Shows
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and MotivationDay 12: Monotony Must Die: How to Keep Your Sentences SurprisingNo Flat WritingA lot of writers will worry that their stories seem flat. There’s a reason that they are worrying about that and it’s one of the core elements of good writing.Ready?A lot of the times your story seems flat because all your sentences are the same layout.You want to vary your sentence structure.Take a bit of writing that you’ve done that feels flat—or maybe even one that doesn’t. Count the words in your sentences for two or three paragraphs...
2025-02-1215 minDogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and MotivationWhy Are People Mean? And The Lowdown on Three Super Common Grammar MistakesIn our Random Thought, we talk about why people are mean. The link to our source is at the end of these notes.All you all,I (Carrie) am the WORST copyeditor for my own work. I’ll admit it and that’s because as a writer, I’m too close to it to pick out my errors, right?That’s why it’s good to have other people read your stories before you put them out there.So, we (Carrie and Shaun) are going to talk about some grammar mistakes: three supe...
2025-01-2919 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and MotivationHow To Write a Book Description That Gets Readers Tingling All OverOur podcast title is “How To Write a Book Description That Gets Readers Tingling All Over” and that just sounds naughty, doesn’t it?And it is a little naughty because this, my friends, is about selling a book, your book, and that requires being a little bit sexy.Sexy is something I, Carrie, am very very bad at.Let’s start by thinking about it this way:A book description is an adverstisement for your book.Writing a bad ad for your book doesn’t make you a sucky nove...
2024-07-1016 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and MotivationAuthor to Author. Carrie Jones and Chris Lynch Talk Walkin the DogAward-winning author of YA novels? Check.Printz honor author, ALA Best Book winner, National Book Award finalist? Check.Has a middle grade coming out March 11 that's about to rock the world? Definitely.Was so cool that Carrie was afraid to talk to him back in 2005 or 2006 or something? You know it.Chris Lynch, award winning human and ridiculously gracious interviewee, graced Dogs are Smarter Than People with an author-to-author interview with Carrie Jones this week. He ignored Carrie's frazzled face, vaguely sweaty hair, and minor emergency to be one of the...
2024-03-0530 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and MotivationDo Not Shart: How to Make Your Book Blurb. Plus, Trippy Art About Dragon IntimacyI’ve decided it’s time for a new series of podcast now that we whacked character lies down to a mush of sobs.There are all different ways to write these blurbs and make them tantalizing to readers, but there are set steps. We’re going to focus on the first one here.First let’s explain what a book blurb is, right? It’s just the description of your novel that goes on the sell page on Amazon or other places. It’s short. It’s sexy. It’s enticing. You use it on social media...
2023-10-2724 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and MotivationHappily Ever After or Happy For NowIt’s a romance brawl. Not really. But it’s a bit of one. And it comes down to this:Does a romance have to have Happily Ever After or Happy For Now to be a romance?Does there need to be a positive, happy ending in order for a book to be a romance?Let’s talk about it.Unspoken agreement with the readerWRITING TIP OF THE PODIf your story isn’t happily ever after, it may be a love story, but it might be hard...
2023-10-1325 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and MotivationIs Your Life a Stand Alone or A Series?Chuck Wendig has a piece on his blog, Terrible Minds, called "Series vs Standalone: Cage Match," which shows that Wendig is great at blog headlines and marketing.But his riff on a BlueSky conversation between a lot of writer elite. And it’s why he’s writing standalones mostly from now on instead of a series.Quickly, his reasons are:"Writing a series is depressing.
Publishers tend to give all the support only to that first book.
Standalones have new hope for ancillary rights
Standalones have a new shot at discoverability.
If that first book...
2023-08-3016 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and MotivationBrave Fart and Florida Man, Let's Talk About How Anger is Not The Enemy for Writers and Other HumansSo, a lot of self-help out there on TikTok and blogs is all about being . . . Well, happier, more efficient, better humans. We explore this all the time ourselves as we try to lead better lives, but one of the big things about this is that it sort of makes it seem like we live in a bubble where only we exist, that if we just work harder, better, more, in a different way, then we can get everything we need. That's what we talk about, plus brave fart and Florida Man headlines and writing.DOG T...
2023-08-1522 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivationfeel the awe and get through the tough timesAwe can get us through time times, scientists are saying. We'll check this theory out, define awe a bit, and obviously--get goofy.DOG THOUGHT FOR LIFESparty says: Slow down. You move too fast. Smell every tree and fire hydrant. LINKS WE MENTIONhttps://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_awe_can_help_us_through_tough_timeshttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35200-whttps://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/six_ways_to_incorporate_awe_into_your_daily_lifeSHOUT OUT!...
2023-07-2625 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorPlease Don’t Fart On Me: Making Systems For SuccessYep, we’re going there, because we’re the only self-development podcast that will.
Join us as we talk about brawls in the Waffle House, farting, and creating systems to actually achieve your goals.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Sometimes you have to review the system to stop having resource guarding. Cough. Pogie. Cough.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.
Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is thi...
2023-01-0319 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorTo e.g. or to i.e., that is the questionSometimes you see these little bastards in text or sometimes you might want to put them in there yourself. Gasp!
We aren’t here to tell you how to be fancy or not, but we are here to let you know how to be fancy correctly and not look like a schmuck.
E.g. is short for exempli gratia, or “for example.” But this is a REAL example, so you can use it when you mean, “here are examples.”
I.e. is short for id est, which pretty much means “that is” or “in other words.” Th...
2022-12-1403 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorUptight About Sex And How To Get Over It, Part OneSo, this podcast episode is probably going to be Shaun’s favorite because he grew up in a family that was not uptight about sex.
I, however, grew up in a family where a couple of the branches pretended we were all born out of the immaculate conception or just maybe sperm drops on a toilet or something.
We have some friends—good friends—who are currently exploring all things sexual in a consensual, relationship way.
They aren’t uptight.
Shaun’s not uptight.
And one of these things are not li...
2022-11-2921 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThose malicious mo-fos aren’t evil, they are just stupidOver on Medium, Michael Lin has a post of short tidbits that he’s learned from reading 100 self-development books.
That’s a lot of books.
And it’s a lot of two-three sentence tidbits that he has, but one of them leapt out at met his week.
And it’s this:
“Don’t attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity. Most of the world is not trying to fuck you over. Most of the world can do stupid things though, especially me.”
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
You might exp...
2022-11-2321 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorNaughty Ghosts and Is Hard Work and Consistency Really The Key To Financial SuccessLet’s talk about life lessons, you know those pity-ass short messages that are meant to give us massive epiphanies that turn our lives around completely.
I want to tell you that I hate life lessons.
And we talk about naughty ghosts in a house in Texas, too.
Come hang out!
SOURCES
https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-homeowner-hooker-ghosts-taken-over-rental-property-trying-stir-up-business
https://www.anxietyculture.com/puritan.htm
https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/the-national-study-of-millionaires-research
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podc...
2022-11-0221 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe CafeteriaA quick poem by me Carrie Jones.
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2022-10-1702 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe Paternity of DogsThis is a poem by me, Carrie Jones, about paternity.
Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support.
The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called "A Feather" and off the album The Crown Lo...
2022-10-1003 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorI'm Going To Pretend I'm Not TiredHey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support.
The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy.
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection
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Send in a voice mes...
2022-10-1001 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorShe has a poemThis year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on, and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar in...
2022-09-2601 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorMelancholyOne of my grandmothers painted and wrote poems when she wasn’t busy raising her three children.
This is one of her poems.
Grammy Barnard Poem #3
MELANCHOLY, MAY 19, 1927
Cold and dark desolation’s arms
Embrace my heart and sound alarms
Of fearful, loveless days to be endured
To which my heart of late has become inured.
Where may I flee from these haunting visions
And from my constant indecisions?
Go I shall, and in my misery hide
In a...
2022-09-1901 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via Anchor“FINDING THE STORIES," a poem about book banning“FINDING THE STORIES”
What does it mean to find story when you are the one who is oppressed?
What does it mean to find story when you are the one who is barely surviving in your own life?
When your mother cries to sleep every night because she can’t find a job, pay bills, fix the furnace. When the food she feeds you comes from the government line even though she’s too proud for that, too smart for that, too strong?
What does it mean to find a story full of m...
2022-09-0503 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorAlligator Hunting and Why Shaun Is Gone, Plus New DUDE NO Podcast PreviewSo, Shaun is off in Florida HUNTING ALLIGATORS (!) leaving me alone to podcast, which means that all the talent is gone! I explain that in the podcast, but this whole episode is short and sweet. And it's mostly about what we're going to start on September 6 if Shaun survives with all his limbs and everything.
Check out our upcoming true crime podcast for people who don’t like to sleep, DUDE, NO! The website is here. The site for private bonus stuff is here.
And thanks for hanging out with me even when Shaun is off...
2022-08-3007 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe EnchantedHey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support.
The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy.
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection
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Send in a voice mes...
2022-08-2901 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorWhen I Was Born They Thought I Was BlindHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on, and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
When I Was Born They Thought I Was Blind
The bandages on my face keep everything dark,
so dark, and there’s nothing to figur...
2022-08-2202 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe HurricaneThanks for being here with me and cheering me on, and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
"The Hurricane"
The workers at
the Hole in the Wall
catalogue their friends’ losses
to the group of diners
that come in and sit
at a high table.
One friend has lost
a porch. Another lost
their oyster building. Another
lost half their roof. Someone lost a car
to a big tree.
So...
2022-08-1501 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorMAKING THINGS SIZZLE – HOW DO YOU MAKE CHEMISTRY HAPPEN BETWEEN CHARACTERSWant to make your characters sizzle like a fajita plate? Join us as we quickly give some steps about building character chemistry on the page. More tips and the transcript are over at Carrie Jones Books.
The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze.
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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carriejonesbooks/message
Support thi...
2022-08-1008 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via Anchorspoiler: the sandwich is an objective correlativeA poem about being not poet-cool.
Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support.
The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy.
While Carrie only posts p...
2022-08-0101 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorBecauseBecause she’s not some drugged up doper or anything like that, but shivers have taken control of her whole entire body because it’s cold, cold, cold in Bar Harbor, Maine and it isn’t even winter yet.
Because she’s huddled behind the dumpster outside of Geddy’s. There’s a giant lobster claw at the front part of the restaurant and a massive moose on top of the ceiling because that’s what gets the tourists. Fake moose. Broiled monster lobster claws, red with death and sprinkled with white Christmas lights.
Because it gets to be...
2022-06-2702 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorMyths of PresidentsMyths About Presidents
26.
He didn’t
Ride
A moose.
The photo is fake
Like a lot
Of presidential
things.
16.
He dreamt
His death,
Found himself
Waking in a coffin
And asked who
Was dead
In the White
House.
Dream mourners said,
“The president.”
He denied the dream.
Nobody listened.
The st...
2022-06-2002 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorTwenty Years Outdated, a poemThese firefighters show up at a hotel fire, maybe
Started in the laundry room during the off season, hoses
Frozen from winter temperatures, ice across roads;
The crumbling structure is about to fall, flames shooting out windows.
In our small town, three-hundred people
Are listening to the scanner because we can’t be there,
But our family and friends battle, wearing air
Compressors and safety equipment from 2002.
Twenty years outdated.
Other poets write about grief and hand holding,
The ache of winter trees bending with wind,
Ch...
2022-06-1303 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThree Big Pieces To Building a StoryHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
Story is basically a sequence of events, right? And to create a story you have to put that sequence of events together in a way that’s going to jive to the reader or for the reader.
To do that you need scenes, which make up that sequence of events.
A scene is t...
2022-06-0806 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorHoles and VettesHoles and Vettes
Bar Harbor. Maine. 2022. A baseball field.
Corvettes line up in rows, engines still
For once and owners preening
From their folding chairs, legs poking
Into the same grass that supports Life
Flight helicopters in emergencies
And soccer cleats. This earth withstands so much.
It’s a yearly gathering that’s paused two years
Thanks to global disease, but now the drivers
Are all maskless and showing off
Their cars to locals who wander
Between the lines, marveling.
“I will never be rich e...
2022-06-0603 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorKing Kong TrollsHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on, and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
King Kong Trolls
The self-appointed
writer-guru
on Substack
with four-
thousand
devotees
to his biweekly
missives
has decided
th...
2022-05-2302 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorWriters Get Addicted to Things Not Just Drugs and Booze and CoffeeHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
Sometimes us writers become a little stylistic. We get addictions. We might fall in love with the ellipses or certain words. Or, we might forget things like what a comma splice is or—gasp—what a sentence is.
Yes, I said it.
Sometimes writers forget what it is to make an awesome senten...
2022-05-1807 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorLonelinessLoneliness
He is known as he enters the emergency room, jeans sagging off his waist as an orderly ambles
To meet him. He is hunching at the precipice between lobby and hall, intake and bathroom, and
Ready to be seen. It is hard to be seen these days in a little Maine town full of tourists
If you are Old. It is only easy right here, right now, in the liminal space before becoming
A patient. We watch him totter, trying to decide. Go in? Stay out? Become
2022-05-1603 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorBored and aching, I just wanted someone to love me. A dog poemHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
"Bored and aching, I just wanted someone to love me."
We were visiting Mom’s best friend,
An aunt who wasn’t an aunt,
S...
2022-05-0903 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorMourning
We walked by a grave that late spring day,
And there were no clouds, as if God had refused to cast the sky
With bit players. We thought of you as a tractor drove by;
—You had loved tractors, laughter, play.
Mourners claimed the tractor was a sign
That you were here with us in spirit somehow
Embodied in a John Green tractor with a plow
And some of us believed and inhaled the pine
Smells of Ne...
2022-05-0201 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe Big Scary Fear Monster Is Really the Rock Star of Your NovelHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
One of my favorite writing exercises is super simple. I take a bunch of novelists and ask them:
What is your protagonists more afraid of happening than anything else in the whole freaking universe?
We authors talk a lot about what our characters wants are, their yearnings, their goals, but we often forget about th...
2022-04-2704 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorEvery Day, a poemEvery Day
The puppy galloped through the garden
While the Fed-Ex guy told me about how
His brain was fried. People keep offering
Me beer, he says. They say they’ll hide it
in my water bottle, but one accident
and I’ll lose my job. God, I need it though.
The tourists make everything harder as they walk
Down the center of the streets. Cruise ships
Anchor in the harbor. One has a giant slid...
2022-04-2501 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorDon’t Be Chunky – Put Your Dialogue in ParagraphsHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
It’s a super quick writing tip again today. Ready?
When you’re writing dialogue, make every new speaker a new paragraph. If you’re writing kids books? You might as well just keep each dialogue a paragraph of their own?
Why? Our brains are wired to read each paragraph as a new spea...
2022-04-2008 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorCondoms in Easter Eggs Saying Yes and A Little Sex TalkSome things you just don’t want to say yes to like say passing out condoms in Easter eggs at your kids school, but other times? You do want to say yes.
Improvisational comedians and actors know that every time they go up on the stage with no script, they are vulnerable.
What if they just stand there and no ideas come?
It’s the same as writers looking at a blank page. Or podcasters staring at an empty sound file.
But with improvisers, they can ask the audience for ideas.
2022-04-1913 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorCelebrityHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
"Celebrity"
Your life could be hated so much.
Once celebrated, you must know the joy—never.
Sitting by the sky’s vastness,
Listen...
2022-04-1801 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorQuick Grammar Break Some Day vs SomedayHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
No lofty talk about exposition or your story’s theme this week. Instead, we’re going back to basics with an easy grammar tip.
Some day (two words) vs. someday (one word). It’s a debate that happens on the page over and over.
Here’s how it works.
Someday (one word...
2022-04-1303 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorMAKE FRIENDS LIKE YOU ARE A DAMN FLAMINGOHere’s the thing: A lot of us are lonely. Really lonely.
And making friends? As an adult? It can feel kind of scary.
Why does this matter? Well, Sherri Gordon on Very Well Mind cuts right to the chase:
“Research shows that after the age of 25, most adult friendships start to dwindle.1 Of course, some of this has to do with changing jobs, getting married, moving, and even having children.
“Forming meaningful relationships may be harder as you get older, but it’s well worth the effort. Good friendships have a myriad...
2022-04-0511 min
Let's Get Digital with Carrie CharlesThe Legal Side Of 5G — Collaboration Is Key With Kevin JonesSmart cities are the thing of the future, thanks to the immeasurable power of 5G. These advanced urban centers are built not just with a wide understanding of cutting-edge technology but also the legal side of the project. Proper collaboration with city heads and councils is a significant part of this process. Joining Carrie Charles is Kevin Jones, a partner at Zublatt & Jones. He explains the intricacies of building smart cities powered by 5G technology and the right approach when presenting proposed plans. Kevin also talks about the impact of smart city technology on various industries and what can...
2022-04-0525 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorNo One Wants To Admiti! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
No one wants to admit that the moment they are home alone,
They start singing show tunes or childhood hits,
Pretending the crowds are adoring as they s...
2022-04-0402 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe RetouchHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
The Retouch
They take me
And blot away all the flaws.
A sun spot becomes plain flesh.
A wrinkle vanishes.
The eraser moves...
2022-03-2801 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThree Hot Tips To Make Awesome First PagesHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
Carrie has been talking to a lot of her authors lately about the beginning of their stories and how to make them awesome. And Carrie has a lot of tips for the writers she works with, but we’re going to be fast here.
Make it Tense AF
You don’t want to mak...
2022-03-2304 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorSpringHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
This poem is (I think) part of me delving into a character of a young adult novel work in progress.
Spring
My nerves are ja...
2022-03-2103 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe Simplest Writing Tip to Make You a Better WriterHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
Here’s a really simple writing tip to make you a better writer.
I (Carrie) talk a lot to my writers about distancing words, which are words in writing that keep the reader away from the action. Those are words like:
Saw,
Heard,
Noticed,
Smelled,
And they take away from the immediacy of t...
2022-03-1606 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorWhen Your Father Isn't Your FatherHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
This morning when I planted
An apple tree in the backyard again
Because the last had been crushed
By the weight of bea...
2022-03-1402 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorOde To Another NightingaleHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
Ode To Another Nightingale
“My heart aches,” he says as if that will change her mind.
He quotes Keats, memorizes it the way others memorize song lyric...
2022-03-0702 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorNever Shut Up: You Get To Write History TooHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
What is your story? Really? It’s more than you’re a writer. You’re a citizen of your community, your country, your world. You might be a certain race, religion, a sex (or not). You might have a faith, an economic status, a job. You might have hobbies, traits.
But you might not think yo...
2022-03-0209 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorGabby Dog PoemHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
GABBY DOG POEM
There can be no doubt,
her fluffy, furry, slobbery self
was meant to save us just not
the...
2022-02-2801 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorOther Ways to Find the Theme in Your NovelHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
So, over here on WRITE BETTER NOW, we’ve had a three-post series about how to develop your theme and what the hell even in a theme and blah, blah, blah.
This last post is really just focusing quickly on how to develop your theme.
Step One:
Think what the hell...
2022-02-2310 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe AppleHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
The apple fell to the ground
joining the others; rotting
had already begun the way it does.
We all fall and crack.
On the wi...
2022-02-2202 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorI lost my book's damn theme now what do i doHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
Last week on our podcast we talked about theme, and we’re going back there again.
We know! We know! So scary. Why risk it again? We risk it for you, dear listener. Like a matyr-parent from the early 2000s, we’re writing your college essays and yelling at the soccer coach and doing the wo...
2022-02-1609 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorParent Not ExpectedHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
Parent Not Expected
I know nothing about the weather
I was born in or how the sky whispered
or stormed. I know nothing
about...
2022-02-1402 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThe LettuceHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
The Lettuce
Again this summer
I’ve forgotten to harvest
the lettuce that we planted
when the ground was barely workable,
warm enough t...
2022-02-0702 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorEverything Makes Us ScaredHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
Everything Makes Us Scared
The professor and his wife argue about the party though they love
each other. Chairs are meant to be wher...
2022-01-3103 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorNo More Nodding in Books - Writing Tips About Making You A Better WriterHi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us.
One of the big things that Carrie sees in stories a lot is nodding.
Here’s what it looks like:
Shaun nodded. “I agree that’s a lot nodding.”Carrie nodded in affirmation. “Yes. There really is.”For a moment they sat there and then Shaun smiled. “You want to get out of this excerpt and...
2022-01-2607 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorHiding Your Boobs Is Your Body Language Your Own Worst Friend Six Hot Tips About Better NonVerbal CommunicationFriends, sometimes your body is putting out a message that you might not want out there.
What am I talking about?
Well, here we go.
Shaun is a big, tall, broad-shouldered, thin-lipped man with large eyes and a large presence. When he crosses those strong forearms across his trunk and stands against a wall at a party, he is definitely sending a message to everyone glancing his way.
And what’s that message?
Go away.
Carrie is a short, buxom woman who tends to hug her purse to...
2022-01-2516 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorA Wish, a Grammy Barnard PoemHi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include:
My spoken voice
My raw poems.
Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on and I hope that you can become braver this year, too!
So, this week I’ve decided to read one of my grandmother’s poems instead.
Full disclosure: I have a lot of grandmothers and they are all dead a...
2022-01-2402 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorPOT BROWNIES IN THE SENIOR CENTER AND LIVING WITH INTENTION WITH THE ROCKLately, a lot of Carrie’s writers have been talking about how they want to write with intention and that always makes Carrie’s brain hitch a bit, which is why we’re doing this podcast, a slightly deep dive into intention.
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, intention means
the thing that you plan to do or achieve : an aim or purpose
And over at a site all about spiritual wellbeing appropriately called Blissful Light,
Intention is probably one of the most essential parts of healing, abundance, manifestation, personal and spiritual development.
Whoa, right? Tha...
2022-01-1816 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorYou Aren't Allowed To Write About Me“You Aren’t Allowed To Write About Me”
If by aren’t allowed, you mean you forbid it, then who are you to forbid?
If by write, you mean think, tell stories, try to understand, to recreate
you in a way that isn’t such a jackass,
I’m sorry, but you can only be improved,
and you’re missing out.
The you on the page is so much better than the you in life.
If by me you mean just you, I’m sorry,
but stories (even ch...
2022-01-1702 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorKissing Under the Dung Twig and The Glaring Woman at the Grocery StoreThis week in honor of the holiday season, we’re going to talk about a time Carrie did a very Carrie thing at a grocery store in Ellsworth, Maine. It will eventually relate to books, we promise.
The Carrie Story
One day in the grocery store line a lady behind me dropped her bag of Cheetos.
I picked them up.
She dropped her box of Wheat Thins.
I picked them up.
She dropped her onion. It rolled over to me, shed some purple skin, and hit my foot. I smiled. I picked it up. I gave it to her...
2021-12-2120 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorBomb in Your Bum and How to Punctuate Dialogue Part ThreeThis is it! Our final installment in how to punctuate dialogue like a boss
And we’re talking about questions and quotations in dialogue because why not fry our brains a little more. Are you ready? And as a reminder, our last two podcasts also talk about this, so you should check them out.
Let’s start with . . .
Questions and Exclamations in Dialogue and there is not dialogue tag or beat.
They are just standing out there all by their lonesome.
When this happens, you just put the question mark...
2021-12-0717 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorBigfoot Fights, Trailer Sauce, Florida Man Pizza and How Not To Write FlatA lot of writers will worry that their stories seem flat. There’s a reason that they are worrying about that and it’s one of the core elements of good writing.
Ready?
You want to vary your sentence structure.
Take a bit of writing that you’ve done that feels flat—or maybe even one that doesn’t. Count the words in your sentences for two or three paragraphs.
Are they all five words? Twelve? Twenty-seven?
That robotic sameness in sentence length is one of the main reasons that writi...
2021-10-0521 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorWe are TOO Angry to Podcast Plus So Many Ways to Work on the Plot of Your Story(Carrie) was at a conference one time and hanging out with a bunch of celebrity young adult authors. One author said he wrote everything down in an outline form first.
Another author said that she wrote expressly to the Save the Cat beatsheet.
And I said, “I just kind of write.”
They gasped. I ordered a drink with actual alcohol in it and another writer saved me by saying, “I, like Carrie, just write after doing decades of research in a dark and lonely hole in my basement drinking only Post-um mixed with grape...
2021-08-1036 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorDude, don’t nod. Four major writing mistakes that are easy to avoidHere in the Land of Writing Advice, we try not to lay down too many edicts because edicts are prickly things, but we’re going to put out four quick bits of writing advice that make you look a little more cool.
Let’s get started.
Nodding in acknowledgement.
If you’re a writer and you write:
Carrie nodded in acknowledgement. “Yes,” she said. “I do want to someday ride a manatee.”
The reader/editor is going to think, “What the what?”
A lot of writers worry that the reader is...
2021-06-2919 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorFlorida river monsters and it’s not writer’s block. It’s writer’s burnout.It’s 2021 and people are burnt out. There’s COVID-19. There’s political strife. Systemic bigotries and biases. There’s meanies at the grocery store and there’s that never-ending effort for some of us to pay for food, shelter, and health care, right?
On Carrie’s blog, http://www.carriejonesbooks.blog, she talked about how you can burnout on self care even, but also how writers seem super susceptible to burnout and why she was a bit burnt out for awhile. All the podcast notes (they don't all fit here) are there!
First, let’s put some defi...
2021-04-1321 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorNaked Lady in the Drain and Why Authors Should Show and Not TellSo a lot of writers get rejections that say, “Show, don’t tell.”
And then they are left wondering, what does that even mean?
And then everyone uses the Chekov quote, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
That’s because writers and editors like to quote other writers and editors because it makes us sound:
Pretentious. Cough. I mean intelligent!
Like we know what we’re doing.
DEFINITIONS TIME
Showing is what it sounds like. You are showing what’s happening...
2021-03-3021 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorBear in the Outhouse. Chapter Titles and YouThis week on Carrie’s blog, carriejonesbooks.blog, she’s talking all about chapters and so we’re talking about them on the podcast, too, because Carrie’s controlling like that.
And what we’re talking about specifically is chapter titles.
You can divide your books into chapters and just label them numerically, 1, 2, 3… But you can also give them a title like:
Chapter One
Surviving the Podcast
Here’s the thing.
Chapter Titles Help Your Readers
How do they help your readers? In a lot of ways.
2021-03-2320 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorTrophy Husbands and Don’t Only Think About the Money, Think About the CreationIn our random thought (not transcribed here), we talk about
Being a trophy wife
A woman finding an abandoned apartment behind her bathroom mirror
Another couple finding a hidden basement in their rental home.
SO A LOT OF MEDIUM ARTICLES AND BLOGS FOCUSED ON WRITING ARE ALL ABOUT:
How to increase your audience
How to make 60-trillion-dollars a year off your writing.
How to be like James Patterson and make 90-trillion-dollars a year.
But all of them seem to forget that writers are creators. Writers are people who make story and art (not just to...
2021-03-0923 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorFlorida Man and the semicolon is too sexy for its own goodOkay, recently I’ve been working on a lot of people’s stories that are fantastic except for one thing—one easily fixable thing—they have semicolons everywhere.
The semicolon is that little bit of punctuation that looks like there’s a comma on the bottom and a period topping it. And judging from people’s use of it? It’s an addictive, sexy beast.
Most people think they understand the semicolon. It’s a period topping a comma, right? You use it to do something or um … yeah …?
Here’s the thing, a semicolon is a divid...
2021-02-0223 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorIt Doesn’t Matter If The Rock Retweets YouOkay, you all. We know this is harsh, but it’s truth time. Life isn’t about random interactions. Success isn’t about it either.
When Carrie became Andrew Yang’s Twitter friend, it made her super happy, but it didn’t actually do anything for her. When the Rock retweeted her tweet about disabilities…
Full disclosure: Carrie has no depth perception and also has epilepsy.
…but when that happened? It was cool because it was the Rock, but it didn’t make her suddenly more successful or cooler.
The Rock would never remem...
2020-12-0116 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorIs Passion a Bad Choice? A Job A Career or a Calling.This week during the blitz of U.S. election news, there was an article gaining some traction called “Seven Life Lessons Everyone Should Learn Sooner Rather Than Later” by Nicholas Cole who Carrie wants to call Nicholas Cage because she is old like that.
Carrie has a tendency to hate these kind of articles because she thinks they are trite and insipid.
But his first point hit home. It was, “If you want to ‘do what you love,’ you have to work three times as hard as everyone else.”
N.Cole“Most people do not get to spe...
2020-11-1023 min
Teaching Math Teaching PodcastEpisode 27: Carrie Cutler and Math Positive MindsetsCarrie Cutler is an award-winning Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Houston. She talks about how being a parent of eight children has helped her become a better teacher of math teachers. She describes her journey to today, and offers good advice about being humble, creating routines, and maintaining connections with students.
Carrie's book is Math Positive Mindsets: Growing a Child's Mind without Losing Yours: Amazon link
Carrie Cutler on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_jdt7liCrGwCOkTM1Lowwg
Carrie's website: https://www.carriecutler...
2020-09-1728 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorWhy You Gotta Hate Like That Bad Guys In Our Writing and Our LivesThis week we’re revisiting the idea of bad guys in our lives and in our writing because lots of us actually have bad people in our writing and our lives. These antagonists run the gamut from people who make us scream at their Facebook posts of Fakeness to actually physically hurting us and our community. Politics is full of making the other party the bad guy. People at work tend to make other employees or bosses the bad guys. We make bad guys everywhere.
Sometimes we make entire groups of people the bad guy like this we...
2020-09-0818 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorTorturing Barbie: Archetype, Stereotype, or Cliché?n the past month, we’ve been talking a lot about archetypes and someone asked us what the difference is between an archetype and a stereotype.
So here you go, listeners!
FIRST UP, ARCHETYPES!
According to masterclass.com when it comes to writing an archetype is,
Masterclass“An emotion, character type, or event that is notably recurrent across the human experience. In the arts, an archetype creates an immediate sense of familiarity, allowing an audience member to relate to an event or character without having to necessarily ponder why they relate. Thanks to our i...
2020-07-0729 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorJokes, Stuffies, Imposter Syndrome, And Using Your Weirdness for Good, An Interview with Jose De La RocaHey! Welcome to a bonus interview episode of Dogs are Smarter Than People, the usually quirky podcast that gives writing tips and life tips. I’m Carrie Jones and with me today is podcaster, actor and definitely a writer, the amazing Jose De La Roca.
Jose has a new book out, START PODCASTING: THE SECRETS OF A RADIO BROADCAST ENGINEER.
Jose has more than 17 years of radio broadcasting experience and now he shares with you all the secrets he knows about podcasting.
Jose say he is a dad first, talking monkey second, and a w...
2020-05-0725 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorWild Poet Woman - How to Be a Poet with Fiona Cameron MackintoshHey! Welcome to a bonus interview episode of Dogs are Smarter Than People, the usually quirky podcast that gives writing tips and life tips. I’m Carrie Jones and with me today is
Fiona Cameron Mackintosh is a poet from Toronto and manages Elderwood Coaching who doesn’t believe in tame language for wild things, which is possibly the best thing I’ve ever heard.
What do we talk about? You'll want to listen but here's a heads-up:
Poetry. Why do you think people are so scared of it?
What was the fir...
2020-04-1730 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorHow to Conquer Writer's Block in the Time of CoVid-19So normally Carrie writes the podcast part of the podcast and this week she had no idea what to write. Should she write about Covid-19 and try to help people with things to do during their lock downs and times of social distancing? Should she totally ignore that and we go the other route with a happy, fun, dorky and totally non-informative episode? Should she cry?
It turns out that Carrie was thinking too much and giving herself writer’s block. Writer’s block is something Carrie never gets. So, she had to overcome it, right?
S...
2020-03-1719 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorRoad Rage When North Meets SouthThis week? Well, our podcast is not our normal format because we’ve been in the car for… um… Okay? Forty-eight hours?
Apologies!
So, this week we drove from Maine to Vermont to Maine to North Carolina to Maine. In North Carolina, we went to Shaun’s dad’s funeral and it was the first time that Carrie’s been in a Southern church. And we learn that there is an adult-themed section of Shaun's brain.
WRITING NEWS
LEARN WITH ME AT THE WRITING BARN!
The Write. Submit. Support. format is desig...
2019-11-2623 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorLicking The Kitten and Embracing VulnerabilityShaun: A week or so ago, someone told Carrie that she’d be better served if she didn’t present as insecure on her social media.
Carrie: For the record, I am just open about when I’m scared about things. I’m not sure insecurity is the same as fear. I mean, I guess it is to a certain extent. But I’m not insecure about who I am. I like who I am, an occasionally anxious, goofy, smart, creative, quirky, open-book kind of person. Does that sound like who I am?
Shaun: Pretty much.
Ca...
2019-10-2923 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorDon’t Dabble Writers, Commit. We Know What a Hyphen Is and That’s Sexy.Jared Leto is a somewhat polarizing guy for who-knows-what reason. He’s model-pretty, a vegan, an award-winning actor and a musician. And there’s this quote I (Carrie) read that struck a chord.
“When you commit to something that’s seemingly impossible,” he says, referring to ascents both metaphorical and literal, “and you’re pushing through things that are seemingly hostile, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, we did that,’ that’s a great feeling. And a little bit of pain isn’t a bad thing.”
Jared Leto to Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt
A lot of us writers whine a lo...
2019-10-0121 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorPassive Aggressive Much? And How to Become More Awesome in Just 30 Minutes a DayOver on the random thought part of the podcast, we hear about Carrie being passive-aggressive at the campground bathroom, Shaun sing, and random people at Smokey's Barbecue and Lobster.
But here is the more intellectual stuff. Um. Slightly more intellectual stuff?
This guy Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book Outliersand in it he outlines his belief that if you practice something for 10,000 hours and do that in a deliberate way, then you’ll become a top performer.
Who are the outliers? They are the best and the brightest.
We don’t want you to...
2019-09-0324 min
Dogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorOld Rockers Rocking, Trust Issues, and Carrie Still Gets Hit On SomehowAs you heard in our random thought, this week we went to see some early 1990s bands in concert. They were – well, they were old. The concert hall wasn’t even half full.
That sounds depressing, right?
It wasn’t. One of the lead singers has had cancer three times. His wife has had it once. They were both on the stage giving it everything they had.
And the lead singer?
He was smiling the entire damn time.
The Alarm at Portland's Aura
Here’s the thing. In life and in s...
2019-08-2721 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorCarrie Had an Accident and When Good Dogs Go BadSo, a long time ago Carrie had a dog named Scotty, and she used to fill in at the police department as a dispatcher. For those of you who don’t know, she dispatched part-time because even though she made enough money writing (right then) she got worried that:
Carrie's Worries
1. I will suddenly make no money at all
2. I need to build up social security benefits
3. I will forget how to interact with other humans if I’m always at home.
ONE DAY HER GOOD DOGS WENT BAD
2019-08-2022 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorPoop Texting FailSo, two weeks ago the podcast featured poop texting and writing, but somehow only our random thought was uploaded and not the full broadcast.
Carrie feels this may have been her mother refusing to allow such things be out in the open. She raised Carrie better than this, honestly. No decent woman from New Hampshire talks openly about poop.
Shaun feels Carrie just messed up.
WE’VE BEEN MARRIED TOO LONG AND POOP TEXTS
Sometimes you get married and you’ve been married for a long time and you remember that the b...
2019-07-1625 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorTHE TRUTH ABOUT BEING EXTRASo, sometimes Carrie is a little extra.
Carrie:I was looking at people who liked me in college - all the ones that I didn't like back - and they were all so stable and mellow even in college when it was all about putting dissected sharks on the floor and jello shots. Now they are all grown up and they are stable and mellow and have these beautiful upscale lives. They're doctors, lawyers, engineers.
Shaun:But you have me.
Carrie: Exactly! And I love you. I love that you are unexpected and fun...
2019-07-0924 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorFlirt Your Eyelashes Off WritersA quick web search for the words 'flirting' and 'dangerous' gets a lot of hits.
To be fair, so does a quick web search for the words 'flirting' and 'fun.'
But we're not here to tell you about the perils and delights of flirting. We're here to talk about writing, life, and dogs. Actually, flirting is part of most people's lives. But we're FOCUSING on the writing aspect.
Flirting is showing someone that you are attracted to them.Hall, Carter, Cody, and Albright, (2010).
If you've listened to the random thought portion of the...
2019-05-2120 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorMaking Bad GuysLots of us have bad people in our writing and our lives. These antagonists run the gamut from people who make us scream at their Facebook posts of Fakeness to actually physically hurting us and our community.
But one of the biggest questions a lot of new writers have is this:
DO I NEED A BAD GUY?
Yes.
But your bad guy can be yourself? Like in our random thoughts, Carrie is often showing that she is her own worst enemy. Watching tv gives her anxiety, but she almost always watches tv...
2019-03-0517 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorBoxers or Briefs or Commando How to Live a Literary LifeCarrie has been working on the Write Submit Support Class that she's doing with the Writing Barn and the whole class is about creating a writing community and supporting each other, right?
And one of the first classes talks about "Living the Literary Life," which is a phrase that she's honestly not super into because she spends a lot of her time just trying to convince people to live their own life let alone a life with a qualifier in it like 'literary.'
Some people think living the literary life is about relationships. Carrie t...
2019-01-2221 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorA Story Is About More than Mechanics and Grammar And Carrie Gets Tipsy By AccidentToo often we really focus only on the mechanics of story. Writers and student-writers are told to make perfect sentences, understand the use of the semi-colon, and to spell words correctly.
“Do not turn in a manuscript to an agent or editor unless it’s perfect,” is a pretty big industry standard.
Be perfect.
Write perfectly.
Have perfect grammar.
Have a perfect plot.
Spell everything perfectly.
Here’s the thing: Your story won’t ever be perfect especially if you’re working on it all by yourself. Do the best that you can. Spell all the words. But do not fret about i...
2018-12-1117 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorOur First Tip To How to Make Your Life and Writing Life BetterShaun: So, Carrie's not the best in the mornings and too much noise, clutter, extra to-do items pretty much throws her completely off her game.
Carrie: One of the reasons that the dogs and I do daily motivating thoughts on my Facebook and Twitter accounts is because it helps ground me and make me feel less cranky and stressed.... Usually. Shaun, however, is a morning person who craves noise and tropical music while I'm a Pachibel's Cannon morning person.
Shaun: True.
Carrie: So, this week's podcast is the first in a series of podcasts about how to make your life...
2018-12-0415 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorCow Hugging, Writing, Okay Cupid and Rural LegendsSo, honestly, this podcast is weird. We sound like we're on illegal drugs, but we aren't sure why. Our brains just weren't working. Sadly, Carrie's mouth wasn't either. Who else would call a 'podcast' a 'codcast?'
Anyway, we asked people for topics for our podcast. And people on Carrie’s Facebook were completely helpful.
Jon Hill wanted to know why there weren’t more palomino unicorns.
It’s an important question.
And some other people wanted us to talk about cow hugging. Matt Baya suggested we discuss this trend that started getting some big press in May 2018. Wellness is a 3.7...
2018-11-2622 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorStream Your Consciousness, Baby, Plus Shaun Goes FishingShaun: Two weeks ago we were hanging out at a friend's house and Carrie met a woman who was talking about writing, and how it helped her through some tough times and how she loved writing, but didn't think she could ever be one.
"It's all stream of consciousness," she said as if it was a bad thing.
This of course broke Carrie's heart.
Carrie: To be fair, my heart is easily broken. Like last week, when one of our friends said that Shaun is the best part of the podcast because he's funny and I'm trying to be informative...
2018-11-0617 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorThree Tips to Facing Your Writing FearsThis past weekend was sort of scary.
Carrie's worst case scenario of presenting happened. She was scheduled to give a four-hour seminar on public image, but when she arrived the place wasn't unlocked, there was no water, but worse- there was no A/V. It was not pretty.
And then...
We went to a party, a SNL-themed party, and because our friends are good at peer pressure and we were dressed as Spartan cheerleaders, we stunted and Carrie had to jump on Shaun's back in a short skirt (with modesty shorts!) and she was so nervous that she actually got...
2018-10-2318 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorIt's Book Release Day and Carrie Can't Handle ItIn the latest episode of "Dogs Are Smarter Than People," Carrie talks about Book Release Day, her lack of celebration ability, and explains what Conflicting Wants are and how they are good for story. Shaun disagrees. A lot.
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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carriejonesbooks/message
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carriejonesbooks/support
2018-08-1024 minDogs Are Smarter Than People via AnchorEpisode 2Join an internationally bestselling children's book author (Carrie Jones) and her down-home husband and their dogs as they try to live a happy, better life by being happier, better people . You can use those skills in writing and vice versa. But we’re not perfect, just like our podcast. We’re cool with that.
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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carriejonesbooks/message
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carriejonesbooks/support
2018-07-0614 min