The Quiet Quotient

Your first draft isn't supposed to be perfect. It's supposed to exist. In this episode, we look at five things to pay attention to while writing your first draft, from following the story to trusting your instincts and, most importantly, finishing it.

In this episode, I explore how observing everyday people, conversations, habits, frustrations, and little moments can make your writing sharper, funnier, and more believable. Because writers don't need to invent an entirely new world to find something worth writing about.
They need to notice the one we're already living in.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

We tend to think writing a novel means sitting down and somehow producing 80,000 words of brilliance. This is probably why so many blank documents remain tragically blank.
In this episode, I make the case for starting smaller. Writing short stories teaches you how to build characters, make decisions, create conflict, find your voice, and most importantly, finish something. And those little stories can eventually become something much bigger.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/
 

Are you a plotter with a plan for every twist, or a pantser who starts writing and hopes everyone survives? Explore the two approaches to storytelling, the strengths and traps of each, and why your best writing might happen somewhere in between.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

A novel is a huge commitment. A short story lets you practice the important stuff without spending two years discovering your main character has nowhere to go. Learn why short fiction can be the perfect training ground for novelists.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

The best writers don't stop at interesting characters. They give those characters a world with history, rules, quirks, and plenty of opportunities to screw things up. Because once your characters have somewhere to live, you can finally give them somewhere to go wrong.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

Great directors understand something every writer should remember: the camera comes later. First, someone has to create the characters, conflict, emotion, and story that make the camera worth pointing somewhere. Steven Spielberg has spent decades proving what happens when great writing meets great direction.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

In this episode, I look at pacing, why slow doesn't necessarily mean boring, and how writers can recognize when a story has stopped moving for the wrong reasons. Sometimes a quiet scene needs room to breathe. Other times, you're three paragraphs into a description of a window and nobody has gone anywhere.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

The best character material might already be sitting inside your own life. The awkward moments, stupid arguments, private fears, jealousy, embarrassment, and things you wish you had said can all become fuel for fiction. You don't have to write yourself into every story. Take what you understand about being human, hand it to someone completely different, and see what happens when you drop them into trouble.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/

Memorable characters are not built from a list of traits. They want things, make mistakes, contradict themselves, and surprise us. Here are five simple ways to create characters your readers will remember long after the story ends.Connect with me:https://www.jimhansenmedia.com/