Mommy's Pen

A writer's notes on family

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Archives for July 2018

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Episode 4: The Midpoint Shift (English Magic Edition)

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This week on the podcast we discuss Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanne Clarke and the story structure concept of the midpoint shift.

We are now available on Apple podcasts! As a new show, reviews are VERY important to help us grow. Please consider leaving a review. xo

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 1, Episode 4: Midpoint Shift

We review Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and geek out discussing our favorite characters. This episode’s art features Nora as Lady Pole for Halloween 2014 (all seven-year-olds choose to costume themselves as obscure literary characters, right?).

Sue explains what the midpoint shift is and why it’s her favorite piece of story structure. Nora creates brilliant sound effects to illustrate the character’s mindset change at the midpoint.

Read the full transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • The audiobook version of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell gets played on repeat at our house.
  • If you want to hear Neil Gaiman interviewing Susanna Clarke about the book, go here or here.
  • If you want to learn more about the midpoint shift and a four-act structure for stories, I highly recommend the work of Larry Brooks. You can see a list of his books at the Story Fix website.

This post was lovingly sponsored by our Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Episode 3: First Pinch Point

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This week on the podcast we discuss The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands and the story structure concept of pinch points.

We are now available on Apple podcasts! As a new show, reviews are VERY important to help us grow. Please consider leaving a review. xo

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 1, Episode 3: First Pinch Point

We review The Blackthorn Key, the first book is a fabulous Blackthorn Key Adventure series by Kevin Sands. For this week’s story structure lesson, Sue explains what a pinch point is.

You also get an entertaining rundown of Britain’s Restoration era from amateur historian, Nora. Incidentally, the art featured above for this episode is a Nora original in watercolor pencil. The gentleman William III (a nephew of Charles II).

Read the full transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • The audiobook version of The Blackthorn Key is excellent.
  • If you want to learn more about pinch points and a four-act structure for stories, I highly recommend the work of Larry Brooks. You can see a list of his books at the Story Fix website.

This post was lovingly sponsored by my Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

[Read more…] about The Mommy’s Pen Podcast — Episode 3: First Pinch Point

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Episode 2: Cleopatra & the First Plot Point

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This week on the podcast we discuss ancient Egyptian body odor and the story structure concept of the first plot point.

It’s twelve minutes of fun! Listen now…

We are now available on Apple podcasts! As a new show, reviews are VERY important to help us grow. Please consider leaving a review.

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 1, Episode 2: First Plot Point

Nora reviews Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile from the Royals Diaries series. Sue explains the function of a first plot point (FPP) and Nora takes a stab at identifying the FPP in Cleopatra and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Nora also clues us in on how ancient Egyptians handled body odor (hint: it involves snakes) and points to some great places to learn more about history.

Read the full transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • You can follow Mary Beard on Twitter and read her column “A Don’s Life” in the Times Literary Supplement. But please do yourself a big favor and head over to YouTube, search for her name, and start binge watching documentaries on ancient Rome. This woman is one of my heroes — a brilliant presenter AND totally unwilling to wear make-up or a bra while fronting programs for the BBC.
  • Horrible Histories started as book series and is now a television series in the UK. It’s bloody good fun and you can watch all the episodes on Hulu.com.
  • If you want to learn more about first plot points and a four-act structure for stories, I highly recommend the work of Larry Brooks. You can see a list of his books at the Story Fix website.

This post was lovingly sponsored by my Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

[Read more…] about The Mommy’s Pen Podcast — Episode 2: Cleopatra & the First Plot Point

Announcing the Mommy’s Pen Podcast!

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What could be better than sharing a passion with your kid? Nora (age 11) and I love to talk about books and what makes a good story, so we decided to start a podcast so everyone else can listen in.

So, go ahead!

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

We’ll be on iTunes soon, but in the meantime, you can add us to the Apple podcast player manually by navigating thusly:

Shows—>Edit—>Add a Podcast by URL—>https://anchor.fm/mommyspen

Show Notes:


Season 1, Episode 1: Inciting Incident

Nora reviews My Name is Victoria, a historical middle grade novel by Lucy Worsley, including her take on the inciting incident of the novel. We also fight about Lucy W.’s eyebrows and whether or not she has the help of a ghostwriter for her novels. (I mean, holy cow, if she doesn’t, this woman is good at everything and insanely productive. She’s also a historian, the Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces in Great Britain and a well known presenter for the BBC.)

We also discuss our plans for the podcast: we’re gonna talk about books, stories, and story structure. Specifically, in each episode we’ll discuss some aspect of story structure. This time around, it’s “inciting incident.” This is an event that thrusts a character into a particular situation and sucks a reader into a story.

Read the full transcript.

Other things we mention that you may want to check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • The Penderwicks Series by Jeanne Birdsall
  • More from Lucy Worsley at her website, including all her fabulous work with the BBC.
  • If you want to know more about story structure and don’t want to wait for the next podcast, I highly recommend The Story Grid website, book and podcast.

This post was lovingly sponsored by my Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!).