Purple background with 100 Writers Drinking Coffee with a pencil in the 1, a fountain pen in the first 0, and a quill in the second 0

Episode 109 – Interview with Cassandra Lane

Cassandra started as a reporter, then went back to get her MFA in creative writing. Cassandra’s first full-length book is a non-fiction memoir called We Are Bridges, and Jeannie devoured it entirely in a day. We Are Bridges a story that ranges across three generations from Louisiana with the lynching of a great-grandfather to modern life in Los Angeles, exploring romance and race and motherhood and what they all mean together. She shares with us her practiced art of listening, how working with editors and deadlines helped, and her drive to become a writer and a storyteller. … Continue…Episode 109 – Interview with Cassandra Lane

A pencil, a ball point pen, and a quill sitting in lounge chairs drinking coffee; Title: Writers Drinking Coffee

Episode 91 – A Psychological Model for Character Building

In this episode, Dave, Chaz, and John briefly discuss character development using the “Big Five” model of personality before haring off on a number of predictable tangents. Also in this episode: everything Dave knows about factor analysis and psychological modeling (tl;dr: psychology is squishy); what Chaz doesn’t know about “Aspects of the Novel:” by E.M. Forster (quite a bit, and seemingly proud of it); and John reminds Chaz to panic about being replaced by a computer. Also: MFAs are a dodgy proposition; the academic wing of the Tolkien industry; Freud sucks (Dave again); and how pantsing yourself into a corner is like failing to solve a Sudoku. Finally, a plea: “plotting” is fine, but can we please find an alternative to “pantsing”?! … Continue…Episode 91 – A Psychological Model for Character Building