The Agile Writer – Page 7 – Greg Smith: Novelist and Coach

June 26, 2017

The Art of Incubation

At Agile Writers we’ve been reading Sage Cohen’s book “Fierce on the Page.” Each week one of the writers will take the book home and read a chapter and digest it down to one page. Then, they return the next week and share what they learned and we talk about how it applies to our writing in general and what […]

Greg Smith Articles 0 1 min read

June 24, 2017

Fail Fast

Greg Smith Agile Writer News 0 1 min read

May 29, 2017

The Idiot in the Room

There are a number of ways to expose information to the reader: dialog, letters, news reports, and flashbacks are just a few. But by far the best way to expose information to the reader is to have someone close to the hero who doesn’t understand what is going on. I call this “the idiot in the room.” When you want […]

Greg Smith Character 0 1 min read

May 20, 2017

The Problem With Star Wars

Star Wars has been a phenomenally popular movie franchise. The original Star Wars came out in 1977 and was an instant success. But when I first watched it, I was not impressed. My first impression was that it was the King Arthur legend in outer space. Even at the age of 14 I had expectations of my science fiction adventures. […]

Greg Smith Character 0 3 min read

April 22, 2017

Non Standard Plots: A Dog’s Purpose

At Agile Writers we adhere to The Hero’s Journey as laid out by Joseph Campbell in his seminal work The Hero With a Thousand Faces. We also take lessons from movie plots and combine them into the Agile Writer Method. The Hero’s Journey has a standard pattern. The hero starts out in a familiar world where things are pretty static. Then something […]

Greg Smith Plot 0 2 min read

April 12, 2017

Conflict

What is Conflict? I’m sure we have all heard or read that you cannot have a good story without conflict. But what exactly is conflict? In a word….EVERYTHING! That’s right. No conflict no story. However, if you must have the technical version, the dictionary defines conflict as “a struggle or clash between opposing forces.” Most likely your character have a […]

Guest Blogger Structure 0 1 min read

March 26, 2017

Avatars: Your Ideal Reader

Recently at Agile Writers the topic of what is “allowed” in certain genres came up. In particular, a couple writers are working on Christian Inspirational fiction and wondered what words or topics were taboo. In that genre, readers are very sensitive to words that are perceived as “swear” words. Our own Cat Brennan related a story of how a Christian […]

Greg Smith Articles 0 3 min read

October 20, 2016

Query Tips from an Agent

Very few, if any, authors look forward to writing the dreaded query letter. And honestly, who can blame them? After spending countless hours alone and staring at a computer screen crafting what will eventually become your novel, your baby, you have to condense all of that hard work into just 3-5 paragraphs. You have just ONE PAGE to get […]

Guest Blogger Publishing 0 5 min read

October 5, 2016

FIRST DRAFT FINISHERS!!!

Agile Writers has become the go-to place for writers in the Richmond area. Offering seminars in screenwriting, publishing, marketing, rewriting and much more. Nevertheless, majority of writers still join with one main goal in mind: to complete their first drafts. With that being said, Agile Writers would like to congratulate three of its own for crossing that first draft finish line. A […]

Guest Blogger Agile Writer News 0 4 min read

September 14, 2016

Agile Writers Spotlight

One of the great things about Agile Writers is the members. Agile Writers brings together a diverse group of people that range from college student to retiree, from editor to healthcare worker, and everyone in between. Each month the Agile Writers Spotlight will shine the light on one of these great people to hear their thoughts on writing and what […]

Guest Blogger Agile Writer News 0 2 min read

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