Episode 127

What is a Writers' Fiction Roundtable with Laurel Thomas

In this episode, Chris and Gena welcome award-winning author Laurel Thomas to discuss the concept of Writer's Fiction Roundtables. Laurel shares her journey from nonfiction to fiction writing, highlights from her novels, and her approach to developing compelling characters and themes. They delve into the structure and purpose of her roundtables, emphasizing their inclusivity and the benefits for both new and experienced writers. The episode also details how these roundtables fit into the Writing Momentum membership program, which supports writers with live events, recorded videos, and discussions.

  • 00:00 Introduction to the Writer's Fiction Roundtable
  • 00:38 Laurel Thomas: From Nonfiction to Fiction
  • 02:24 Crafting Compelling Characters and Themes
  • 04:24 The Art of World-Building in Fantasy
  • 07:29 Introducing the Writing Momentum Membership
  • 08:33 What is a Writer's Roundtable?
  • 10:07 Creating Safe Spaces for Writers
  • 12:11 Deep Dive into Characterization
  • 16:47 Inclusivity in Writer's Roundtables
  • 20:27 Nonfiction Writers and Storytelling Techniques
  • 22:51 Join the Writing Momentum Membership
  • 23:33 Conclusion: Writing Together for Momentum

LINKS:

Transcript
Gena:

What's a Writer's Fiction Roundtable?

Chris:

Our friend Laurel Thomas can help us figure that one out.

Chris:

All right, welcome!

Gena:

Welcome Laurel!

Gena:

We're so thrilled to have her back with us today.

Chris:

We're so good to have you here.

Chris:

We've had you on this podcast before and it's always been so good.

Chris:

And how are you doing?

Laurel:

Great, great!

Laurel:

I'm so happy to be on board with you two and excited about talking about some good

Laurel:

stuff that's gonna move writers forward.

Chris:

Yeah, absolutely.

Gena:

Yeah.

Gena:

Well now, Laurel, you are an award winning author.

Gena:

Tell us about what is the, what is your,

Chris:

your specialty,

Gena:

your specialty?

Laurel:

My special sauce.

Laurel:

Well, you know, I was a nonfiction writer for probably 25 years and then,

Laurel:

and, oh, if I give you too many dates, you'll figure out how long I've been

Laurel:

doing this, which is a long time.

Laurel:

But, uh, when I started fiction, I thought, oh, I would love

Laurel:

to start writing novels.

Laurel:

You know, I thought, how hard could it be?

Laurel:

I've written for many, many years, it can't be that hard.

Laurel:

Yeah, it was hard.

Laurel:

It was a whole nother world, a whole nother learning curve.

Laurel:

And now that I made it, I'm very glad that I did, because I love storytelling.

Laurel:

It's probably my favorite thing in the world.

Laurel:

So, I started with River's Call, which was my first debut, uh, coming of age.

Laurel:

It's just the sweetest little story about a young girl who lives in

Laurel:

Mississippi, and kind of a loser girl.

Laurel:

And I practiced, everything I knew I put, which, you know, was kind of a laboratory,

Laurel:

put into that novel, then continued on this fantasy series, which I'm finishing

Laurel:

up the third one of that series, because I had these big ideas about

Laurel:

our gifts, and how did our gifts, look?

Laurel:

I mean, you know, what did they look like?

Laurel:

Just ordinary people.

Laurel:

And why were they so critical for our world?

Laurel:

And so, I don't know, somehow they landed in fantasy.

Laurel:

And so I had "When Stars Brush Earth" and "Stones of Promise" and then "Her Name is

Laurel:

Gatekeeper" will be coming up pretty soon.

Gena:

Oh, that's fantastic.

Gena:

I love what you're talking about there, and I've heard you talk about this

Gena:

before, where you've talked about the themes of your books, that that is a lot

Gena:

of times what drives your, your books.

Gena:

You start with the themes or you start with some kind of inspiration and

Gena:

then you kind of go, well, what would this look like in this fantasy world?

Gena:

And, can you talk about that initial idea and how you bring that to life?

Gena:

I think that's so fascinating.

Laurel:

Sure.

Laurel:

You know, each one of them have begun with just a seed of an idea.

Laurel:

I'll just throw out Gatekeeper since it's the one I'm working on.

Laurel:

But I, uh, I've always been fascinated by Rahab in the Book of Judges.

Laurel:

I really want to meet Rahab.

Laurel:

I think she was such a cool lady.

Laurel:

And, you know, she was really an unlikely gatekeeper.

Laurel:

You know, God's people needed to get across into the promised land,

Laurel:

and yet there was this ginormous victimizing culture that stood

Laurel:

between them and that promise.

Laurel:

So, I thought, it would be very cool to write a story

Laurel:

about an unlikely gatekeeper.

Laurel:

And so, Giselle kind of came out of that.

Laurel:

And of course, every one of these ideas, even though they seem kind of lofty,

Laurel:

kind of cool, they have to be framed in a good story with compelling characters.

Laurel:

So, you know, it's It sounds kind of easy for me just to say, ah, you

Laurel:

know, gatekeeper, but it's taken time to craft a riveting story with a,

Laurel:

you know, with a main character who's very flawed and who really fights

Laurel:

against everything that's going to set her free and others in the process.

Laurel:

So, um.

Laurel:

Yeah, I, I guess you have to be a novelist to enjoy that kind of

Laurel:

thing, but it's kind of my ice cream.

Gena:

Well, and with fantasy as well, I'm so, I admire fantasy writers so much

Gena:

because they are not only creating great characters, they're not only creating

Gena:

great story and plot, But they are having to create the setting from scratch.

Chris:

Yeah, you're creating whole worlds.

Gena:

You're creating worlds and universe, universes and, um, social structures that

Gena:

are not, you're having to just create that and then create this story within that.

Laurel:

Yeah.

Laurel:

Yes.

Laurel:

And probably mine are not, uh, they're pretty light fantasy.

Laurel:

So when Stars Brush Earth is actually hooked into a historical

Laurel:

period of time, um, in, it was pre industrial England, basically.

Laurel:

Um, and so I like to frame my fantasy with some realism.

Laurel:

Um, I know there's a name for that.

Laurel:

I'm trying to think of it.

Laurel:

Um, but anyway, I like to hook it into something that is familiar.

Laurel:

And it seems for me, it seems to attract non fantasy, uh, readers.

Laurel:

You know, I don't know that, like, um, I have a lot of fantasy writing friends.

Laurel:

Um, but I, I really, my audience, I would like to reach outside of that

Laurel:

group and grab people who want to think about maybe an idea in a new way.

Laurel:

Um, and then of course, with the supernatural element, um, it, it,

Laurel:

fantasy is very conducive to dragons and, you know, manifestations of,

Laurel:

you know, You know, evil, but is, but also manifestations of good, you know,

Laurel:

of the power of gifts that we carry.

Laurel:

So, yeah, I, I, I do love fantasy and I love Tolkien and C.

Laurel:

S.

Laurel:

Lewis, um, but I do try to root mine somewhat into, um, a time period or

Laurel:

a setting that is based in reality.

Chris:

Yeah, and I kind of like that because that, you're right, it helps

Chris:

people who maybe aren't normally fantasy readers to go ahead and feel like,

Chris:

okay, this, this novel is grounded.

Chris:

It's grounded in something I can identify with, right?

Chris:

I like historical fiction or just like regular everyday fiction.

Chris:

And then when you throw that, um, that fantasy element in there, that

Chris:

supernatural element in there, you're able to craft it in such a way that people

Chris:

are just able to go along with it and go, Okay, yeah, I can see this, right?

Chris:

This is only one step maybe removed from, from the reality that I know,

Chris:

and that's kind of cool, and so they'll just go with it, and it becomes

Chris:

just a very fun experience, yeah?

Laurel:

Yeah.

Laurel:

That's the plan?

Gena:

Well, you do it well, and we're so excited because you are

Gena:

one of our newest trainers in the Writing Momentum membership.

Chris:

That's right.

Gena:

So we are so excited to introduce you to the people who are, you know,

Gena:

people who are listening to this podcast or watching this podcast, but

Gena:

also to our members in our membership site, which for those of you who

Gena:

are, um, not familiar with that, we, we just started a membership site.

Gena:

We've just opened it up and it's, uh, only 25 a month.

Gena:

We've worked really hard to make it.

Gena:

very affordable for everyone.

Gena:

But Laurel is coming on and she, her specialty that

Gena:

she's bringing is her writers roundtables, which are for fiction.

Gena:

And so tell us about those.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

And these are, these are live events too.

Chris:

So we have a lot of training there in the membership that's recorded video

Chris:

and we are recording your roundtables.

Chris:

But when you do your roundtables, they're live when you do them, so

Chris:

people are actually able to come and participate and be a part of this, right?

Chris:

So yeah, tell us, first of all, what is a writer's roundtable?

Chris:

Because I suppose I could hear that word in I think it's

Chris:

10 different things, right?

Laurel:

So true.

Laurel:

So it is a type of forum.

Laurel:

Um, but it's not, it's more than a discussion forum.

Laurel:

So I have combined a number of elements.

Laurel:

Um, there is, I offer teaching on a specific craft element, every round table.

Laurel:

And then we open to discussion and question questions

Laurel:

about that craft element.

Laurel:

And then often if people want to, we will apply that craft element and, and share

Laurel:

our writing and share feedback on it.

Laurel:

So it takes a little bit of courage, you know, to go to that third step, but

Laurel:

actually that's the step that I love.

Laurel:

And so, yes, it's very relational.

Laurel:

It's very, um, uh, yeah, I mean, it's not really.

Laurel:

I think I've done small groups for so many years, and I love the fact that

Laurel:

you, we are really in a group of people who you can't plan their responses,

Laurel:

we can't plan their questions, and yet every time, by the time we finish, I

Laurel:

feel richer as a writer, and, and I feel like it's a platform that's really

Laurel:

effective, um, for writers, not just for community, but also for their skill.

Gena:

Absolutely.

Gena:

I have been to a few of your round tables and I'm looking forward to coming

Gena:

to more of them because, Chris and I talked a few weeks ago in our podcast

Gena:

about finding safe spaces as writers.

Gena:

As we are growing in our writing craft and in understanding publishing and

Gena:

understanding marketing, that we find these safe spaces where we can learn

Gena:

without judgment or, or harsh criticism.

Gena:

And I, that is so evident in your round tables.

Gena:

When I have come, I've heard, um, you're very gracious.

Gena:

You know, you've got experienced writers there.

Gena:

You've got new writers there and you, everybody is included and everybody is

Gena:

welcome and everybody is free to share.

Gena:

So, I commend you on creating a safe online space where people can come

Gena:

and learn what are really very, um, there are times that when you've done

Gena:

these, the ones that I have been to, these are not just beginner elements.

Gena:

These are, this is that rich side.

Gena:

This isn't just the storytelling 101.

Gena:

This is the We're going to dive a little bit deeper into what does your, you

Gena:

know, the one we went to yesterday, and we're going to be talking about

Gena:

this on an upcoming episode here, but about that internal life of your

Gena:

character, creating, understanding the layers for your character.

Gena:

That's not something that you begin with when you're just

Gena:

starting to write fiction.

Gena:

So, yes.

Gena:

So, I am so thankful that you do that.

Gena:

Can you give us some ideas about, I talked about this one, the internal

Gena:

life of, uh, a, of your characters.

Gena:

What are some other topics that you've touched on as you've done these?

Laurel:

So I, I would like to think that my special sauce is taking very difficult

Laurel:

concepts and breaking them down in such a practical way that, that we can, you know,

Laurel:

because I am made that way, basically.

Laurel:

So the last one that we did was really fun.

Laurel:

We, it was all about characterization, and we usually do like a, in a

Laurel:

unit, so we'll do several sessions about developing characters, but we

Laurel:

were like, you know, you can build your own character bank, right?

Laurel:

I mean, think of the most interesting people that you know.

Laurel:

And it was like, you know, we're not going to use names.

Laurel:

This isn't going to be slanderous.

Laurel:

This is just interesting people.

Laurel:

And we talked about, you know, how did they, how did, what does

Laurel:

their exterior layer look like?

Laurel:

Like what's their personality, their opinions?

Laurel:

What does it just, what do they look like when you first meet them?

Laurel:

But then, let's investigate, what's that inner layer?

Laurel:

What, what would be their motivations maybe about life, or goals, or dreams?

Laurel:

But then the really fun part is the hidden part.

Laurel:

And the part that, you know, you really have to speculate on as a writer, or

Laurel:

Get to know as a friend, because we all, we all have those three layers.

Laurel:

And so when we become self aware and other aware, it helps our writing.

Laurel:

You know, it helps that, you know, one of our ladies talked

Laurel:

about this guy who came in.

Laurel:

He was homeless and, you know, he needed a haircut and she was like,

Laurel:

Sure, I'll give you a haircut.

Laurel:

Well, she started talking to him.

Laurel:

Nobody else wanted to cut his hair.

Laurel:

You know, she said he, he was brilliant and he had fallen upon hard times and

Laurel:

he just had this wealth of knowledge and was just incredibly witty.

Laurel:

So, you know, all of these things.

Laurel:

We have in our own lives that we can draw on and become our

Laurel:

own personal banks, so to speak.

Chris:

Yeah, I could see how you could draw an entire story just out

Chris:

of what you just said there, right?

Chris:

I mean, that seems like the seed of a really good novel.

Gena:

Here's that homeless person who has this witty sense of humor.

Chris:

And a hairdresser is, you know Discovers his potential.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

It gets my creative juices going.

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

So now let's pretend though that we were in your round

Chris:

table, your workshop for this.

Chris:

So you, you, you start off the workshop, you've given a little bit of training

Chris:

and teaching and then, and then you kind of say, okay, we're all going to put pen

Chris:

to paper now and maybe write a scene.

Chris:

Is that the kind of idea?

Laurel:

A lot of times we don't do that until like the end.

Laurel:

So we end up talking about that concept like I was one of

Laurel:

our characterization sessions.

Laurel:

We talked about formative childhood memories.

Laurel:

And so they all just wrote down the first childhood memory that came to mind.

Laurel:

And so they just wrote that down.

Laurel:

And whoever wanted to could share.

Laurel:

But usually we talk about the concept, we answer questions, we give

Laurel:

examples from, a lot of times I'll give examples from other stories that

Laurel:

I've read, or they'll give examples.

Laurel:

And then, um, then we will do the application probably at the

Laurel:

end or even in another session.

Chris:

That's really good though, because that allows you to have time to marinate

Chris:

with it and really think about it.

Chris:

And, and not only, not only what do you think about it and what do

Chris:

I think about it, but what do other people in the room think about this

Chris:

topic so that it can kind of help change the way we think about it too.

Chris:

And maybe see things that we hadn't seen before because it

Chris:

becomes this collaborative effort to learn about this topic, right?

Chris:

Yes.

Chris:

And through that collaboration, then suddenly it's like, oh,

Chris:

I've got a villain in my story.

Chris:

And he has no backstory, right?

Chris:

He has no layer.

Chris:

I, I've given them no layer.

Chris:

So now I realize I've got to weave that into who my character is.

Chris:

And it makes your story so much richer.

Laurel:

Exactly.

Laurel:

Any level of person you can do that, you know, it's a matter of going back

Laurel:

and weaving some of those things in.

Gena:

Now, Laurel, what about the brand new writer who is saying,

Gena:

I don't want her to call on me?

Gena:

Yeah, they're the student that wants to sit at the back of the classroom.

Gena:

They want to sneak in after it's already started and just sit

Gena:

there and listen and absorb.

Gena:

Are they able to do that?

Laurel:

You know, of course, but this is, okay, this is funny

Laurel:

because just observing writers.

Laurel:

It doesn't take long for them to get over that because we want to talk,

Laurel:

we want to say what our story's about or, you know, I mean, generally

Laurel:

writers want to communicate.

Laurel:

So I, I know that I have some people, you know, just after speaking

Laurel:

in conferences who would like to come, but are too shy to come.

Laurel:

I know that exists.

Laurel:

But once they get in, we, we do our best as a community to just be embracing

Laurel:

the fact that we are creatives who are on maybe not the same path, but

Laurel:

we're on a path that we love together.

Laurel:

And it makes us kind of a tribe.

Laurel:

It kind of makes us a community.

Laurel:

And so, and we don't really read that much, Chris, of the, I mean,

Laurel:

unless people want to share something written, but they don't have to.

Laurel:

And that's kind of a way out for people if they are like, yeah, I don't

Laurel:

want to, I don't want to do that.

Chris:

Share things if you want, or if you don't want to be vulnerable

Chris:

that day, you don't have to.

Chris:

You, this, Again, goes back to the idea that this is a safe space.

Chris:

You can come, you can learn, you can participate as little

Chris:

or as much as you want.

Chris:

But this is, you know, I love about this is that I have been in course writers

Chris:

conference classes that are kind of like this, but they usually can't get

Chris:

that in depth because they don't, you know, they're not continual over time.

Chris:

They're just, you know, a 45 minute session that you go to at a conference

Chris:

and then you're onto the next thing.

Chris:

This is deeper than that.

Chris:

But I've also been to college courses, to get master's in writing and that

Chris:

sort of thing that are like this.

Chris:

You sit in a group and you discuss these very rich techniques and really

Chris:

get a deep understanding of what they are and, um, boy, that's, that's so

Chris:

great that, yeah, that, that we have access to this and that you're willing

Chris:

to teach some of these things because I think that's just, uh, it's so, so good.

Gena:

Well, and I love the fact that you're doing, uh, you

Gena:

said you're doing units, right?

Gena:

Where you're maybe talking about characterization over a few meetings

Gena:

because for some, uh, for many introverts, they have to think about it, right?

Gena:

They, they talk, you talk about it one week, maybe they don't say

Gena:

anything, but throughout the week it's going through their mind and

Gena:

their processing so that then when they come back next week, if you're

Gena:

still talking about characterization, they're going to be like, well, they

Gena:

might be willing to pipe up because they've had time to kind of flesh it

Gena:

out in their minds and articulate it.

Gena:

So, uh, I think that's a great thing too, that there are these units and what a,

Gena:

I mean, you're talking about if you do two, that's two hours of study of a topic

Gena:

like this, of a fiction craft principle.

Chris:

That's also interactive.

Chris:

It's not just talking at you, right?

Chris:

It's, it's receiving back and forth.

Gena:

Yeah.

Gena:

So that's beautiful.

Gena:

But let me ask you, how can, so I know we've got some nonfiction writers

Gena:

out there who are listening who are going, well, that's not for me because

Gena:

I'm a, I'm a nonfiction writer.

Gena:

Go ahead and tackle that one because you were a nonfiction writer.

Laurel:

Yes, I mean, I've been doing Writers Roundtable for, since COVID,

Laurel:

so we have nonfiction writers, a good mix, and I kind of struggled with

Laurel:

that, but then I realized, you know, Melanie Hemry really mentored me,

Laurel:

and I, I believe that storytelling techniques enrich any style of writing.

Laurel:

And we have people writing memoir which lends so well to storytelling

Laurel:

and inspirational self help, which is always made, I think, more relatable

Laurel:

with storytelling at least, you know, segments throughout the manuscript.

Laurel:

So we don't, yeah, I think that we do pretty well, you know, with that mix.

Laurel:

Um, But, you know, people would just have to come on board

Laurel:

and see if it was helpful.

Laurel:

I, I think that the craft elements lend well to either or both.

Gena:

Well, yes, and I know Melanie, who's also a friend of ours, uh, she has

Gena:

taught on this podcast about using fiction elements in her non fiction because she

Gena:

does use that quite a bit, and story is such an important part of nonfiction.

Gena:

I mean, I, I write primarily nonfiction.

Gena:

Chris does quite a bit of, he's done everything, but

Chris:

a little bit of both

Gena:

a little bit of both, but those story elements are so powerful

Gena:

for nonfiction and so necessary because you're going to have some

Gena:

readers who may not remember what you taught them, but they will

Gena:

remember the story that you told them.

Gena:

And that story is where the nugget is.

Gena:

That's where the teaching comes.

Gena:

And for that type of learner, that's where they're going to, they're

Gena:

going to glean that, what they need.

Gena:

So

Laurel:

I agree.

Chris:

This has been so, so good.

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

So if people want more teaching like this, You're going to have it right

Chris:

in the Writing Momentum membership.

Chris:

So we've got a special link right below this video, around this video somewhere

Chris:

that you can click on and you can come and you can join this membership.

Chris:

It's only $25 a month.

Chris:

Think about that less than a dollar a day each month in order to support

Chris:

and enrich your writing career, help you get your writing done faster.

Chris:

We've got our coworking sessions every single week.

Chris:

Laurel does a couple of these roundtables every single month and then we have

Chris:

dozens and dozens of recorded videos and trainings and all kinds of things

Chris:

you can take advantage of so be sure to check that out invest in your writing I

Chris:

think you'll find it totally worth it.

Chris:

And then also check out Laurel's books Laurel Thomas on Amazon

Chris:

So this I I love that you're doing this with us Laurel because you know, we don't

Chris:

do all this writing in solitary, right?

Chris:

In this, in this day and age, we do writing.

Chris:

How do we do it, Gena?

Gena:

We do it together.

Chris:

We do it together.

Gena:

Because together we have writing momentum.

Chris:

Thanks y'all.

Chris:

We'll see you next week.

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Christopher Maselli

Christopher P.N. Maselli is a Certified Digital Marketing Professional, an award-winning children’s author of more than 50 books, a direct mail writer, and a ghostwriter for many prominent, international speakers.

“I love sharing what I’ve learned over the past 25 years,” says Chris. “We’re all in this together and hopefully what I’ve learned can benefit beginners and veterans alike.”

Chris regularly speaks at writer’s conferences nationwide and on the training portion of WritingMomentum.com, he helps put other writers on the fast track to success. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing.