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Because she’s not some drugged up doper or anything like that, but shivers have taken control of her whole entire body because it’s cold, cold, cold in Bar Harbor, Maine and it isn’t even winter yet. Because she’s huddled behind the dumpster outside of Geddy’s. There’s a giant lobster claw at the front part of the restaurant and a massive moose on top of the ceiling because that’s what gets the tourists. Fake moose. Broiled monster lobster claws, red with death and sprinkled with white Christmas lights. Because it gets to be too much, huddling there against the cold and the sun’s rising over the Porcupine Islands, so she gets up. She gets up and she heads out to the wharf where all the lobstermen tie up their skiffs, so they can get out to their moorings. The wharf’s not much of anything really, just a lot of pilings holding up a parking lot and then there’s some docks holding the skiffs. WE get Because she runs out there because sometimes no matter how cold you are, running makes you warmer.  It only works until you stop, though. When you stop running, the sweat against your skin turns you even colder. That’s why she usually don’t stop running. Because she does today. She does today because today she is cold, cold, cold all the way into her capillaries. Today she is cold, cold, cold all the way into the roots of her teeth. Because it’s not winter. Because it will only get colder. Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy. While Carrie only posts poems weekly here, she has them (in written form) almost every other weekday over on Medium. You should check it out! https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

A quick ramble about setting. Writers, you need it. You might not want it. You might not be good at it, but setting is like a good fart. Sometimes you have to expel a little gas out of your rectum in order to be your best. All the notes for this podcast don't fit here, but you can find them over at Carrie's main blog. Hey, thanks for listening to Write Better Now. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in us, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

Back in 1862 Duchenne De Boulogne noticed that certain muscles in our face engaged whenever we were joyous. It was an involuntary reaction of our cheek muscles, the zygomatic major, and the orbicularis oculi. That’s a muscle right in front of our temples and below our eye. And when those cheek muscles and that special little muscle engage? That’s when we smile. The weird thing is this is a human universal. It happens all over the world despite gender, sex, culture, race, etc. The weird thing is that if we make ourselves smile like this, with those muscles engaged, we actually usually start to feel happier. The process reverses. There’s a guy who teaches the Introduction the Art of Happiness at a Harvard X class, Arthur Brooks, who has an experiment where you take a pencil and hold it between your teeth and you keep it there for 45 seconds. Do it. Seriously. When you do this you flex those muscles in your cheeks and your heart rate starts to decrease and your stress in your body? It starts to release. What does that mean? It means that happiness is a shared condition of humans around the world. It means we can see happiness expressed in people’s bodies. And finally, most importantly, we can actually make ourselves feel happier just by doing that easy dorky experiment where we hold chopsticks or a pen between our teeth. How cool is that? Brooks believes that “happiness is something that grows in us when we give it away,” and also that “happiness doesn’t just happen to you, you can manage it.” DOG TIP FOR LIFE Manage your happiness! Work for it! Wag your tail. Grab a stick. It’s awesome. LINKS https://learning.edx.org/course/course-v1:HarvardX+happy+2T2021/block-v1:HarvardX+happy+2T2021+type@sequential+block@dd8f672ef4ca4f44879ffd7ea4a38956/block-v1:HarvardX+happy+2T2021+type@vertical+block@049cf8336845451eb71bed94ecf75623 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2319446/ https://nypost.com/2022/05/19/topless-mom-in-her-undies-rescues-pet-goose-from-bald-eagle/ SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

Myths About Presidents 26. He didn’t Ride A moose. The photo is fake Like a lot Of presidential things. 16. He dreamt His death, Found himself Waking in a coffin And asked who Was dead In the White House. Dream mourners said, “The president.” He denied the dream. Nobody listened. The story was too good. 9. He stood At the podium, Sworn in And speechifying For 8,445 words In the cold Of March. He died A month later Of pneumonia Linked to His pontification It was actually bad water At the White House. He’d been drinking shit. 1. His teeth were made of wood. But really they were just so old And stained they looked that way. 27. He did not get stuck in the tub and need Six men to yank and yank and yank him free. 35 He didn’t call himself A jelly donut in German. 45. His toilet Is not Gold. He is not Christ. Or Even the Opposite. 46. He is Poor. 1. He apparently Could not Tell A lie Unlike All the others Who could Not Tell The truth. Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy. While Carrie only posts poems weekly here, she has them (in written form) almost every other weekday over on Medium. You should check it out! https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

Showing details in your writing isn’t just some annoying comment that agents, editors, and writing coaches and teachers paste into every student’s work. You can see it now, right? Big red letters. Loopy script. Maybe an exclamation point.  Join us as we give you a couple hints about how to do that.  All the podcast notes and links are at carriejonesbooks.com There's a ton of writing tips and all sorts of wildness over there.  These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in us, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

Cognitive bias is a big deal because it's keeping you from making the right decisions. This is the start of our five-part series (of awesome) for a weird look at the types of bias and Shaun scoffing at all of them in a judgmental way.  Hey! All our show notes and links are here. https://carriejonesbooks.blog/podcast/you-are-so-biased-so-how-do-you-stop-it/ Please like and subscribe because it's a nice thing to do. And we'll love you forever.  SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

These firefighters show up at a hotel fire, maybe Started in the laundry room during the off season, hoses Frozen from winter temperatures, ice across roads; The crumbling structure is about to fall, flames shooting out windows. In our small town, three-hundred people Are listening to the scanner because we can’t be there, But our family and friends battle, wearing air Compressors and safety equipment from 2002. Twenty years outdated. Other poets write about grief and hand holding, The ache of winter trees bending with wind, Charleston’s harbor, celebrations and tiny pains. I sit here, listening, ineffective, useless. I once fought fire. Nobody believes that Though I have photographic evidence. I even Used to dispatch emergency calls, take fists to the face, Witness hate and rage that never made the scanner. Twenty years outdated. The firefighters work so hard to save that building, But the roof collapses, only the foundation remains. The thing is that building has burnt before. Twice. They keep reconstructing it though, refusing to admit defeat, Vaguely rethinking the design. After a couple months Nobody even remembers what it was before. When I was little, I used to dance, even got paid For it. Nobody believes that either. Or that I reported sports Taught gymnastics, was even a church secretary. I don’t fit Any of those notions people have of who I should be. Twenty years outdated. Sometimes we rebuild only after everything has collapsed, After burning walls fall outward to the snowy ground. Sometimes There are witnesses. Sometimes there is only lonely horror as our structures crumble. Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy. While Carrie only posts poems weekly here, she has them (in written form) almost every other weekday over on Medium. You should check it out! https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

Hi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us. Story is basically a sequence of events, right? And to create a story you have to put that sequence of events together in a way that’s going to jive to the reader or for the reader. To do that you need scenes, which make up that sequence of events. A scene is the basic unit of a story, and there are two main types of scenes: The scene The sequel Dwight Swain wrote a book called the Techniques of a Selling Story, and he basically defined them this way, “A scene is a unit of conflict lived through by the character and reader.” There are three big pieces there: A conflict Lived through Character and reader In a scene there needs to be conflict, immersion so your reader can relate to what’s happening to the character and LIVE THROUGH that character. To have a conflict, you need to have a goal for your character so that something can obstruct it and your reader can worry. It all makes sense, right? Swain goes on to say that a scene must: Be interesting Move that story forward He then writes that in order for a scene to make the story progress, “it changes your character’s situation; and while change doesn’t always constitute progress, progress always involves change.” And in each scene you need to have: Goal- what the character wants (to own something, to be free of something, revenge) Conflict (something keeping your character from that goal) Disaster (Swain calls this the “logical yet unanticipated development that throws your focal character for a loss.” Cool, right? The sequel is what happens after that scene. It connects one scene to the next, Swain says. It’s a transition. And its goals are to (in his words): Translate the disaster into goalTelescope realityControl the tempo It’s here that decisions are made. It’s here that the protagonist reorients themselves. It’s here where the protagonist has to find answers and possibilities and deal with what just happens and turn it into a new goal. And it often involves a bit of summary or exposition. And these sequel/transitional places control the tempo of a story because they give the reader a tiny bit of a pause, slowing down the pacing. I’ll have more about scenes in my substack. The link is below and also here. Hey, thanks for listening to Write Better Now. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in us, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze. For exclusive paid content, check out Carrie’s substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

No More Elvis and the Cost of Alienation There's a high cost to being alienated from our society.  Full notes on carriejonesbooks.blog --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

Holes and Vettes Bar Harbor. Maine. 2022. A baseball field. Corvettes line up in rows, engines still For once and owners preening From their folding chairs, legs poking Into the same grass that supports Life Flight helicopters in emergencies And soccer cleats. This earth withstands so much. It’s a yearly gathering that’s paused two years Thanks to global disease, but now the drivers Are all maskless and showing off Their cars to locals who wander Between the lines, marveling. “I will never be rich enough To own one,” says a man in a black t-shirt to a guy with a firebird red model. “I thought that too,” The guy says. “Work hard. You’ll get there.” The first man moves to run A finger across the car’s hood. The owner flinches like it’s some kind of assault. “Try hard,” he repeats. “You’ll get there." We all try hard To get there, Inventing monologues Of worth based on materialism, Who owns what, how shiny Our skins are, our hair, our cars, Houses. We pretend like any of this Fills up the holes we dig inside ourselves, Inside the ozone, inside the earth. Darkening faces, Double visions. Horror. The Vettes represent adventure And freedom. Not being beholden Despite the car loans required, The interest rates. The American Debt. “There are eight Generations of car here,” Says an organizer With a yellow sunhat Perched on her head. “This is the car of dreams.” American Dreams. And that’s the thing. Have you ever hit your head On a poem or a wall Or something else hard And realized that your dreams Aren’t actually yours? Have you ever felt like you’re falling Though you are standing still on a field Surrounded by excess and shiny paint Jobs and pride, merciless, assaulting, And begged for stable ground Before realizing you’re just making holes, too. Maybe the holes are in a ball field, Or in the Earth or the ozone Or maybe—just maybe—in your own damn heart. Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy. While Carrie only posts poems weekly here, she has them (in written form) almost every other weekday over on Medium. You should check it out! https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

First, we should define point of view just in case you need a refresher. Truth is, we all often need a refresher even when we don’t want to admit it. Point of view is all about who is talking and/or telling the story. YOUR NEXT QUESTION IS: IS THERE ONE NARRATOR OR MANY? AND WHO THE HECK IS IT? That’s really one of the first questions you want to think about. You have to decide if you’re going to have just one point of view in your story or a lot. A lot of our stories follow one character scene after scene after scene. Things that happen to the story happen to this character. We are invested in that character pretty heavily. But sometimes, the story is about a person one but not told by that same person. This makes us a little more  worried that Person One might not make it through the story because our subconscious brain thinks, “Um, why isn’t Person One telling the story? DO THEY DIE?!?!” Or sometimes the events of the story happen to a ton of people. Think of that zombie story that became a movie. We have a lot of different narrators because there we want to show all their stories. Then, you have to decide which of the main point of views you want to use. They all have good points and bad points, but let’s just set you up with the big three. Each can be determined by the personal pronouns that the narrator uses. First-Person Point of View. This is the land of I. It’s all about me. It’s all about my story. Here’s an example. I went to the hospital and brought pizza. Second-Person Point of View. This is all about you, you, you. Yes, you. You went to the hospital and brought pizza. Or to some cooler You went to the hospital, bringing pizza with you. Third-Person Point of View This is all about them and her and him. It can be omniscient or limited omniscient. Here’s third person limited Sadie went to the hospital. “I’m bringing pizza,” she thought. I hope they like it. Or third person omniscient where you aren’t directly in the characters’ heads with internal monologue but know everything about everyone. Sadie went to the hospital, a pizza box carried in her steady arms, the smell of pepperoni whisking around each person she passed, the orderly, the struggling father, the mother with the heroin-track arms, the gunman. He would kill for that pizza, but how could she know that? To be fair, right now he’d kill for anything and nothing. There you go! There is also a Fourth Person Point of View, but that one would require its own podcast. So we’ll try to get there next week. Hey, thanks for listening to Write Better Now. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in us, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Mr.ruiz and the track is Arctic Air and the album is Winter Haze Summer Daze. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support

Hi! This year (2022), I’ve decided to share a poem on my blog and podcast and read it aloud. It’s all a part of my quest to be brave and apparently the things that I’m scared about still include: My spoken voice My raw poems. Thanks for being here with me and cheering me on, and I hope that you can become braver this year, too! King Kong Trolls The self-appointed writer-guru on Substack with four- thousand devotees to his biweekly missives has decided there are no more geniuses, really, not any more. Someone needs to tell him that he just doesn’t know where to look. The geniuses aren’t banging their chests, King-Kong like in their glory despite being ground dwellers, telling the world, “Look at me! Look at me as I roar and pontificate.” They are the discarded, dreaming, creating, thinking outside the main streams of plagiarized discourse, unnoticed beneath the giant feet of oversized apes capturing all the attention as our culture dangles from their plump, hairy digits. Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support. The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy. While Carrie only posts poems weekly here, she has them (in written form) almost every other weekday over on Medium. You should check it out! https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carriejonesbooks/support