Shows / Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Welcome to the world of creative writing and story mastery with Maxwell Alexander Drake and Marie Mullany, your guides to Releasing Your Inner Dragon. This author podcast is a treasure trove of writing tips and advice, sparking inspiration and ah-ha moments for every stage of an author’s career. Drake, an award-winning novelist and creative writing teacher, brings his experience from the gaming world and beyond, while Mullany, author of the Sangwheel Chronicles and YouTuber, shares her…
Episodes
Releasing Your Inner DragonThe secret to applying plot devices well: PART 2!
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss the plot devices, their use in fiction writing and how to make even a stale trope seem fresh again. Writer's…
Releasing Your Inner DragonYou're Using Plot Devices WRONG - Here's How to Do Better
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss the plot devices, their use in fiction writing and how to make even a stale trope seem fresh again. Writer's…
Releasing Your Inner DragonHow to Write Fight Scenes: Avoid Common Writing Mistakes
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss the ten mistakes you make in writing combat scenes! Writer's Room: https://writersroom.mn.co/ Membership for…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writing with dreams and flashbacks and telling?
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss dreams, flashbacks and when showing might become too much and maybe you should try telling... Or not. Writer's…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writing with allegories, when does it work and what makes it fail.
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss writing fantasy stories that contain allegories. They'll talk about when it works well, when it doesn't work…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Making believable fantasy worlds & characters
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss multiple point of view characters, when to use them, which characters to pick and how to tell a story that…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Plotting a Novel: How to end your story
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss plotting the second book in the Skies of Destiny series. In this episode, they work through the final act and…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Plotting a novel - Think like the Villain
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss plotting the second book in the Skies of Destiny series. In this episode, they turn their thoughts to a…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Mistakes writers make in creating tension and how to fix them
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss the different kinds of tension you can use in a story, in a scene or in a chapter. They cover the common…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Unresolved themes are a problem
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss the problem with accidentally introducing very heavy themes into your world and then just not addressing them…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Plotting a novel - Sometimes the better ending requires major changes
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss plotting the second book in the Skies of Destiny series. In this episode, they hit their heads against a wall…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
The problem with inflicting nothing but misery on your characters
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss why they've stopped reading some of the grimdark authors out there and why readers lose faith with authors who…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Plotting a Book - Make Sure you like your tropes!
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss plotting the second book in the Skies of Destiny series. In this episode, they explore various potential…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Making believable fantasy worlds & characters
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss what believability in fantasy and sci-fi. Follow along as they plunge into rabbit holes about building…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Plotting a Book - Transitioning from Act 1 to Act 2
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss plotting the second book in the Skies of Destiny series. In this episode, they focus on what you need to make…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writer's Craft - Chapters, Scenes and Dialogue
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss what makes a scene, what makes a chapter and how to punctuate dialogue. Give us feedback at…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
One hundred hours spent on the craft of writing
Send a text Edit: Had a snafu with the upload (because of course), if you're hearing the previous episode repeated, try to get the episode again. Join Drake…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writer's Craft - Punctuation for Prose (because it is important)
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as the discuss punctuation including commas, semi-colons, em-dashes, sentence structure, paragraph structure and…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Plotting a Book - Character Motivation and Story Threads
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss plotting the second book in the Skies of Destiny series. In this episode, they focus on the call to adventure…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writing a story: But why do I have to do that?
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as the discuss the orphan trope, how to write dialogue and when to summarize. They don't just list the rules, but plunge into…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Plotting your Second Book - Magicfall 2
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as the discuss how to plot a sequel to your first book. This is done by means of plotting Skies of Destiny's book 2, the…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Live Edit: Attach the reader to your character and theme delivery
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they edit a piece of flash fiction sent in by a regular viewer. They'll discuss the theme of the piece, and the importance…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Starting a Story - Plots and Characters
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss where plot ideas start, how to refine them, deciding on characters and other elements of storytelling. Give us…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Advanced Writer's Techniques: Filtering & Disguising Info-dumps
Send a text Join Drake and Marie in discussion of providing information to the reader in a way that feels organic and keeps the threads of immersion going!…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Live Edit: Your Point of View
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they edit a brave soul's submission to the podcast! They discuss the importance of choosing the right point of view and…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Leading a project and other musings
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they talk about working with other writers, how to lead a project, and how to be a good team member. They'll also wander…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Scenes, Hooks & Selling your Books!
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss the most requested user topics: How to hook a reader, how to construct a theme and how to go to conventions…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Live Edit: Set the Scene (and magic bread)
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they edit a brave soul's submission to the podcast! They discuss setting the scene and using ticking clocks. They also talk…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Live Edit: Do not bury your theme
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they edit a brave soul's submission to the podcast! They discuss the importance of the opening line, when strong verbs are…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Keeping track of your plot - We complete Magicfall
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss story bibles, world building notes and the process of writing Magicfall, which is now complete and ready for…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Giving your plot room to breathe
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss the problem of overstuffing a plot, moving too fast, and not giving character moments the gravitas they…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Editing AI - Why Chat GPT can help, but can't write
Send a text Last time we spoke about writing with the help of AI, we never did get to the editing part. So today, we're going to focus on editing a piece…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Live Edit: First Person Narrative Voice
Send a text One of our listeners sent us a thousand words to edit. Follow along as we discuss first person voice, both omniscient and limited. We talk about…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Good Dialogue vs Bad Dialogue - How to write better
Send a text Join Drake and Marie in a discussion of good dialogue vs bad dialogue and how to write better dialogue that serves the story! Give us feedback at…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
More techniques for Showing and Not Telling
Send a text Join Drake and Marie in a discussion of similes, metaphors and subtext in dialogue, as well as some world building easter eggs! Give us feedback at…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Connecting the Reader to the Character
Send a text Join Drake and Marie in a discussion of connecting the reader to the character in writing fantasy, why it matters, how to do it and strategies for…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Can ChatGPT Write?
Send a text Drake and Marie talk ChatGPT and analyze its writing. They also discuss copyright, the use of AI in world building and plot development. Then they…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Creative Collaboration: The best parts and the dangerous parts
Send a text Drake and Marie talk about the collaboration process on their book, Magicfall. Join them as they discuss what works great and what can be a…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Listener Q&A: Horror, Mystery, Many Characters and more...
Send a text Drake and Marie answer listener questions about managing a large cast of characters, the difference between writing for a novel vs writing for a…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Live Edit: Show Don't Tell
Send a text One of our listeners sent us a thousand words to edit. Follow along as we discuss showing versus telling, how to recognize it and how to fix it. If…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Plot outlines: How to, benefits & pitfalls
Send a text Drake and Marie talk about creating plot outlines, different plot beats and how to use them, the pitfalls of creating an outline and the benefits…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Live Edit: Plot, tone & saving the cat
Send a text A brave listener has sent in a thousand words to edit. Join Drake and Marie as they talk plot, story tone and saving the cat moments for otherwise…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writer's Craft - How to write dialogue in stories
Send a text Drake and Marie talk about writing dialogue, how it differs from people just talking and when not to use dialogue. Give us feedback at…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Things we hate in prose...
Send a text Drake and Marie discuss their pet peeves and the thing they most wish authors would please, please, please stop doing. Give us feedback at…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Standard Punctuation, prose structure, tertiary characters and other dialogue writing tricks.
Send a text Drake and Marie discuss standard punctuation for dialogue and when to break it. They delve into what tertiary characters can do for you and when to…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Starting Your Story - World building and Character Introduction
Send a text Drake and Marie re-visit starting your story and introducing your characters. They talk about how much world building is too much, how much is…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writer's Craft - Making the reader care about the character
Send a text Drake and Marie re-visit some aspects of the writer's craft, most especially those related to making the reader care about the character. They…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writer's Journey - Maintaining relationships and how to keep writing
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss how to keep a healthy writer vs other people balance in your life, how to make sure you keep writing and what…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Making your world feel lived in
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they talk about how to make your world feel like a place with history using world building, writing techniques and even…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
A plot comes together... Magic Falls Act 2 (second half)
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they finalize Act 2 of the novel Magic Falls from the Sky. But wait for the end because suddenly a new plot idea hooves…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Fleshing out Act 1 & 2A - Magic Falls
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they flesh out the outlines for the story of Magic Falls. What do you think, do the two acts sound interesting? Give us…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Head book vs Paper Book
Send a text We all write two books, the one in our heads and the one on paper. And sometimes, what's in the head never makes it to paper. Join Drake and Marie…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Introducing your character
Send a text Introducing a character is possibly the hardest part about writing. Characters are what people latch onto and why they keep reading the story. But…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Why everyman moments matter
Send a text Sorry for the late upload! Blame it on the holidays. And speaking of, we won't be releasing a podcast over Christmas and New Years :) But don't let…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Arguing Plot Points - Magic Falls
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they argue the merits of various plot and world building ideas for the story of Magic Falls. What do you think, should they…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writer's Journey: Trails and Tribulations - Copyright and Other dire dragons
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss protecting your work, the DMCA laws, what happens if you breach your Kindle Unlimited contract (knowingly or…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
How to create a plot outline - Magic Falls
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss taking the idea of a story to a detailed plot outline. We'll take you through an example of our process for…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Finding Inspiration - Using folklore and public domain content
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss how to use folklore and public domain content in your story. Then watch as they dive down the rabbit hole of…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Writing a Villain POV - Should you do it?
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss writing from the villain's perspective, when it works and what the pitfalls are. Give us feedback at…
- Releasing Your Inner Dragon
Creating tent poles for a story - Magic Falls
Send a text Join Drake and Marie as they discuss plotting out the tent poles you need to hold up the canvas of your story. This continues the story creation…