” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50629/mezzo-cammin   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-writing-public-vs.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Monsters of all sorts inhabit literature, for they crowd into people’s consciousness whenever we face trials and tribulations. The unnatural monsters, goy and terrifying, gorging themselves without mercy or conscience, these are our nightmares, rarely encountered. The deceptive monsters, the ones that camouflage who and what they are, still gorging themselves, relishing each victim, these inhabit our everyday lives. We should be wary of them, but we still find ourselves caught in their devastating traps, even after we finally recognize them. Only when we are burned enough or wounded enough do we manage to escape, scarred for all future encounters with people who aren’t monsters. These deceptive monsters are alluring, beautiful enticements that we can’t quite let go. And that unwillingness to escape is truly the monstrous behavior. Join The Write Focus as we offer 6 Lessons for all Writers as we examine the famous deceptive monster of the wild fairy in two poems by John Keats and e.e.cummings.   TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction / Deceptive Monsters02:40 Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci”4:00 Lessons 1 2, and 3 for All Writers11:26 Lessons 4 and 514:00 e.e.cummings’ Wild Fairy17:00 Lesson 618:45 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 20:51   #wildfairy #labelledamesansmerci #johnkeats #eecummings #allingreenwentmyloveriding #dreams #writingtips #artasinspiration #4requirementsofsong #writingtheseasons Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used LINKS Keats’ bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats “La Belle Dame” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44475/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-a-ballad The Artwork https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Belle_Dame_sans_Merci e.e.cummings bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings [all in green went my love riding] https://allpoetry.com/all-in-green   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-deceptive-monsters.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Love. Betrayal. Death. Those subjects we discussed in our story-song and in other recent poems, including Christina Rossetti’s particular version of false love and twisted betrayal—Lust that isn’t love, summer friends abandoning her in her self-exile, her false love leaving her to face her trouble alone. When we’ve endured betrayal, our memories of that traitors are as a monster. Monsters need not have venom-dripping fangs and wicked-sharp talons. The worst monsters are in our own selves, the ones who want to stay with that “dragon who keeps so fair a cave” (Shakespeare). As we near All Hallow’s Eve, we look for stories and poems and blogs about monsters. The horror genre gives us unreal monsters while the thriller genre gives over-the-top monsters, like Hannibal. We have fantasy monsters and domestic villains as monsters. We writers bend tropes. The best monsters, though, never seem like monsters until we fall into their clutches.   TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction / Monsters03:55 Heinrich Heine’s “The Lorelai” / the femme fatale08:10 Lessons for all Writers #1 and #211:48 Lesson #3 Find your Monster15:00 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 17:04   #heinrichheine #lorelai #femmefatale #blackwidow #theme #thesis #womenasmonster #goddessofrevenge #nemesis #siren #gorgon #graiae #odysseus #mythology #revenge LINKS Heine’s bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine “Lorelai” http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/2255/the-lorelei.html#:~:text=The%20Lore-lei%20has%20done!%20The%20American%20Poet%20Thomas%20Bailey Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-unexpected-monsters.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

October is a month of changes, of transitions, anticipation of the colors even as summer gives us a few reminders of his warmth. And October ends with All Hallow’s Eve, the evening before a holy day ~ a time of riotous revelry by the forces defiant against God, Father, Creator, Savior. Creeping upon me with the early chill of October mornings was the realization that Christina Rossett should be next in our Fall into Poetry series. Born 1830 and died 1894, Rossetti is sister to the artist-poet Dante Rossetti of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Victorian painters who reached into the past and into mythology for the primary subjects of their lush artwork. Most know Christina Rossetti for “Goblin Market”, a long narrative poem of two sisters. One sister succumbs to temptation and tastes the fruit sold by the goblins. We’re not going to look at “Goblin Market”. I know you’re disappointed. Instead, we’re looking at three other poems, two straight-forward and people-pleasing, one personal and puzzling, all three with lessons for all writers, not just poets. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction / C.Rossetti03:30 First Poem / First Lesson07:25 Second Lesson08:30 Second Poem / Cold Poems11:00 Third Poem17:02 Last 2 Lessons19:00 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 21:06   Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used LINKS Biography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti“January Cold Desolate” https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/january-cold-desolate“A Year’s Windfalls” https://allpoetry.com/A-Years-Windfalls“From Sunset to Star Rise” https://genius.com/Christina-rossetti-from-sunset-to-star-rise-annotated“Goblin Market” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market“A Birthday” https://poets.org/poem/birthday Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-rossettis-3-cold-poems.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

We have a theme of Dances of October for this episode ~ although one of our two poems doesn’t mention dancing and the other doesn’t mention October. How are we connecting these two works to that theme? Well, my brain said “Put them together”, and here we are. The first poem is by African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. He’s barely anthologized anymore, but that doesn’t mean he should be neglected. Dunbar is an excellent writer with diverse style in different forms, including prose and plays. His verse elevates him above the one-trick ponies who are studied because they represent a type (Louise May Alcott, e.g.). Our other poem is a lesser-known work by the famous William Butler Yeats. Follow along as we find unexpected connections with these two unconnected poems. We’ll also add in a few writing lessons that will help all writers. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction01:35 Dunbar’s “October”07:09 First Lesson for All Writers08:46 Yeat’s “To a Child Dancing in the Wind”12:44 Second Lesson for All Writers15:35 Reaching New Meaning / Dunbar & Yeats17:25 Third Lesson for all Writers, A & B18:25 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 20:32   LINKS Paul Laurence Dunbar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Laurence_Dunbar  “October” https://poets.org/poem/october-2 William Butler Yeats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats “To a Child …” https://www.poetryverse.com/william-butler-yeats-poems/child-dancing-the-wind #paullaurencedunbar #williambutleryeats #writingadvice #dirtydozen Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-dances-of-october.html   become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

What sparks a love of poetry? The highbrow puzzles of e.e. cummings or the imagism of Ezra Pound. The lyrical music of John Keats or Christina Rossetti. The logical jumps and intellectual gymnastics of the metaphysical poets. The gimmick that marks Ferlinghetti. The emotions that lurk in a Longfellow sonnet. The intriguing story-songs that we just examined last month. None of the above sparked my love of poetry. They deepened my love and enriched it, teased me by simultaneously engaging mind and heart. My love of poetry was sparked by my mother. She gifted her daughters with a love of birds, of flowers, of nature itself. She quoted poems that she’d memorized over the years, poems that echoed with her love of nature, and those poems still echo for me. When I saw poetic lines expressed in nature, poetry lived for me. Over my years, I’ve found more poems that live, some highbrow, some with a lowbrow snicker, some middlebrow which are frowned upon by intellectuals as “not clever enough”. I say if the poem is to a person’s taste, then who has a right to disrespect their choice? And so we come to this episode’s poems, two that reveal autumn’s glory, both with marketing and writing ideas for anyone interested in a writing-focused life. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction / Taste in Poetry02:16 Writer’s Growth / Marketing Lesson03:34 Helen Hunt Jackson03:51 “September”05:39 Easter Eggs and Secrets08:41 “October”13:25 Famous Love Story / Clever Word Choice16:05 Marketing Genius / Audience-Focused18:00 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 20:07   Links Helen Hunt Jackson bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hunt_Jackson Her poetry  https://www.poemhunter.com/helen-hunt-jackson/ #helenhuntjackson #writergrowth #marketingforwriters #septemberpoem #octoberpoem #octobersonnet   Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-two-autumn-poems.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Wine is heady stuff. A simple goblet of wine relaxes us; a mega-pint or a bottle can tip us into trouble. Do you prefer the creamy full-body of a fine cabernet or the bite of a sauvignon blanc? Perhaps a medium red like a spicy Zinfandel or a lighter Riesling? Or a fruiter, sweet-forward wine, like a strawberry wine? Homemade, requiring only fresh strawberries, sugar, yeast, and water? Hi, everyone. This week’s episode is another story-song, not a ballad of love, betrayal, and death. This is a sweet song which still has a bite, a rite of passage that leaves a heady memory in the speaker. It’s “Strawberry Wine,” launched into country music in 1996 but still speaking to all of us. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction / “Strawberry Wine”02:42 Song Structure / 4 Requirements of Song06:28 Impact Events / Chorus08:27 Second Stanza / Bridge10:51 Speaker’s Dilemma / Inherent Drives14:20 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 16:29   LINKS Song Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deanacarter/strawberrywine.html Video Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up06CryWQpE Bio of M. Berg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matraca_Berg Bio of G. Harrison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Harrison Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-sweet-wine.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Here’s an odd way to start a conversation about a song: the word moron. Hi all. It’s the third episode in our autumn series Fall Into Poetry. We’ve featured two story-songs (narrative poems) that are ballads, not the modern power ballad of the music world but the literature-based ballad with its focus on the subjects of love, betrayal, and death. This episode’s song is not a ballad, even though it concerns love and betrayal and the death of a relationship. It’s not even a story-song. It’s a lyric poem, which means that it expresses an emotion. We do have hints of a story but not really. And we’re delving into the song by looking first at the word moron. Odd, I know. A little weird. But there you are. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction03:44 Oxymoron / Shakespeare07:52 Oxymoronic Characters08:03 “Little Lies”11:00 Stanza 2 Twist13:23 Summation for Writers14:20 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 16:26 LINKS “Little Lies” performance https://youtu.be/uCGD9dT12C0 “Little Lies” lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fleetwoodmac/littlelies.html #fleetwoodmac #christinemcvie #littlelies #oxymoron #hamlet #romeoandjuliet #poets #fictionwriters #indiepublishingforwriters Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-sweet-lies.html  Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Story-songs, like last episode’s “Read my Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot, leave a mark in our memories. Very little is needed to return them to the foreground of our mind. That’s also the case with this episode’s story-song, another ballad, this time for Broadway, written by the fantastic Stephen Sondheim, a great in American stagecraft. I first encountered this song in 1976 as part of my chorus class, not on the radio. It requires a maturity of experience, which I didn’t have then. I caught the song’s cosmic irony but didn’t truly comprehend the personal devastation of the character who sings it. Nor did I catch the revealing epiphany of the last line. Many greats have performed it: Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Judy Dench. The version in my head harkens to Bernadette Peters’ performance. First to perform it, though, and the singer for whom it was intended was Glynis Johns. If you know Sondheim’s work, you’ve already guessed the song: “Send in the Clowns”. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Introduction to “Send in the Clowns”02:58 Clear Communication03:30 Strong Imagery and Emotion08:52 Powerful Lines / Ballad13:10 Four Lessons for Fiction / Nonfiction Writers15:52 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 18:02   LINKS Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/judycollins/sendintheclowns.html Performance by Bernadette Peters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZhmsp6iBQ & by Glynnis Johns https://youtu.be/OAl-EawVobY #stephensondheim #cosmicirony #ballad #sendintheclowns #writingpoetry #writingfiction #writingnonfiction Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used [Fair Use declares that we can quote from copyrighted works by other writers as long as we use those quotations for analysis, explication, and teaching examples.] Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-clown-faire.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg    Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Every writer is after memorable writing, whatever will strengthen our words and ideas so they haunt our audience. We want our audience to return again and again to our writing, either to recapture that original impact or to puzzle out a question that wasn’t answered. Capture our audience, and they stay with our writing to the end. Satisfy our audience, and they seek more of our writing. This is our goal: win-win, us and them. Our series Fall into Poetry would seem to appeal only to poets—but that’s a surface glance. We writers can learn from any writing style, poetry teaching fiction, dramas teaching nonfiction, any mix-up we can contemplate. We begin with a story-song from the realm of popular music. This song’s endurance proves that it is memorable writing by one of our greatest modern songwriters, now sadly gone: “If You Could Read my Mind, Love” by Gordon Lightfoot, a ballad when most songs are lyrics. If you’re unfamiliar with “Read my Mind”, then pause this podcast and head off to find a new song to add to your favorites list. Come back to hear our analysis. (Links Below) Join The Write Focus all through autumn as we examine great poems that teach a multitude of lessons for all writers. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Word Count Challenge / Final Check-in03:10 Fall into Poetry introduction05:40 “If You Could Read my Mind, Love”07:00 Four Requirements of Song13:57 “Read my Mind” as a Ballad14:55 Two Special Touches18:47 Closing Total Run Time: 19:49 LINKS Lyrics for “Read my Mind” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gordonlightfoot/ifyoucouldreadmymind.html YouTube performance of “Read my Mind” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK--A-IaZnA Rick Beato’s analysis of the music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33YyowZZxQ Link to The Write Focus website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-read-my-mind.html  #writing poetry #poetry #GordonLightfoot #Ifyoucouldreadmymind Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used [Fair Use declares that we can quote from copyrighted works by other writers as long as we use those quotations for analysis, explication, and teaching examples.] Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to our YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73Pe3yKV5HixAUjBNOg47A Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the fourth check-in for the Word Count Challenge with the theme of Surviving that Horrible Week for Writing. I thought I was smart, earlier in this year, when I scheduled a Wednesday to Tuesday trip. The hectic weekend driving would be avoided. When most people would be arriving or leaving, I would be snuggled in and could enjoy. That plan is great for a trip, not so much for a Word Count Challenge. I delayed drafting this episode to Tuesday morning. I drove home on Tuesday and had the Start2Finish recording to posting of the audio file when I reached home—with unpacking and laundry still to do. Yet I did squeeze out the words for this episode as I drank my two cups of coffee. How did I do with the week, start to finish? Let’s do the check-in. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome 00:40 The Horrible Week 01:37 Check-In #4 begins 04:26 Friday Onward 09:34 Success vs. Failure 11:20 Closing TOTAL RUN TIME = 12:19   All Original Content / No AI Used Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-4.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Hello, everyone. It’s the 3rd Check-in for the Word Count Challenge here in August, and we’re discovering problems. I continue to meet my goal of 500 new words daily, no matter the interruptions. I’ve had to write fiction and nonfiction to achieve 500 new words, and other writing tasks are still occurring, all in a mix of daily fun time with family and commitments and responsibilities that I’m promised to. I actually started this episode draft on Monday to finish words for that day because other things were going on that prevented my finishing 500 fiction words. And I’ve discovered issues with the daily push for new words, issues related to achieving the word count. Join in as we discuss creativity and challenging problems. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Opening / Creativity vs. Filler06:43 Word Count Challenge Problems08:30 WCC Check-in #312:20 Success vs. Failure / Next Steps15:03 Closing Total Run Time = 16:05   All Original Content / No AI Used Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-3.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Hi, Everyone. It’s the second check-in for the Word Count Challenge here in August. How have you done? Leave a comment about your goals and successes. I’ve managed to meet my goal of 500 words daily, no matter the interruptions, and they were many. Things tugged at me every day of the past week. The massive part of the day is lost to writing but early mornings and late evenings have saved  me—and twice, both evening and morning writing saved me. At our last check-in, the first draft of the third short story was finished and needed a week’s separation before revision started. After errands in the cool morning, the writing part of Wednesday began: something forgotten, something needing fixin’, something on the To-Do List, and finally writing. Stay connected to hear how the rest of the week continued. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Word Count Challenge Check-in #204:55 Success or Failure?05:32 Next Steps07:40 Closing Total Run Time = 08:40   All Original Content / No AI Used   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-2.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Old Challenge vs. New Challenge ~ that’s the theme for this week’s episode. We say goodbye to the Summer Writing Challenge, which tracked all the pesky jobs that writers have to do in addition to the writing, and we welcome in the August Word Count Challenge, which is the kind of challenge that writers want to focus on: NEW WORDS ONLY. No sketched words, just an estimate from the Rough, any overage in changing Rough to Draft as well as overage that comes with Revision and Proofing. The only way to achieve the challenge consistently is to Write New Words Daily. Join us as we challenge disruptions and distractions to derail us from a daily word count. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Say Goodbye and Hello01:18 Last on the Summer Writing Challenge08: 35 Word Count Challenge for August09:40 First Check-in for the WCC12:43 Closing Total Run Time = 13:44   All Original Content / No AI Used   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/old-challenge-vs-new-challenge-word.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Hi, all. It’s the last full week of the Summer Writing Challenge. We’ll have one last day to report in our first August episode. This week, though, finishes out our challenge. Did I succeed? Did I fail? What can I do better? What changes can I make to be more successful in the future? Let’s start with our day-to-day report before we answer those major questions. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome 00:40 Check in 9 02:10 Counting Projects this Year 03:20 Priorities, Goals, Boundaries 08:34 Hurry Up to Wait 10:10 Busy Monday 17:40 Final Day to Come / New Challenge 19:10 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 21:04   All Original Content / No AI Used   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-9.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Hi, all! It’s our 8th check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge. A little over a week to go to the end of July BUT not the end of the Summer Writing Challenge. I’ve struggled and I’ve soared in this past week. It’s all a matter of juggling the bad with the good to keep a mental balance and motivation. Last Wednesday, first day of our work week, is a perfect example of this juggling act. We cover a lot this week, including characters who are ciphers and easy-out solutions to plots; objective distance; copyright, ideas, and the Fair Use doctrine; crafting newsletters and book descriptions, fiction and nonfiction; and our tally of Success vs. Failure. We’ve a lot to discuss. Let’s do it. TIMINGS 00:00 Welcome00:40 Check-in 82:00 Ciphers / Objective Distance7:00 Copyright, Ideas, and Fair Use10:26 Newsletters15:00 Book Descriptions, NonFiction and Fiction17:33 Success & Failure18:22 Last Words / Closing Total Run Time = 20:18   All Original Content / No AI Used   Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-8.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)