PODCAST · fiction
Inking Neon: Light Up Your Stories
by Stuart J. Tanner & Cullen McHael
Inking Neon lights up your imagination, blending readings, author interviews, and book recs with the hard-earned insight of two writers who’ve spent decades teaching and creating. It’s where the craft of writing gets electrified and ideas shine brighter. If you’re chasing inspiration, this is your sign in lights.
Episodes
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Olivia Atwater and the Bad Case of Received Wisdom
What to do when your writing professor offers advice you don’t like? How to handle an agent’s suggestions? What is the most useful advice you’ve ever gotten and what are some of the worst pieces of advice bouncing around the writer world—bad advice that just won’t die? Taking criticism is hard...
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Blindsight—The Best First Contact Novel?
In 2006 Peter Watts published Blindsight, a darkly creative and hugely popular sci-fi novel about first contact. We’re reacting to this classic, appreciating its themes, and trying to extract lessons for ourselves as writers. How do you challenge your readers with really creative ideas without...
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Why Is Dungeon Crawler Carl So Good?
Matt Dinniman’s breakout best seller is certainly popular, but is it good? We explore 7 reasons for its runaway success and try to extract some lessons to apply to our own writing. Jump on the ride and let us know what you think we missed! The book itself:...
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How to Sustain a Long-Running Series with J.A. Merkel
In episode 7 of Inking Neon we sit down with author J.A. Merkel to discuss sustaining energy in a long running series, and techniques for building emotional realism. J.A. Merkel is the author of The Fall Gauntlet, a gladiatorial science-fantasy series. Pick up your copy of Bear by J.A. Merkel…
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Writing Found Family with Sill Bihagia
Author Sill Bihagia reads from her book Red Demon and shares insights about how to find your family in science fantasy, what’s next in the world of mushroom brain science, and loads more. Join us and explore the craft of storytelling (and mycelia social networks)! Pick up your copy of Red Demon…
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A Protagonist Worth Rooting for with Nicholas Atwater
Swashbuckling adventure author Nicholas Atwater joins us to share hard-earned insights learned from writing his book, Echoes of the Imperium. We discuss how to make your protagonist interesting in more than one way, and also how most great things come from spite. Well… most of our great things.…
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The Great Plot VS Pants Debate, Round 1
Stuart says you’ve got to plot your stories. Cullen isn’t so sure! Maybe you can just fly by the seat of your pants? We lay out our arguments in the (timeless?) Pants vs Plot debate. Also featured: Joseph Cambell was a moron; is Save the Cat worthless?; the creativity of David Lynch; and examples...
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Great Antagonists, From Nurse Ratched to Big Brother
Stuart J. Tanner and Cullen McHael trade examples of compelling antagonists in speculative fiction from Sci-Fi to Fantasy, deconstruct the role of the antagonist, and offer advice from hard earned lessons about how and when to consider your antagonist in your writing process. Cullen lists nine...
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The Fight for Compelling Fight Scenes
Stuart J. Tanner and Cullen McHael share hard-earned lessons about getting your fight scenes right. 0:00 Intro 1:34 What are Fight Scenes For? 10:00 The Fun Element 11:00 Problem Solving 14:39 Scaffolding, Worldbuilding, and Playing With Rules 24:22 The Great Challenge: Clarity 28:25 Examples of...
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Discovering Characters With Stuart J. Tanner
On this first episode of Inking Neon, journalist, author, and teacher Stuart J. Tanner is sent to Baghdad at the height of the Iraq occupation and discovers that and other strange worlds. We discuss what makes for compelling characters, the process of investigation in writing, and read from...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Inking Neon lights up your imagination, blending readings, author interviews, and book recs with the hard-earned insight of two writers who’ve spent decades teaching and creating. It’s where the craft of writing gets electrified and ideas shine brighter. If you’re chasing inspiration, this is your sign in lights.
HOSTED BY
Stuart J. Tanner & Cullen McHael
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