On December 31, 2022, Kasie and Rex were live in the studio rehashing the year and preparing for 2023. Here are the show notes:

Theme for the day

Best of 2022

Agenda

• Topics List
• Interviews & Guests
• Top Tips & Best Advice
• Goals for 2023

We have never done a last-day-of-the-year show so consider this your Write On SC Wrapped where we revisit some of our best episodes by topic, tips, and guest appearances.

Topics:

• Beginnings
• Flash Fiction
• Heroine’s Journey
• Literary Devices
• Origin Stories
• Rejection
• Seven Basic Plots
• War
• Writers’ advice to other writers – including Writing Class No Nos (Ep 184)

What we’ve accused writers of:

• Being lazy (Ep 184)
• Being Tech Savvy or not (Ep 182)
• Recycling old plots (Ep 180)
• Being unable to take rejection (Ep 188)
• Relying on cheap literary devices (Ep 190-194)
• Having voices in their head (Ep 196)
• Being envious of other writers (Ep 200)
• Not displaying professionalism (Ep 201)

What we’ve tried to help writers do:

• Assign a plot structure to the story (Ep 208-211)
• Infuse tension into every story (Ep 206 & 207)
• Write scary stories (Ep 199 & 205)
• Build conflict (Ep 197)
• Leverage literary devices to twist paragraphs, pages, and whole stories (Ep 190-194)
• Be patient with backstory (Ep 186) and re-writing (Ep 187)
• Employ overlooked characters like fools (Ep 181) to avoid conformity (Ep 179)
• Identify a hero’s journey (Ep 176) and choose between long- and short-form fiction projects (Ep 175)

We did 40 numbered episodes, 2 special episodes (Carolyn Hartley and Jerry Dean Pate) and had three guest-host episodes, Dr. Thaddeus Jones (twice) and Dr. Anna Courie.

What we were able to do in 2022 (metrics):

• Published fewer posts – 43 this year, 48 in 2021, 58 in 2020
• Visitors to the website – 959 this year, 749 last year, but 1,155 in 2020
• Top post: Episode 173 (Stupid shit other people pass off as how to write)
• 2 new patrons – Mike Lee (as an individual, not the SCWA) and Treb Courie

Best advice from 2022:

• Make time to write – this was in Episode 172. Writers sometimes lament having no time to write, but it’s a matter of making time to write.
• Other good advice from that episode: Join a critique group, read your work out loud, learn to take feedback.
• See yourself as a writer – this was Episode 173. If you think of yourself as a professional, you’ll act like a professional. It’s a job which means there are some parts that aren’t as fun as others.
• Also from that episode: think reader-first. If you’re writing to publish, you have to think of your audience. What do they expect? What do they want? How will they find you?
• Don’t over explain – this was from Episode 174. This is about trusting the reader. That said, some readers will redirect your book to be the one they want to read, not the one you intended to write, so be careful there.

Write short stories – this was Episode 175. They’re selling, they’re being read, and they’re a good way to practice your longer form work. A lot (a LOT) of novice authors jump into novel writing without the specific skills needed to craft a long work. Let short stories be your classroom.