Podcasts by Writing Excuses

Writing Excuses Episode 1: Brainstorming from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.282959

Brandon, Howard and Dan discuss where their ideas come from and Howard tells us a little too much about his love of Pepsi. wikidPad Home Page

Writing Excuses Episode 2: Blending the Familiar and the Original from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.280051

How do you know when your setting of high school kids solve supernatural mysteries becomes cliché? Brandon, Howard and Dan discuss how you create unique concepts by blending familiar topics with...

Writing Excuses Episode 3: Killing your Darlings from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.277233

How do you make your novel better? Sometimes you have to cut out the part you like best. Don't believe me? Before I posted this I had attached an image of a chimp wearing a tux. Brandon'...

Writing Excuses Episode 4: Beginnings from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.273077

The first line of any story is the most important. People get drawn in to a book because of the first line. Brandon, Howard and Dan talk about how to start a book and what's important about ...

Writing Excuses Episode 5: Heroes and Protagonists from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.269772

What makes a good hero? Why is Dirk Pitt so cool? Why do people like Superman? And why does Howard-with-a-chest-cold start to sound like Barry White? Some of these questions are answered in this...

Writing Excuses Bonus Episode 1: Remembering Gary Gygax from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.264939

Brandon, Howard and Dan talk about their first exposure to RPG games, Gary Gygax and the influence he had on them and the industry.

Writing Excuses Episode 6: Flaws vs Handicaps from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.261297

Is there a difference between the two? How do you use each appropriately in your writing? And how lovable can a group of mercenaries be?

Writing Excuses Episode 7: Villains from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.257398

Are flaws necessary for villains? What traits make for a really good (err... evil?) villain? What's the difference between Sauron and Gollum? ("That's the LAST time I send you out sh...

Writing Excuses Bonus Episode 2: Rules of Writing Excuses from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.253960

If you're new to Writing Excuses, or if you're just curious about some of the terminology we use, let us break it down for you. These are the rules/tricks that we use to keep ourselves on t...

Writing Excuses Episode 8: Sci-Fi Genre from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.247750

In the first of our series on genres, we discuss why people write Sci-Fi, what you need to know to write Sci-Fi, and how much we all love unicorns.

Writing Excuses Episode 9: Sci-Fi Sub-Genre from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.237722

This week we continue our discussion on Science Fiction with a discussion of various Sub-genres, why they're different, and what you can do to make sure you know your audience. Sub-genres co...

Writing Excuses Episode 10: Pacing from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.203591

Pacing... it's all about keeping the tension up, keeping things snappy, and keeping the reader interested. This week the Writing Excuses crew delivers some tips, tricks, and tools you can us...

Writing Excuses Episode 11: The Business of Writing from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.199932

So... you're ready for the big-time. You're a writer, and the writing is almost paying the bills. Hurray! Now, how do you balance your life so that you can make the jump to writing full-...

Writing Excuses Episode 12: Submitting to Editors Part 1 from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.197481

This week, special guest Stacy Whitman joins us from Mirrorstone books (an imprint of Wizards of the Coast). Stacy works there as an editor, and helps us understand the submission process, inclu...

Writing Excuses Episode 13: Submitting to Editors Part 2 from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.193101

In part two of our chat with editor Stacy Whitman, we discuss more about how to interact with editors: how to approach them at cons, how to inquire about work you've already submitted, and h...

Writing Excuses Episode 14: Magic Systems and their Rules from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.188691

Does magic need rules? Sometimes yes and sometimes no; our intrepid podcasters talk about how to know which situation is which, and explore the pros and cons of each method. We'll also yak f...

Writing Excuses Episode 15: Costs and Ramifications of Magic from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.186190

This week the Writing Excuses team discusses magic again, this time focusing on the cost of magic. Whether or not your magic system has internally-consistent rules your readers can follow (per S...

Writing Excuses Episode 16: Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.182203

Howard kicks this off with his own sure-fire cure for Writers' Block, "BIC HOK:" Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. The Writing Excuses team takes off from there, discussing the diffe...

Writing Excuses Episode 17: This Sucks and I’m a Horrible Writer from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.177137

The Writing Excuses crew tackles writer's block again, this time approaching the "This Sucks And I'm A Horrible Writer" mindset. Dan relates his Neil Gaiman anecdote, Brandon exp...

Writing Excuses Episode 18: Q&A at Conduit from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.171628

While at CONduit, we recorded three episodes of Writing Excuses in front of an audience, and this is the first of those. In this episode we have Dan Willis join us as we take questions from the ...

Writing Excuses Episode 19: Plot Twists from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.165573

Michael Stackpole, author and podcaster, joined us at CONduit, and the four of us tackled plot twists in front of a live audience. Whether you write from a solid outline or discover your plot as...

Writing Excuses Episode 20: More Q&A from Conduit from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.158986

Writer Eric James Stone joins the Writing Excuses crew for our third Conduit installment. We tackle questions from the audience again (except for when Brandon throws a question AT the audience, ...

Writing Excuses Episode 21: Humor from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.151149

Enough of this highbrow literary crap--make with the funny! Or, if you're Howard, do both. In this this episode we talk about why to write humor, how to write humor, how to recognize humor i...

Writing Excuses Episode 22: Doing The Unpopular from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.143024

As a writer it's sometimes difficult to decide between doing things the readers want, and things that are right for the story. But as Dan says, writers can get away with doing things to read...

Writing Excuses Episode 23: Viewpoint from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.137405

You've heard about viewpoint, but do you really know what it means? Discover along with Howard the magic world of person, tense, and omniscience, and how you can use them to tell your story....

Writing Excuses Episode 24: Research from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.104021

How much research do you do? Howard's answer: "Just enough to get by." In this podcast we talk about why we research, how we research, and when we feel like we've researched enou...

Writing Excuses Episode 25: Viewpoint and Tense Part 2 from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.099503

We are pleased to present the second half of "Viewpoint and Tense," which, as we all know, is Tense. Part 1 was Viewpoint. It's not two podcasts that both talk about tense and viewpo...

Writing Excuses Episode 26: Horror from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.095459

What is horror? Why is it scary? HOW is it scary? Forced by their grandfather's will to spend an entire night in his spooky mansion, our podcasters gather to discuss the nuts and bolts of wh...

Writing Excuses Episode 27: World-Building Religion from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.089654

The Writing Excuses team sits down to talk about religion as a world-building device: your characters probably believe in something, so what is it? How does it affect their lives? How does it ch...

Writing Excuses Episode 28: Writing for Webcomics with Phil and Kaja Foglio from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.083360

This is the first of five episodes recorded on location at WorldCon 66 in the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Brandon, Dan, and Howard are joined by Phil and Kaja Foglio, and we discuss wr...

Writing Excuses Episode 29: Talking Publishing with Lou Anders from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.077660

So what exactly does an editor, do, anyway? We've already talked about the process of submitting to an editor; today we talk about the millions of vital things that happen after an editor sa...

Writing Excuses Episode 30: Talking Revision with Moshe Feder from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.067306

Last week we talked to an editor, this week we talk to OUR editor: Brandon's and Dan's editor at Tor, Moshe Feder. It's a great opportunity to learn more about how an author and edit...

Writing Excuses Episode 31: Talking RPG and Game Writing with Steve Jackson from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.052370

One of the biggest areas of professional creative writing these days is game writing, and who better to talk to about it than Steve Jackson--yes, THE Steve Jackson. We start off trying to talk a...

Writing Excuses Episodes 32: Talking Exposition with Patrick Rothfuss from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.037415

In this, the last of our WorldCon 66 episodes, Brandon, Dan, and Howard interview Name of the Wind author Patrick Rothfuss. We discuss exposition, and how not to bore people as you move them thr...

Writing Excuses Episode 33: Side Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:15.000045

Just as no burger is complete without its fries, no protagonist is complete without his sidekick, or his mother, or his entomologist, or whatever side character you decide to give him. This week...

Writing Excuses Episode 34: What The Dark Knight Did Right from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.996908

Like all right-thinking people, we loved The Dark Knight--but because we are also writers obsessed with the craft of storytelling, we liked it for very specific, very nerdy reasons. Join us as w...

Writing Excuses Episode 35: Voice, Tone and Style from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.993198

Everyone says you can't teach style--each writer just has to figure it out on his or her own. Well, we here at Writing Excuses have never met an ultimatum we didn't immediately challenge...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 1: Q&A on Setting and Characters at Mountain Con with John Brown from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.989137

You didn't think we'd just keep going with the same old stuff forever, did you? Well, actually we are, but now we're calling it Season 2. This season begins with a series of episodes...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Bonus Episode 1: Live at the Mistborn 3 Release from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.983966

We talk among ourselves about some episodes of this podcast being "crunchy" and others being "fluffy." "Crunchy" episodes are the ones where we have hard advice about wri...

Writing Season 2 Episode 2: How to Write for Children with Brandon Mull from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.977900

Kids these days with their long hair and their love of reading. It's like, get off my lawn, am I right? But in other news, kids (meaning anything from chapter books to mature YA) read a TON,...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 3: Characters with Brandon Mull from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.973021

No matter how grand your setting, how intense your conflicts, or how tight your plot, at some point you're going to need characters. Join us as we discuss what makes a character interesting,...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 4:View point, Plot Twists and Being a Part-Time Writer with Eric James Stone from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.967825

Eric James Stone joins us for our final Mountain-Con episode. This Q&A covers writing part-time (and Dan disqualifies himself from answering this question in future episodes), setting deadli...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 5: Writing Groups from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.962979

So you've got a fantastic idea for a book or a short story, but where do you go from there? Who can give the incentive to write, the support to keep going when it gets hard, and the tough lo...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 6: Endings from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.958350

Episode 6, recorded live at Dragon's Keep opens with monkey noises and greeting-card pith, and ends with... well, we'll just let you listen. Is it a storybook ending? What IS a storybook...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 7: Using Writing Formulas with Bob Defendi from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.953032

Howard, Dan, and guest Bob Defendi open this episode with some high literary humor. Bob fills in for Brandon as we discuss formulas writers use in crafting stories. But how do we prevent those s...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 8: The Three Act Structure with Bob Defendi from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.947151

With Brandon still mysteriously missing, Professor Bob Defendi returns to take Dan and Howard on a magical journey through the three-act format: every step, every element, every nuance of this v...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 9: Romance, with Dave Wolverton from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.941568

This week (and for the following two weeks) the Writing Excuses crew is joined by author Dave Wolverton, who also writes under the name David Farland. This week's topic? ROMANCE. What can fo...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 10: The Boring Parts from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.936354

Dave Farland, aka Dave Wolverton again joins the Writing Excuses team, and helps us discuss boredom. Specifically, we cover how to deal with it, how to go about writing those "boring parts&#...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 11: Talking Publishing and Writing with Dave Wolverton from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.896483

Dave Wolverton joins us for a third and final episode, and the Writing Excuses team pumps him for information before letting him escape. We find out why he uses two names (David Farland and Dave...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 12: Theme from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.894202

For the first time in eleven episodes, we have a "normal" one. No special guests, no special locations, and no new format tricks. This episode grows out of Howard's ignorance - remem...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 13: Violence from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.891375

All three of your Writing Excuses hosts include a measure of violence in their written work. So Brandon, Dan, and Howard decide to clear the air a little bit. Why do we write about violence? Wha...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 14: Writing Habits from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.888564

We get asked a lot about our writing habits. So your Writing Excuses hosts spend the whole 'cast discussing their schedules, their work environments, and the things they do to make themselve...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 15: Knowing When To Begin from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.886171

When do you know when you're ready to begin? What does that question even mean? Apparently Brandon gets asked it a lot, though, so he posed it for the group. How do you know when that story ...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 16: Non-Human Races from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.883288

The Writing Excuses crew returns to world-building, this time to discuss the creation of non-human races. Why do genre-fiction writers use aliens and monsters, short folk, tusked folk, or any ot...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 17: Website Marketing for Authors from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.880444

Our producer Jordan Sanderson joins us for this week's installment, in which we likely make all kinds of enemies among the authorial community by exposing the many things they're doing w...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 18: World Building Governments from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.878024

Let's get back to world-building, and dig into a tough one: government. In this case we're talking about government as part of the backdrop, rather than political intrigue as part of the...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 19: Do Creative Writing Classes Help from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.875203

Brandon and Dan met during a creative writing class at Brigham Young University, and Brandon went on to get a Master's Degree in the field. Howard has no formal training in the field. This b...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 20: Marketing 101 for Creators from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.873021

Howard takes the moderatorial lead on this episode in which he, Brandon, and Dan are joined by Rob Wells for a discussion of marketing. What is marketing? What's the difference between marke...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 21: Fight Scenes from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.870584

 Rob Wells joins the Writing Excuses crew for a second 'cast, this time dealing with fight scenes. We talk about good blocking versus a bad blow-by-blow, and cover a few of the factors that ...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 22: Marketing 201, Branding for Authors from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.867774

"Branding," not "Brandon," just so we're clear. Brand-ING. We open with the definition of "branding," talking about what it is, and (just as importantly) what it is n...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 23: Avoiding the Cliché with Tracy Hickman from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.865237

We took Writing Excuses on the road last month for "Life, The Universe, and Everything," the symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy at Brigham Young University. The Guests of Honor wer...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 24: Writing Habits and Q&A with Tracy Hickman from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.862919

Tracy Hickman joins us again at "Life, The Universe, and Everything," and in this episode we let Brandon ask him random questions while Dan and Howard chime in with comments that hopeful...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 25: The Seven Deadly Sins of Slush Stories from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.859479

Nancy Fulda fills in for Dan for this week's episode (he was sick, she was in town, huzzah!) but she's more than just "filling in." She's FEATURED. Nancy is the assistant edi...

Writing Excuses Episode 632: Now that we’ve got time travel what do we do with it? from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.855222

This... THIS is why speculative fiction writers should never be trusted with actual technology.

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 26: How Publishing is Changing in the new Century from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.851255

Nancy Fulda, assistant editor at Baen's Universe and editor-in-chief and founder of Anthology Builder, joins us again while Dan Wells is out celebrating his birthday. We discuss the rise of ...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 27: Reading Critically from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.846822

As a writer you obviously know how to read. But being a writer changes how you read, and what you read, and even why you read. Do you read more, or less as a writer? How do you read so that your...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 28: Applying Critical Reading: “Watchmen” from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.842318

Last week we talked about reading critically, reading as writers. This week we decided to apply that critical reading skill to Watchmen, the Hugo award-winning graphic novel by Alan Moore, illus...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 29: How not to end your book from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.837004

Let's talk about failure... but let's talk about it so that we can avoid it. How do you know if your ending has flopped? What kind of approaches to ending a story should you be avoiding?...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 30: The Most Important Thing Howard Learned In The Last Year from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.806578

This is the first of a three-part series in which Brandon, Dan, and Howard tell each other (and you, of course) about the most important thing each of them has learned in the past year. We start...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 31: The Most Important Thing Brandon Learned In The Last Year from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.802843

Here's the second part of our three-part "what we learned this year" series. This time around Brandon tells us the most important thing he learned this year. Summed up? Gimmicks cann...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 32: The Most Important Thing Dan Learned In The Last Year from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.798454

This the third in our series of retrospective episodes. The most important thing Dan learned this year? Being a full-time author is a lot different than he thought it would be. How different? Wh...

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 33: How To Not Be Overwhelmed from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.794582

And here we are, at the final episode of Writing Excuses, Season 2. As promised, this episode is going to be super-useful to new writers, but it's going to be extra-super-useful to one new w...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 1: World-Building History from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.790651

Welcome to Season 3 of Writing Excuses! With eighteen hours and fourteen months of podcasting history behind us, it seems appropriate for us to talk about history, and how to write it. We talk a...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 4: Non Linear Story Telling from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.785985

Don't you just hate it when things unfold out of order? Why do writers do that? We explain why they do it, and how they do it, and then we discuss how to avoid some common mistakes. Non-line...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 2: Keeping it Real with Aprilynne Pike from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.781566

This episode was recorded live at CONduit in Salt Lake City with special guest Aprilynne Pike. Our topic: How do we "keep it real" when writing speculative fiction? What does that even m...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 3: Stumping Howard at Conduit from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.777853

Howard here... I've learned that it's a really bad idea to run out for a bio-break between podcasts. When I returned to the packed panel room I could tell that everyone's attitude to...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 5: How to Take Criticism from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.773746

How do you take criticism? How do you react, if you even do react? Does criticism cause you to change the way you work? Criticism can come from your peers in a writing group, from editors sendin...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 6: Dramatic Breaks from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.769081

What are dramatic breaks? We open this episode with Howard very genuinely playing Doctor Watson to Brandon's Holmes, which is amusing because as it turns out, Howard uses dramatic breaks eve...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 7: Genre Blending from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.765243

You've seen it done... "Zombie Apocalypse in Space." "Perry Mason in the Armed Forces." It's genre blending, where the author takes themes prevalent in two different genr...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 8: What Star Trek Did Right from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.761506

As we did with The Dark Knight and Watchmen (the comic, not the movie), once again we turn our searing critical insight on a major work of successful storytelling talk about what they did right....

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 9: Conventions You Should Be Attending from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.758513

As genre-fiction writers we attend a lot of conventions. As aspiring genre-fiction writers you probably want to be attending conventions. But which ones should you spend time and money on, and w...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 10: The Dos and Don’ts of Attending Cons from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.755081

Last week we discussed what kinds of events that you, the aspiring author, should be attending. This week we cover what you should and shouldn't be doing there. And we start with some don...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 11: Trimming from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.751783

Let's talk "trimming." Why do it? Well... because your manuscript is longer than it needs to be. Yes, we're talking to you. AND you. And you, too. None of you are exempt! (Well.....

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 12: Subplots from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.748369

Meanwhile, several side-characters found themselves looking for a sub-plot in the tavern. Something funny, or perhaps romantic to take the load off of the main story, but still tense enough to k...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 13: Dialects and In-World Jargon from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.744634

Howard here, folks. On behalf of the entire Writing Excuses team I'd like to apologize in advance for that which you are about to receive. You know how sometimes one of those crazy thoughts ...

3.14: The Four Principles of Puppetry, with Mary Robinette Kowal from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.739673

Aside from being a delightful author and a Campbell award winner, Mary Robinette Kowal is a professional puppeteer. She joined us at WorldCon 67 in Montreal, and totally schooled us in front of ...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 15: Writing Process Q&A, with Mary Robinette Kowal from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.735363

Mary Robinette Kowal joins us again, live at WorldCon 67 in Montreal! This time we fell back on that tried-and-true "Questions from the Audience" format, so the topic is pretty much what...

Writing Excuses: Parsec Award Acceptance Speech from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.720205

We won a Parsec Award at Dragon*Con, and it's a darn good thing we weren't there in person to give an acceptance speech. Otherwise this podcast might have happened live, in front of hundred...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 16: The Anti-Mary Sue Episode from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.715517

John Brown, debut author of Servant of a Dark God, joins us for this discussion of the avoidance of self-insertion. In polite company we call this the "Mary Sue," because it's diffic...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 17: Characters&Worldbuilding Q&A with Mary Robinette Kowal from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.712316

Mary is back! We still had a Mary Robinette Kowal episode from WorldCon 67, and now you have it too! We take questions from the audience, and then answer them. Here are the questions: What do yo...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 18: How To Not Repeat Yourself from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.709343

John Brown rejoins us for this discussion of repetition. How do we, as writers, avoid repeating ourselves? We're not just talking about the literal re-use of words and phrases here. We'r...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 19: Emotion in Fiction with John Brown from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.702789

John Brown joins us again, and tells us that fiction "is all about guiding an emotional response in a reader." We begin with a discussion of depression, which John (like many of us) had ...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 20: Plot- vs. Character-Driven Fiction from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.697116

Larry Correia, whose debut novel Monster Hunter International hit the market this summer, joins us for a discussion of plot-driven vs. character driven fiction. We start with a definition of ter...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 21: Pitfalls of Self Publishing with Larry Correia from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.694958

Larry Correia is either the guy who did everything wrong and then broke into publishing anyway, or he's the exception who proves the rule. He self-published Monster Hunter International, and...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 22: Idea to Story from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.691776

You are going to love this episode. Seriously. Brandon throws an idea at Dan and Howard, and then we spend 15 minutes expanding on that idea as if we were going to base a story around it. You pe...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 23: How to Write Without Twists from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.688685

Question: Can you write a good book without a plot twist? Better question: is it a good book if your readers predicted what was coming? Best question: is a podcast about predictable prose itself...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 24: Writing Comics with Jake Black from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.685471

Jake Black fills in for Brandon "#1 New York Times Bestselling Author" Sanderson this week, and that's perfect because Jake writes comics and Brandon doesn't. So mostly this is D...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 25: The Business of Writing Comics from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.682618

Dan and Howard are again joined by Jake Black, who writes comics (and some other things) for a living. Jake tells us how he got into the business, and we talk about how this might be applied to ...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 26: NaNoWriMo from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.679463

Dan, Howard, and Jordo descended into the basement at Dragon's Keep where members of the local NaNoWriMo chapter were attempting to bolster their word-counts for the day. We talked to them a...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 27: Mixing Humor with Drama and Horror from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.676104

A Monday without Writing Excuses is kind of like a Tuesday without Writing Excuses, only far less aggravating. With Brandon once again by our side(s), we venture once more into the realm of humo...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 28: World-Building Gender Roles from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.673740

Is there a disconnect? Brandon specifically introduces the episode as "World-building political correctness," but the title here says "World-Building Gender Roles." And then Bran...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 30: Unreliable Narrators from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.671017

This episode totally would have updated earlier if I'd only known sooner that it was ready to go. Jordo says he emailed me early this evening, but if he HAD then you'd have been listenin...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 29: Antiheroes from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.668109

What is an Antihero? There are lots of definitions of this word, so Dan boils it down to just three: The Frodo, The Punisher, and The Talented Mister Ripley. And that third definition is the one...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 31: Tragedy from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.665068

Tragedy. It's just TRAGIC. Tragedy is also one of the classical forms that writers need to know how to work within. Why? Well... because the Greeks thought we should be forced to have strong...

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 32: Collaboration from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.661715

For starters, let's clear the air. Yes, the first episode of the new year is also the last episode of Writing Excuses Season 3. And yes, we'll be getting Season 2 and Season 3 on CDs pre...

Writing Excuses 4.1: Types of Humor from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.658446

Welcome to Writing Excuses Season 4, featuring new, shorter episode titles! Also, if you don't count the bonus episodes or the Parsec Award Acceptance Speech, this is our 100th Episode! Bran...

Writing Excuses 4.2: Heroism from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.655030

If you want to write a good, heroic hero, this is the podcast for you. We're not necessarily talking about the archetypical, classically-defined, capital-H "Hero" in this podcast, th...

Writing Excuses 4.3: How to Manage Your Influences from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.652076

How do you avoid letting other people's work creep into your own? We're all influenced by the media we partake in whether we admit it or not. How much of those influences should we allow...

Writing Excuses 4.4: Agents. Do you need one? from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.649219

We're going to wade into a recent e-brouhaha, but it's not going to be the Amazon vs Macmillan one. No, this is the one where Dean Wesley Smith argued that authors do not need agents. Bu...

Writing Excuses 4.5: Roleplaying Games as Tools for Story Telling from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.646811

Roll for initiative, folks! Brandon, Dan, and Howard all play tabletop role-playing games, and sometimes even play together. The question of the hour (well... quarter-hour) is "how can these...

Writing Excuses 4.6: Pacing with James Dashner from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.643806

This episode was recorded live at Life, The Universe, & Everything 28, The BYU Symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy, and features, among other things, our largest audience ever. Oh, and ...

Writing Excuses 4.7: Q&A with James Dashner from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.640503

Recorded live at LTUE 2010, here's a high-energy Q&A session with the Writing Excuses crew and our special guest James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner. We cover outlining vs. discover...

Writing Excuses 4.8: Working with Editors from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.636902

Jessica Day George joins the Writing Excuses crew for a discussion of editors...

Writing Excuses 4.9: How to Write Men, with Jessica Day George from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.600648

Jessica Day George joins us again, this time to tell us how to write men. Brace yourselves for the bandying-about of generalities, for painting with broad brushes, and for assorted other potenti...

Writing Excuses 4.10: Writing for Young Adults from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.597492

Jessica Day George joins the Writing Excuses crew again, this time for a discussion of writing for young adults, and maybe for teens, or even middle-grade readers. This isn't a podcast about...

Writing Excuses 4.11: Brainstorming From Headlines from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.594923

Brandon, Dan, and Howard brainstorm as Producer Jordo reads headlines.

Writing Excuses 4.12: Writing An Epic from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.591021

Epic podcast! Except it's only fifteen minutes long... because you're in a hurry, and we'll tell you how to write an epic.

Writing Excuses 4.13: Juggling Multiple Viewpoints from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.586866

How to write multiple viewpoints effectively, using the tool for the right reasons and avoiding pitfalls.

Writing Excuses 4.14: Brainstorming Science Ideas from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.582452

A brainstorming session fueled by New Scientist's "13 More Things We Don't Understand" article.

Writing Excuses 4.15: Visual Components of Storytelling from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.577824

A discussion of art and design elements and how they work with the stories we write.

Writing Excuses 4.16: Breaking the Fourth Wall from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.558785

What's the fourth wall? What happens when you break it? Should you be breaking it at all?

Writing Excuses 4.17: Living with the Artist from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.554179

Sandra Tayler, Dawn Wells, and Kenny Pike take over the 'cast with some coaching from Dan (and heckling from Howard) to talk about what it's like to live with an artist. We cover the ups...

Writing Excuses 4.18: How to Steal for Fun and Profit from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.549730

Forget "Anxiety of Influence." Let's talk about how to borrow, beg, and outright steal from pop culture, history, and mythology.

Writing Excuses 4.19: Discovery Writing from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.543135

How to approach discovery writing, with your hosts Brandon, Dan, and Howard

Writing Excuses 4.20: Strategies for Getting Published from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.537781

Some new strategies for getting yourself published. Obviously we guarantee exactly none of them.

Writing Excuses 4.21: Writing Practical Fantasy from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.519906

L.E. Modesitt and Robison Wells join Brandon and Dan for a discussion of "practical" fantasy. Recorded live at CONduit in Salt Lake City.

Writing Excuses 4.22: Q&A with L.E. Modesitt, Jr from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.517861

Live from CONduit in Salt Lake City, L.E. Modessit Jr. and the Writing Excuses crew answer questions from the audience.

Writing Excuses 4.23: How to Break In to the Young Adult Market from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.515098

Janci Patterson and Robison Wells have both sold books very recently. Brandon and Dan put them on the spot and ask how they did it.

Writing Excuses 4.24: Random Storytelling from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.512651

James Dashner and Julie Wright join Brandon and Dan at CONduit in Salt Lake City, and may end up wishing they hadn't. Brandon throws sets of story concepts at the crew, and asks them to quic...

Writing Excuses 4.25: Mating Plumage from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.509802

James Dashner and Julie Wright talk covers, titles, and first lines with Brandon and Dan.

Writing Excuses 4.26: Avoiding Stilted Dialog from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.506337

"How do we avoid writing stilted dialog?" asked Brandon adverbially.

Writing Excuses 4.27: Major Overhauls to Broken Stories from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.502427

What do you do when, halfway through the book you're writing, you realize it needs to be completely rebuilt? More importantly, how do you figure this out in the first place? This podcast cam...

Writing Excuses 4.28: Brainstorming The End and Working Backwards from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.497284

Brandon, Dan, and Howard start at the ending and work their way backwards for your enjoyment.

Writing Excuses 4.29: Line Editing from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.491589

Brandon, Dan, and Howard demonstrate line-editing on an ancient manuscript.

Writing Excuses 4.30: Worldbuilding the Future from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.488849

How to build a future setting for your novel by extrapolating from the present, working backwards from the story you want to tell, and getting those to meet in the middle.

Writing Excuses 4.31: Line Editing Dialog from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.486409

A practical, example-filled look at tuning up rough dialog.

Writing Excuses 4.32: First Paragraphs from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.483644

Recorded live at Dragons & Fairy Tales in Eagle Mountain, Utah, this episode features the work of several brave souls who submitted their first paragraphs to us for critique. We are not Amer...

Writing Excuses 4.33: Trunk Novels from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.481042

Recorded live at Dragons & Fairy Tales, this episode is for anybody who has a novel or two (or more) sitting in the bottom of their trunk. What are the best ways to re-use old material you&#...

Writing Excuses 4.34: Q&A at Dragons&Fairy Tales from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.478969

The last of our three recorded-live episodes is also the last episode of Writing Excuses Season 4. We took questions from the audience, and answered them with ABSOLUTE APLOMB. Questions asked in...

WE 5.1: Third Person Limited from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.476499

We've talked about point of view before, but only in general terms: this time we delve into third-person limited in detail, explaining how to use it and when to use it and why. We apologize ...

WE 5.2: Character Quirks from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.474542

Special guest Bree Despain of the Dark Divine trilogy joins us for a 'cast on character quirks. A character quirk, avoiding the tautological definition, is something that makes your characte...

Writing Excuses 5.3: First Person Viewpoint from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.472128

Bree Despain joins Brandon, Dan, and Howard for a discussion of writing in the 1st-person

Writing Excuses 5.4: Creating Suspense from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.470080

Suspense! What is it? What isn't it? What is the relationship between suspense and mystery, and for that matter horror, humor, and adventure? This 'cast is chock full of pithy quotes, us...

Parsec Acceptance Speech 2010 from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.467538

Brandon, Dan, and Howard accept their 2010 Parsec Award a bit late, and offer an apology for missing the ceremony.

Writing Excuses 5.5: Writing the Unfamiliar from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.464878

Brandon, Dan, and Howard discuss "Write what you DON'T know."

Writing Excuses 5.6: MicroPodcasts from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.462705

Fast-paced Q&A with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Writing Excuses 5.6.01: Flash Fiction from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.459806

Brandon, Dan, and Howard discuss Flash Fiction in less time than it took you to read this excerpt.

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Writing Excuses 5.7: Avoiding Melodrama from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.456925

Melodrama. What is it? What do people mean when they say something is too melodramatic? Usually they do NOT mean "it's too much like a classical melodrama," but it helps if we start ...

Writing Excuses 5.8: The Excuses You’re Out Of from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.454529

What are the excuses you make when you're not writing? Brandon, Dan, and Howard examine these, and offer advice for getting the writing done anyway.

Writing Excuses 5.9: Character Arcs from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.451931

John Brown joins us this week for a discussion of plot threads specific to characters. These can be the main plot thread, interesting sub-plots, or just things that shape characters. Sometimes t...

Writing Excuses Bonus Episode! Voting in the Service of a Dark God from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.449793

This bonus episode is what happens when there are two things we want to plug, and we decide to try and blend them in a single PSA. Here's the Amazon link for the paperback release of John Br...

Writing Excuses 5.10: John Brown and the Creative Process from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.447233

The now cancer-free John Brown joins us again, this time for a discussion of the creative process. John has presented a seminar on this subject in the past, the focus of which is to teach people...

Writing Excuses 5.11: MicroPodcasting 2 from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.444680

Brandon, Dan, and Howard field questions about doing bad things to characters, soliciting feedback, creature design, and outlining.

Writing Excuses 5.12: The Secret of Lincoln’s Gold from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.442698

We sta ... ...ising but inev... ... pendently wealthy, tha... [NO CARRIER]

Writing Excuses 5.13: Writing the Second Book from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.440092

John Brown joins Brandon, Dan, and Howard for a discussion of second novels, sequels, and the trick to doing it again.

Writing Excuses 5.14: Visual Components of Novels with Scott Westerfeld from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.437117

Scott Westerfeld joins Brandon and Howard for a discussion of the visual components of novels.

Writing Excuses 5.15: Steampunk with Scott Westerfeld from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.432736

Scott Westerfeld joins Brandon and Howard for a discussion of Steampunk.

Writing Excuses 5.12: Time Travel! from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.397268

Brandon, Dan, and Howard each offer sage advice to their earlier selves.

Writing Excuses 5.16: Critiquing Dan’s First Novel from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.394908

Late last season we took a look at Brandon's first novel and did some line-editing and critiquing. It was so much fun we decided that Dan needed to take a turn in the dunking booth. He total...

Writing Excuses 5.17: Dialog Exercises from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.391891

Brandon, Dan, and Howard critique some tagless dialog submissions.

Writing Excuses 5.18: Offending Your Readers from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.388520

Brandon, Dan, and Howard discuss avoiding unnecessary offense as writers.

Writing Excuses 5.19: Fulfilling Promises to Your Readers from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.385669

Brandon, Dan, and Howard give examples of making, keeping, and breaking promises to your readers.

Writing Excuses 5.20: More Dialog Exercises from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.382683

Brandon, Dan, and Howard critique some dialog-only writing exercises from listeners.

Writing Excuses 5.21: Alternate History from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.379191

Mary Robinette Kowal and Eric Flint join Howard and Dan for a discussion of Alternate history - what, why, and how.

Writing Excuses 5.22: Film Considerations from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.375689

Mary Robinette Kowal and Dave Wolverton join Dan and Howard for a discussion of movie considerations and formulas.

Writing Excuses 5.23: Life Day! from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.371821

Mary Robinette Kowal and Dave Wolverton again join Dan and Howard, and this time we're talking about holidays in fantasy and science-fiction. This 'cast was recorded at Superstars Writin...

Writing Excuses 5.24: The Author’s Responsibility to the Reader from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.368456

Kevin J. Anderson discusses author productivity with Brandon, Dan, and Howard.

Writing Excuses 5.25: Writing in Other People’s Universes from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.364818

So, you want to write a Star Wars book? Kevin J. Anderson joins Brandon, Dan, and Howard to tackle writing in other people's universes.

Writing Excuses 5.26: Scared for the Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.360785

Sherrilyn Kenyon tells us all how to make readers fear for the characters in her books.

Writing Excuses 5.27: Perseverance, with Sherrilyn Kenyon from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.351397

Sherrilyn Kenyon joins Brandon, Dan, and Howard for a discussion of persevering as a writer.

Writing Excuses 5.28: E-publishing from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.348333

David Farland and Tracy Hickman discuss electronic publishing with Dan and Howard.

Writing Excuses 5.29: Rewriting from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.344469

We were fortunate enough to record two episodes with Tracy Hickman and Dave Wolverton at Life, The Universe, and Everything XXIX. In this second installment these masters of the craft school us ...

Writing Excuses 5.30: Writing Action from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.339158

Dan and Howard are joined by Larry Correia and Robison Wells, and with the enthusiastic support of a live audience at LTUE they discuss writing action.

Writing Excuses 5.31: Writing Romance from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.335823

Sarah Eden and Robison Wells join Dan and Howard at LTUE to talk about writing romance. Sarah writes in the romance genre, but we're not focusing on the genre -- we're talking about writ...

Writing Excuses 5.32: Urban Fantasy from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.299874

We begin our discussion of Urban Fantasy with a discussion of definitions, which quickly devolves into an argument over what we are actually supposed to be talking about. Moving right along, we ...

Writing Excuses 5.33: Alpha Readers from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.296640

Brandon, Dan, and Howard discuss what an alpha reader is, is not, and where one might find these marvelous creatures.

Writing Excuses on the 2011 Hugo Ballot from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.293341

Writing Excuses Season 4 has been nominated for a "Best Related Work" Hugo.

Writing Excuses 5.34: Story Bibles from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.291018

Let's talk about bibles. Specifically, story bibles. What are they, why do we use them, why might we NOT use them, and what tools are working for us? Howard again plugs wikidpad, which he co...

Writing Excuses 5.35: Brainstorming Urban Fantasy from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.288261

Brandon, Dan, and Howard brainstorm an urban fantasy set in a big-box store in Park City, Utah.

Writing Excuses 5.36: Non-Traditional Settings with Saladin Ahmed from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.285389

Saladin Ahmed, Nebula- and Campbell-award nominee joins Brandon and Howard for a discussion of setting -- specifically, setting an epic fantasy in something besides the traditional, Western Euro...

Writing Excuses 5.37: Parody and Satire with Jim Hines from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.282689

Jim Hines suffers abuse from Howard and Brandon as the three of them discuss parody, satire, and humor in front of a live audience at Penguicon.

Writing Excuses 5.38: Dialog with John Scalzi from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.279883

John Scalzi joins Brandon and Howard for a discussion of dialog and how genre fiction writers can learn to do a better job with it.

Writing Excuses 5.39: Filking and Writing Music with Tom Smith from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.277089

Tom Smith joins Howard and Brandon at Penguicon for a discussion of Filk and some delightfully improvised music.

Writing Excuses 6.1: Can Creativity be Taught? from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.274535

Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard discuss creativity -- how to learn it, how to teach it, and how to get better at it.

Writing Excuses 6.2: Internal Motivations from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.272032

Brandon, Mary, Dan, & Howard discuss putting character motivations on the page in support of plot, character arcs, and the story in general.

Writing Excuses 6.3: Professional Organizations from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.269346

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about SFWA, NCS, and other professional organizations for writers and creators.

Writing Excuses 6.4: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.266997

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard field questions from the Twitterverse -- commercial publishing, finding balance, structuring stories, defining moments, and more.

Writing Excuses 6.5: Query Letters from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.264072

Sara Crowe, literary agent with Harvey Klinger, joins Dan and Howard for a discussion of query letters.

Writing Excuses 6.6: Cyberpunk from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.261014

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard take a high-level look at cyberpunk (the literary genre) for writers considering creating something along those lines.

Writing Excuses 6.7: Brainstorming a Cyberpunk Story from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.258439

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary brainstorm a cyberpunk story using concepts pulled at random from a mythology textbook.

Writing Excuses 6.8: What an Agent Does from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.255505

Howard Tayler and Dan Wells interview literary agent Sara Crowe about what agents do for authors, and why having an agent might be the right thing for your career.

Writing Excuses 6.9: Microcasting 2 Electric Boogaloo from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.252109

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard take questions from the Twitterverse ranging from outlining, character creation, and plot-hole repair to skill development and writing groups.

Writing Excuses 6.10: Scott Card’s M.I.C.E. Quotient from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.249812

Mary walks Brandon, Dan, and Howard through the Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event (M.I.C.E.) quotient from Orson Scott Card, and then they retell the Billy Goats Gruff four times.

Writing Excuses 6.11: Making Your Descriptions Do More Than One Thing from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.247160

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard approach writing descriptions from several different angles and at least five disciplines in order to help you get more done with less purple.

Writing Excuses 6.12: Revising For Description from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.244169

"The wind rushed across his skin at several hundred miles per second, and registered as an itch." Brandon, Dan, and Mary tear into Howard's two-decade-old manuscript with an eye towa...

Writing Excuses 6.13: World Building Communications Technology from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.241240

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary discuss communications technology, and how the ability for characters to communicate is a critical piece of your world-building, whether you're writing science...

Writing Excuses 6.14: Suspension of Disbelief from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.236762

Patrick Rothfuss joins the crew at WorldCon 69 for a discussion of how to get readers to suspend their disbelief.

Writing Excuses 6.15: Writing Other Cultures from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.197305

Lauren Beukes joins the 'cast for a discussion of writing cultures that you're not personally a part of.

Writing Excuses 6.16: Gender Roles–Black, White, and Gray from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.193608

Keffy Kehrli joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard at WorldCon 69 for a discussion of gender roles, gender identity, and transsexualism with the objective of being able to write these things believabl...

Writing Excuses 6.17: Writing Assistants from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.190963

Peter Ahlstrom, assistant to Brandon Sanderson, and Valerie Dowbenko, assistant to Pat Rothfuss, join Brandon and Dan to talk about what they do for "their authors."

6.18: The Hollywood Formula, with Lou Anders from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.188174

Lou Anders joins Mary, Dan, and Howard at Dragon*Con for a discussion of the Hollywood Formula.

Writing Excuses 6.19: Pitching from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.185185

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary talk about pitching -- a critical skill for new and established authors alike.

Writing Excuses 6.20: Endings from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.182851

Lou Anders joins Dan, Howard, and Mary for a discussion of endings.

Writing Excuses 6.21: Brainstorming From Story Seeds from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.179800

Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard each crank out the beginnings of a story from the same set of story seeds.

Writing Excuses 6.22: Continuing Education for Writers from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.177027

Mur Lafferty joins Howard, Mary, and Dan to talk about ways in which writers can continue their education.

Writing Excuses 6.23: Pigeon Holes from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.173869

Jonathan Maberry joins Howard, Dan, and Mary to discuss pigeonholes -- specifically, not ending up in one.

NaNoWriMo Pep-Talk from Brandon from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.170773

Brandon Sanderson offers a quick pep-talk for NaNoWriMo participants.

Writing Excuses 6.24: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.167592

Andrew P. Mayer joins Howard, Mary, and Dan to talk about taking silly ideas and making seriously awesome stuff out of them.

NaNoWriMo Pep-Talk from Mary from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.163994

Mary Robinette Kowal offers encouragement to the 2011 NaNoWriMo crowd.

Writing Excuses 6.25: When Characters do Dumb Things from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.160198

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary talk about making characters do dumb things for smart reasons.

NaNoWriMo Pep-Talk from Dan from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.156434

This your third week of NaNoWriMo, and Dan's here to tell you your wordcount should be at around 38,000. He also tells us how NaNoWriMo helped him write faster and keep to a schedule, and th...

Writing Excuses 6.26: Mystery Plotting from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.153051

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about plotting a good mystery, especially as part of a non-mystery-genre book.

NaNoWriMo Pep-talk from Howard from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.149691

Howard brings NaNoWriMo home with a final pep-talk for you. Short version: you're still out of excuses. Don't stop writing.

Writing Excuses 6.27: Fantasy Setting Yard Sale from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.146750

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard brainstorm some fantasy setting elements for you. Need a magic system on the cheap? How about a political power structure?

Writing Excuses 6.28: Interstitial Art from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.143480

Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman from the Interstitial Arts Foundation join Mary Robinette Kowal and Dan Wells to talk about the gaps between genres.

Writing Excuses 6.29: Character Foils from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.137632

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about using character foils in building a story.

Writing Excuses 6.30: Help! I Can’t End My Book! from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.100166

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk endings, and how to troubleshoot common problems writers have with them.

Writing Excuses 7.1 When Good Characters Go Bad from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.097098

How do you take a good character and make them evil? And why would you want to do this? Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard answer that second question first, and then walk you through the process of...

Writing Excuses 7.2: World Building Flora and Fauna from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.094343

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about fictional ecologies.

Writing Excuses 7.3: Fauna and Flora from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.091660

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard tackle worldbuilding flora and fauna again, this time through negative examples, pizza-trees, and a can of worms.

Writing Excuses 7.4: Brevity from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.089123

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard help you keep it short and simple.

Writing Excuses 7.5: Sensory Writing from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.086859

Sam Sykes joins Dan Wells and Mary Robinette Kowal for a discussion of sound, smell, taste, and touch in prose.

Writing Excuses 7.6: Behind the Marshmallow from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.083774

In this particularly self-indulgent episode of Writing Excuses we take you behind the marshmallow. We explain the origins of the 'cast, and offer you rare insight into what makes this show w...

Writing Excuses 7.7: Historical Fantasy from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.080591

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about Historical Fantasy (differentiating it from Alternate History), its popularity, and how you might go about beginning to write it.

Writing Excuses 7.8: The City as a Character from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.077349

Sarah Pinborough joins Mary and Dan at World Fantasy for a very writerly discussion of London. Also, they discuss using a city as a character.

Writing Excuses 7.9: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.074483

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard field questions from Twitter, including what to do if you don't like your characters, keeping your plot on track, and how grounded in real geography your urban...

Writing Excuses 7.10: Importance of Criticism, with David Brin from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.071539

David Brin joins Mary and Dan for a discussion of the importance of criticism.

Writing Excuses 7.11: More Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.067904

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard field seven questions in fifteen minutes and forty-two seconds: a new land-speed record!

Writing Excuses 7.12: Writing the Omniscient Viewpoint from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.064565

Brandon, Mary, and Howard talk about the strengths of the omniscient POV, how to use it well, and what pitfalls to avoid.

Writing Excuses 7.13: Man Vs. Nature from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.061266

Brandon and Mary school Howard on "Man vs. Nature." They might school the rest of us, too.

Writing Excuses 7.14: Writing Excuses from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.057692

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard tell you all the reasons why you shouldn't actually be writing, and why, especially at this time of the year, these writing excuses are so critically important...

Writing Excuses 7.15: Editing Mary’s Outline from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.054508

In this outlining demonstration Mary reads from an early outline, then Brandon, Dan, and Howard brutally dissect it.

Writing Excuses 7.16: Continuing with Mary’s Outline from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.051208

In this second part a VERY SPECIAL two-part session of Writing Excuses Brandon, Dan, and Howard continue to tear into Mary's first novel outline.

Writing Excuses 7.17: Guns and Fiction from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.048284

Guest and gun-nut Larry Correia joins the Writing Excuses crew to talk firearms, fiction, and common mistakes.

Writing Excuses 7.18: Discovering your Voice from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.045294

What is your "voice" and how do you identify it? James Artimus Owen joins us for this discussion before a live audience at Life, The Universe, and Everything at Utah Valley University. Listen

Writing Excuses 7.19: Q&A at UVU from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.042048

A Q&A with James Dashner covering paragraph edits, plotting, writing prequels to existing series, and more.

Writing Excuses 7.20: Cathartic Horror from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.038838

Michael R. Collings and Michaelbrent Collings discuss cathartic horror with Brandon, Dan, and Mary in front of a live audience at UVU.

Writing Excuses 7.21: Project In Depth — Force Multiplication from 2023-12-13T17:01:14.035009

Howard answers questions about "Force Multiplication," (the 12th Schlock Mercenary book) as posed by Brandon, Dan, and Mary.

Writing Excuses 7.22: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.998808

A microcast is our word for an asynchronous Q&A episode: you ask us tons of questions online, either through twitter or facebook or our listenermail account (on the sidebar), and we want to ...

Writing Excuses 7.23: Time Travel from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.995537

Recorded live, our regular 'casters discuss time travel, and somehow manage not to become any of their own parents, or even uncles.

Writing Excuses 7.24: Project in Depth — Way of Kings from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.992270

Brandon answers "The Way of Kings" questions from Mary, Howard, and Dan.

Writing Excuses 7.25: Writing Capers from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.988783

Capers and Heists as a plot form, with lots of movies cited as examples.

Writing Excuses 7.26: Q&A at UVU part 2 from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.985557

Recorded live at Utah Valley University, here's another Q&A episode from the LTUE Symposium! The questions: What was Brandon's plan with Mistborn and the themes regarding establishme...

Writing Excuses 7.27: The Problem of Originality from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.982889

Do we value originality too much? What does it mean to be original, and how can we, as authors, write wonderful things when all of the good ideas have already been used?

Writing Excuses 7.28: Project in Depth– Glamour in Glass from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.979175

Mary Robinette Kowal talks in depth about her novel Glamour In Glass, fielding questions from Brandon, Dan, and Howard.

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Writing Excuses 7.29: The Villain Problem from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.976167

What do you do when your villain is more interesting and engaging than your hero? The first step? Admit that this is a problem...

Writing Excuses 7.30: Micocasting…Again! from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.973735

The crew fields questions about criticism, suspension of disbelief, tension, and more.

Writing Excuses 7.31: Project in Depth — Hollow City from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.971066

Spoilers galore as we discuss "Hollow City," in depth, with author Dan Wells

Writing Excuses 7.32: Astronomy 101 for Writers from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.968200

Eric James Stone joins the cast to talk astronomy as a tool for world-building

Writing Excuses 7.33: Authentic Emotion from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.964677

Emote! Now do it authentically! In this episode we'll explain how we do it, and hopefully help you do it better.

Writing Excuses 7.34: How to Start the Next One from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.961503

Finishing one project means it's time to start the next one. And no, it's not necessarily going to get easier...

Writing Excuses 7.36: Writing Gaming Fiction with Monte Cook from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.957639

RPG Luminary Monte Cook joins us at GenCon Indy 2012 to talk about writing for games, and the perils of trying to adapt game play back into prose.

Writing Excuses 7.35: Brainstorming with Dan from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.954526

Dan needs help writing a short story, so Brandon, Mary, and Howard endeavor to help him. Hopefully this will be educational for the rest of you.

Writing Excuses 7.37: Pantsing from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.951793

Pantsing! What are we even talking about? We're talking about discovery writing, but apparently some folks think it's more fun to call it "seat-of-your-pants" writing. In this ca...

Writing Excuses 7.38: Writing Love Scenes from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.948751

Shanna Germain joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard for a frank discussion of love scenes.

Writing Excuses 7.39: Death from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.943972

Killing characters for all the right reasons, and knowing what the wrong ones are.

Writing Excuses 7.40: Writing the Other from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.941211

Maurice Broaddus joins us to talk about "writing the other" -- writing other cultures, races, genders -- basically anybody who isn't much like you.

Writing Excuses 7.41: Seven-Point Story Structure from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.937786

Dan Wells walks us through the seven-point story structure format he uses, and then we demonstrate by brainstorming this on a sample story.

Writing Excuses 7.42: Contemporary YA Fiction from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.899722

Janci Patterson joins us to talk about contemporary YA , her debut novel "Chasing the Skip," and writing from a pitch.

Writing Excuses 7.43: Tie-in Fantasy Fiction with James L Sutter from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.896843

James L. Sutter, Pathfinder editor with Paizo, talks to us about tie-in fiction.

Writing Excuses 7.44: Writing for Comics with Jim Zub from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.894542

Jim Zub talks writing comics with Brandon, Howard, and Mary at GenCon Indy

Writing Excuses 7.45: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.891843

It's microcasting time! This week we take a crack at the following listener questions: What percentage of a rough draft makes it into print? What are the pitfalls of jumping from novels to s...

NaNoWriMo 2012: Bonus Mini-Episode 1, with Brandon&Mary from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.888208

Brandon and Mary take time out from World Fantasy to encourage everyone participating in NaNoWriMo.

Writing Excuses 7.46: Project in Depth The Emperor’s Soul from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.885144

Brandon talks in depth about his novella "The Emperor's Soul"

NaNoWriMo 2012: Bonus Mini-Episode 2, with Dan&Rob from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.881986

Dan Wells and Robison Wells give you a pep talk for the second week of NaNoWriMo.

Writing Excuses 7.47: Raising the Stakes from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.877813

What are the things that matter to your characters? What things matter to your readers? After we get the obligatory ambiguity out of the way, we settle into talking about the "stakes" an...

NaNoWriMo 2012: Bonus Episode 3, with Howard from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.874067

Howard Tayler gives NaNoWriMo participants a pep-talk on their way into the last week of the month.

Writing Excuses 7.48: Pixar Rules for Writing a Compelling Story from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.869386

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary review some of Emma Coats' "Pixar Rules" for storytelling

NaNoWriMo 2012: Bonus Episode 4, with Mary&Brandon from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.864140

Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal provide last-minute writing advice to you NaNoWriMo'ers out there...

Writing Excuses 7.49: Beginnings Revisited from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.859170

We've talked about where to start. Now Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about how to start -- what goes "in" when you're going "in late, out early."

Writing Excuses 7.50: Outlining the Mary Way from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.854178

Mary Robinette Kowal schools Brandon, Dan, and Howard with her outlining system.

Writing Excuses 7.51: Brainstorming with Mary from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.849700

Mary invites Brandon, Dan, and Howard to brainstorm a story with her.

Writing Excuses 7.52: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.844763

A fast-paced Q&A covering discouragement, magic systems, ideas, and our embarrassing early projects.

Writing Excuses 7.53: Secret History from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.839486

How is "Men in Black" like "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?" This week on Writing Excuses we talk about Secret History, and how to do it well.

Writing Excuses 7.54: Four Ways the Industry is Changing from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.834044

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard each take a look at some changing aspect of the industry, and how they're reacting to that change.

Writing Excuses 8.1: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.794242

We're back for the New Year, and we start by answering all your questions. Or at least eight of them.

Writing Excuses 8.2: Hero’s Journey from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.789908

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary talk about the Hero's Journey. Finally.

Writing Excuses 8.3: Pets from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.784730

How do you give a personality to the animal or animals in your story? How do you do it without being a crazy cat lady?

Writing Excuses 8.4: Side-Character Arcs from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.779548

Do you need arcs and development for side-characters?

Writing Excuses 8.5: Breaking the Rules from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.775093

They're not rules, they're guidelines. Right? Let's talk about breaking "rules" of writing.

Writing Excuses 8.6: Retellings and Adaptations from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.770614

Why would you retell a story that has already been told? Now, how would you go about doing it well?

Writing Excuses 8.7: Cliffhangers and Icebergs with Robison Wells from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.765111

Robison Wells joins the 'cast to talk to us about cliffhangers.

Writing Excuses 8.8: Writing and Personal Health from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.759679

Robison Wells joins Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard to talk about health -- especially the mental kind.

Writing Excuses 8.9: Brainstorming with Howard from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.753742

The team helps Howard brainstorm a story about big Pharma and Death...

Writing Excuses 8.10: Brainstorming With Howard Again from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.747915

Howard brainstorms with Brandon, Mary, and Dan on a Schlock Mercenary bonus story.

Writing Excuses 8.11: Abnormal Psychology from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.742302

Robison Wells discusses writing mentally ill characters with Brandon, Mary, and Dan.

Writing Excuses 8.12: Project in Depth — Deus ex Nauseum from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.735727

The cast grills Howard about "Deus ex Nauseum," the bonus story from Emperor Pius Dei

Writing Excuses 8.13: Fake It Till You Make it from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.674216

Mary, Howard, Dan, and Brandon talk about the things we do to feel like professionals.

Writing Excuses 8.14: Brainstorming with Brandon from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.667891

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard brainstorm a science-fiction short story featuring artificial intelligence

Writing Excuses 8.15: Narrative Rhythm from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.661180

We begin with an audio glitch and a jumbling of our usual intro. Why? Because it breaks rhythm, and sometimes you may actually want to do that. Narrative rhythm is the pattern of story elements ...

Writing Excuses 8.16: Brainstorming with Brandon Again from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.654728

Mary, Dan, and Howard help Brandon brainstorm a story, this time featuring psychic birds.

Writing Excuses 8.17: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.648040

The Writing Excuses Crew fields questions about crossed genres, literary fiction, magical realism, and more.

Writing Excuses 8.18: Blocking from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.641468

Blocking! What is it, why is it important, and how can you do it well?

Writing Excuses 8.19: Writing and Convention Culture from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.552933

Writing Excuses tackles water from the perspective of the fish. Also? The culture surrounding writers.

Writing Excuses 8.20: The Short Story, with Mary Robinette Kowal from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.545478

Mary Robinette Kowal walks us through writing short stories.

Writing Excuses 8.21: What the Avengers did Right from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.539285

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard loved "The Avengers," and would like to tell you what they think the film did right.

Writing Excuses 8.22: Pre-writing with E.J. Patten from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.519456

E.J. Patten joins us to talk about pre-writing -- all that work that gets done before the prose happens.

Writing Excuses 8.23: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.511574

Brandon, Dan, Mary, Howard, and guest E.J. Patten answer a slew of questions about writing and the business of writing.

Writing Excuses 8.24: Project in Depth–Kiss Me Twice from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.502032

Mary walks Brandon, Dan, and Howard through the processes for writing "Kiss Me Twice," her Hugo-nominated novella

Writing Excuses 8.25: Middle Grade with E.J. Patten from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.496201

E.J. Patten joins us again, this to discuss the particulars of writing middle-grade fiction.

Writing Excuses 8.26: Space Opera from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.490545

What does "space opera" mean, and how might you go about writing it?

Writing Excuses 8.27: Chapter Breakdowns from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.484897

How do we break our books into chapters, and how to we build those chapters to begin with?

Writing Excuses 8.28: Your First Contract from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.478591

The team talks about contracts, and what you as an author staring at a contract should be considering.

Writing Excuses 8.29: Out of Excuses Retreat Q&A #1 from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.465103

The cast answers questions about publishing, formatting, process, and the Evil Nemesis John Scalzi.

Writing Excuses 8.30: Writing Reluctant Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.459547

The cast discusses how to make reluctant, non-proactive, non-go-getting characters interesting to read about.

Writing Excuses 8.31: Combining Dialogue, Blocking, and Description from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.453569

The cast talks about making dialogue, blocking, and description work together for exposition and story-telling.

Writing Excuses 8.32: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.448283

Q&A covering workflow, contests, lantern-hanging, word counts, and more

Writing Excuses 8.33: Making Non-Human Characters Relatable from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.442771

How do you help your readers relate to the non-human characters in your fiction?

Writing Excuses 8.34: Survivorship Bias from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.437350

The cast talks about their survivorship bias, and how to pay attention to that bias so that listeners can extract advice from us that might actually work for you

Writing Excuses 8.35: Digging Yourself Out of Holes with Jeph Jacques from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.431863

Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content joins us to talk about discovery writing, and how he digs himself out of holes when he writes himself into them.

Writing Excuses 8.36: Transitioning Characters in Prominence from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.425125

How do you go about transitioning characters in relative prominence during a series of books?

Writing Excuses 8.37: When Fail Happens in Your Career from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.419575

How do you respond to bad reviews, publisher errors, or other possible "career fail" situations?

Writing Excuses 8.38:Out of Excuses Retreat Q&A #2 from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.413715

The cast talks about self publishing, our early career difficulties, Easter Eggs, and more...

Writing Excuses 8.39: Dystopian Fiction with Cherie Priest from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.408463

Cherie Priest joins the cast for a discussion of dystopian fiction before a live audience.

Writing Excuses 8.40: Publishing with Bill Schafer from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.402583

Bill Schaefer of Subterranean Press talks publishing with us.

Writing Excuses 8.41: Out of Excuses Retreat Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.396271

Microcasting... it's what we call Q&A. Beta readers, IP issues, discovery writing, chapter length, and more.

Writing Excuses 8.42: The Internal Heckler vs. The Internal Editor from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.391005

"Silence your internal editor" may not be very good advice. We talk about why.

Writing Excuses 8.43: Realistic Melee Fighting with Wesley Chu from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.385851

Wesley Chu joins us at GenCon Indy for a discussion of realistic melee fighting.

Writing Excuses 8.44: Talking Publishing with Tom Doherty from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.367757

Tom Doherty, president and founder of Tor books, joins us at GenCon to talk publishing.

Writing Excuses 8.45: Gencon Q&A With Wesley Chu from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.362173

Wes Chu joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard for a live audience Q&A at GenCon

Writing Excuses 8.46: Editing with Aeryn Rudel from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.356974

Aeryn Rudel from Privateer Press and Skull Island X joins us at GenCon Indy to talk about editing.

Writing Excuses 8.47: Roguishness with Scott Lynch from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.351517

Scott Lynch, author of The Republic of Thieves, joins Brandon, Howard, and Mary before a live audience at GenCon Indy to talk about roguishness. Why do we like rogues? What can a roguish charact...

Writing Excuses 8.48: Long-Form Storytelling with Sam Logan from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.345699

Sam Logan of "Sam and Fuzzy" talks long-form storytelling with Brandon, Mary, and Howard

Writing Excuses 8.49: Hard Social Science Fiction with Joel Shepherd from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.339397

Joel Shepherd joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard to talk about hard social science.

Writing Excuses 8.50: Q&A with Mercedes Lackey from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.333853

Mercedes Lackey joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard to field listener questions at GenCon Indy.

Writing Excuses 8.51: Creative non-fiction with Mette Ivie Harrison from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.328059

Mette Ivie Harrison joins us to discuss creative non-fiction, the genre in which the tools of creative writing are applied to factually accurate narratives.

Writing Excuses 8.52: You Think You Don’t Have Time to Write, with Mette Ivie Harrison from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.321848

Mette Ivie Harrison joins us to talk about the reasons you think you don't have time to write.

Writing Excuses 9.1: Chronology of a Book Deal with Eric James Stone from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.315865

Eric James Stone joins us to talk about the book deal chronology for UNFORGETTABLE.

Writing Excuses 9.2: Hard Science Fiction with Eric James Stone from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.310385

Eric James Stone joins us for a discussion of hard science fiction -- what it is, what it isn't, and how to do it well.

Writing Excuses 9.3: Character Perception vs. Narrative Perception with Nancy Fulda from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.303986

Nancy Fulda joins the cast for a discussion of narrative versus character perceptions

Writing Excuses 9.4: Artificial Intelligence with Nancy Fulda from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.299728

Nancy Fulda talks Artificial Intelligence with Brandon, Mary, and Howard.

Writing Excuses 9.5: Hijacking the Knowledge You Already Have, with Mette Ivie Harrison from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.293767

Mette Ivie Harrison joins us to talk about how to "hijack" the knowledge you already have in order to make you a better writer.

Writing Excuses 9.6: The Experience of Time from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.287130

Time passes, and we have lots of ways to tell readers how quickly that's happening.

Writing Excuses 9.7: Last Pass Revisions with Eric James Stone from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.279912

Eric James Stone joins us for a discussion of revision, and what the final pass process looks like.

Writing Excuses 9.8: When is your Handwavium Good Enough? from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.273763

What is handwavium? How does it work? What happens when it doesn't work?

Writing Excuses 9.9: What to do When Truth is Stranger than Fiction from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.267701

How do you put true stuff in your books when the truth is just too strange?

Writing Excuses 9.10: Engaging Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.261918

What makes characters engaging, and how is that different from them being sympathetic?

Writing Excuses 9.11: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.256238

Eric James Stone joins us to answer questions about editors, pitching, pantsing, and encouragement.

Writing Excuses 9.12: Microcasting! Twice in a row! from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.250820

A Q&A covering editing, rule-breaking, writing the other, gift-giving, and more.

Writing Excuses 9.13: Three Pronged Character Development from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.244183

We explore a three-value model for troubleshooting characters: Competence, Proactivity, and Sympathy

Writing Excuses 9.14: How to have an Opinion as a Public Figure from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.238461

We talk about expressing controversial opinions on the Internet. And just talking about it might be controversial...

Writing Excuses 9.15: Becoming a Writer—Full Disclosure from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.232025

Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard talk about the unpleasant surprises their careers dropped on them.

Writing Excuses 9.16: Coming up with a New Ending Halfway Through from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.225584

What to do when you discover your planned ending isn't actually going to work...

Writing Excuses 9.17: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.218966

A Q&A episode with Eric James Stone

Writing Excuses 9.18: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.212759

We answer questions on tropes, narrative styles, editing, rule-breaking and more.

Writing Excuses 9.19: Showing Emotion from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.206237

How to go about showing a character's emotions without them seeming emo.

Writing Excuses 9.20: Creator vs Creation from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.200424

How do we interact with readers who find meaning in our works that we don't recall putting in there?

Writing Excuses 9.21: Sanderson’s 3rd Law from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.194881

When building your world, go deep rather than going wide.

Writing Excuses 9.22: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.189410

Prologues, motivations, and research, oh my!

Writing Excuses 9.23: World Building Without Breaking Viewpoint from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.183733

How do you describe water from the point of view of a fish?

Writing Excuses 9.24: Side Quests from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.176962

Side quests come in a couple of forms -- they may be something inside the book that takes the characters away from the main plotline, or they may be adventures that take place outside of the boo...

Writing Excuses 9.25: Adjusting Character Sympathy from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.170955

In which we discuss adjusting how sympathetic the reader is toward a particular character...

Writing Excuses 9.26: Adjusting Character Competence from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.165380

In which we discuss adjusting how competent our characters appear...

Writing Excuses 9.27: Pre-writing from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.158792

Pre-writing: It's like pre-cooking, only with more abandoned prologues and fewer refried beans.

Writing Excuses 9.28: Part 1 of 2, Critiquing Sixth of the Dusk from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.146731

The first of the SHADOWS BENEATH critique episodes, in which we thrash on a new Cosmere story from Brandon Sanderson so that he can fix it. Part 1 of 2.

Writing Excuses 9.29: Part 2 of 2, Critiquing Sixth of the Dusk from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.137779

The second of the SHADOWS BENEATH critique episodes, in which we thrash on a new Cosmere story from Brandon Sanderson so that he can fix it. Part 2 of 2.

Writing Excuses 9.30: Critiquing A Fire in the Heavens from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.131661

The third of the SHADOWS BENEATH critique episodes, in which Mary schools us with Milford...

Writing Excuses 9.31: Critiquing “An Honest Death” from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.126978

The fourth of the SHADOWS BENEATH critique episodes, in which Howard is stuck...

Writing Excuses 9.32: Adjusting Character Proactivity from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.122251

We talk about how to make characters more or less proactive in the stories we tell.

Writing Excuses 9.33: Microcasting from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.117710

Q&A in which we cover proofreading, writing time, career stuff, and no, you can't have any of our DNA.

Writing Excuses 9.34: Science Fiction as Science Education from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.112841

Brad "Doctor Zombie" Voytek talks to us about making science accessible and attractive through science fiction.

Writing Excuses 9.35: What to do when you disagree with your editor from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.107717

Peter Orullian joins us to discuss managing the author-editor relationship when things go wrong.

Writing Excuses 9.36: Writing Instruction from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.102587

David Farland joins, along with a live audience at Westercon 67, for a discussion on writing instruction.

9.37: Training A Critique Group, with Kathleen Dalton Woodbury from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.097919

Kathleen Dalton Woodbury, the forum moderator at the Hatrack River writers group joined us at Westercon 67 to talk about critique groups. We cover how critiques should be offered, as well as imp...

Writing Excuses 9.38: Q&A at Westercon from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.092915

Peter Orullian joins us in front of a live audience at Westercon 67 for a Q&A. The questions include: As a writer, how do you handle reviewing other people's books? How do you compartmen...

Writing Excuses 9.39: Publicity for Books from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.088882

Patty Garcia, Director of Publicity at Tor, joins us to discuss publicizing books

Writing Excuses 9.40: Understanding Royalties, with Paul Stevens from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.084606

Paul Stevens, an editor at Tor, joined us in front of a live audience at Westercon 67 to talk about royalties.

Writing Excuses 9.41: Fan Writing, with Christopher J. Garcia from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.073509

Christopher J. Garcia, publisher and editor of The Drink Tank, joins us for a discussion of fan writing.

Registration is open for the 2015 Out of Excuses Writing Workshop and Retreat from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.065506

Registration is now open for the 2015 Out of Excuses Writing Workshop and Retreat. For the last two years the event has had a very limited size, and as a result has sold out very quickly. For 20...

Writing Excuses 9.42: The Convention-Author Relationship, with Deirdre Saoirse Moen from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.058755

Deirdre Saoirse Moen, who organizes fan-run literary cons and schedules programs for them, joins us to talk about programming from the convention's point of view.

Writing Excuses 9.43: Writing Mysteries from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.051858

Live from Westercon 67 and Fantasy Con, Mette Ivie Harrison and J.R. Johannson join us to talk about writing for the mystery genre. We begin by talking about the key differences between thriller...

Writing Excuses 9.44: Getting in the Writer’s Mindset with Peter Beagle from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.046371

We were thrilled to have Peter Beagle join us for an episode, recorded live at Westercon 67. We talked about the writer's mindset, and how to get into it. Peter schooled Brandon before the e...

Writing Excuses 9.45: Tools for Writing from Oral Storytelling from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.040097

M. Todd Gallowglas is a writer and a storyteller who has spent years doing traditional oral storytelling at renaissance fairs. He joined us at FantasyCon/Westercon 67 before a live audience and ...

Writing Excuses 9.46: Disability in Narrative from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.033814

Charlie Harmon, one of the luminaries of Utah area fandom, joined us to talk about disability in narrative. She's been going blind gradually since she was a child, and these days while she c...

Writing Excuses 9.47: Conversation With a Bookseller from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.029128

Sara Glassman joins us to talk about back cover copy, covers, query letters, signings, and what booksellers look for on page one.

Writing Excuses 9.49: Hiding the Open Grave from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.024841

So, you're planning to kill somebody, but you don't want anyone to see it coming. How do you make that happen? We begin by talking about the hints that writers inadvertently drop, and wh...

Writing Excuses 9.48: Neurobolics of Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.019792

As authors we spend a lot of time trying to make our readers care about the characters we create. We have a wide variety of techniques at our disposal to accomplish this. But do we ever ask ours...

Writing Excuses 9.50: Writing for the Enfranchised Reader from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.014278

Recorded live in front of the Out of Excuses students, a crowd of savvy readers if ever there was one, we talk about how to effectively write for readers who are familiar with the genre or story...

Writing Excuses 9.51: Q&A At The Retreat from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.008026

If there's a crowd with good questions, it's the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat attendees. Given the trend toward moral ambiguity, is there still a place for an unquestionably evil ...

Writing Excuses Season 9.52: From the Page to the Stage from 2023-12-13T17:01:13.002641

Allison W. Hill and C. Austin Hill joined us at the Out of Excuses Retreat to talk about turning A Night of Blacker Darkness, by Dan Wells, into a stage play. "From the page to the stage"...

Writing Excuses 9.53: Writing For Fun from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.997730

You know what's fun? WRITING! Writing is fun. And that, more than anything else, is why we do it. Or at least it's why we decided to do it. Making sure that it is still fun is kind of tr...

Writing Excuses 9.54: Capstone to Season 9 from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.993435

As 2014 draws to a close we say goodbye to Season 9, and talk a bit about what we've each learned this year. Howard explained the surprising changes that came with a change in his work space...

Writing Excuses 10.1: Seriously, Where Do You Get Your Ideas? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.988332

Brandon, Howard, Mary, and Dan offer useful answers to that age-old question: "Where do you get your ideas?"

Writing Excuses 10.2: I Have an Idea; What Do I Do Now? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.984744

Writing Excuses Season 10, the podcasted master-class, continues with this exploration of that critical second step: what do do once you've got an idea that has story-legs. (Note: When we sa...

Writing Excuses 10.3: Lovecraftian Horror from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.978352

Cherie Priest joins us for a discussion of Lovecraftian horror.

2015 Hugo Award Eligibility – SHADOWS BENEATH from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.972077

Don't forget to nominate for the 2015 Hugo Ballot, and if you like Writing Excuses, please consider nominating Shadows Beneath for Best Related Work.

Writing Excuses 10.4: Q&A on Ideas from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.965088

At the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat we premiered the Season 10 concept, and we invited our attendees to give us the questions we need this month. (They'll also be the ones providing o...

Writing Excuses 10.5: What Do You Mean My Main Character is Boring? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.958511

Does your draft have a boring main character? You're not alone! Also, the problem can be solved.

Writing Excuses 10.6: The Worldbuilding Revolves Around Me (“The Magical 1%”) from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.952317

In which Max Gladstone introduces us to the concept of the Magical 1%

Writing Excuses 10.7: Who Are All These People? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.946012

Our character-focused month continues with an exploration of the challenges involved in building a cast for your story. Whether you're building a large or small cast, you need to know why yo...

Writing Excuses 10.8: Q&A on Character from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.940539

It's time for a Q&A on characters! The questions for this episode were provided by the attendees at the 2014 Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat: How do you have a character grow in powe...

Writing Excuses 10.9: Where is My Story Coming From? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.934970

This month's syllabus topic is story structure, and we'll be starting with the part we start with. And that part usually isn't the beginning -- that's where the story starts for ...

Writing Excuses 10.10: Q&A with the I Ching from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.930088

Wesley Chu joins us for a literal shake-up of our structure for one episode. We had loads of fun with this one. The I Ching is a collection of poems which you consult with numbered sticks. You a...

Writing Excuses 10.11: Project In Depth: “Parallel Perspectives” from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.925342

If you haven't yet read "Parallel Perspectives," from Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, we have a PDF for you to download and read before you start listening to this episode. It...

Writing Excuses 10.12: Story structure Q&A, with Special Guest Wesley Chu from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.920743

Wes Chu joins us again for a Q&A about this month's topic: story structure! Here are the questions: Do you make a conscious decision about how to structure your story before you begin wr...

Writing Excuses 10.13: Where is My Story Going? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.913980

Any discussion of story structure must necessarily take a look at that big, long bit between the beginning and the end, that piece where almost everything actually happens. In this episode we ta...

Writing Excuses 10.14: How Much of the Beginning Needs to Come First? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.907641

How do you know which bits of your story have to come first?

Writing Excuses 10.15: Worldbuilding Wilderness with Wes Chu from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.901271

Wes Chu, author and adventurer, recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and has some things to say about all the wilderness trekking that our characters do in the books we write, and how we often fo...

Writing Excuses 10.16: What Do I Do With All This Blank Space? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.895911

Let's get that first page written in a way that will bring the reader to all the rest of the pages.

Writing Excuses 10.17: Q&A on Beginnings from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.889265

We've talked beginnings all month. Now we take your questions about them.

Writing Excuses 10.18: Build an Entire World? Are You Crazy? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.882699

This one's for all you folks who like to do some world building on-the-fly.

Writing Excuses 10.19: Intrigue from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.875134

What's the difference between intrigue, suspense, and mystery? We talk about this, and then drill down on intrigue.

Writing Excuses 10.20: How Do I Write a Story, Not an Encyclopedia? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.869073

You've done piles of world building. How do you convey this world to reader without infodumping? We talk about the different skill levels involved, and then the techniques that you'll be...

Writing Excuses 10.21: Q&A on World Building from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.863177

We answer questions about consistency, alternate histories, and the Great Spoke Plague of '77

Writing Excuses 10.22: Project-in-Depth—Of Noble Family from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.857126

Spoilers ahead! We dig into Of Noble Family, by Mary Robinette Kowal, focusing on language, culture, and the extensive research Mary did.

Writing Excuses 10.23: Can You Tell Me How To Show? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.850695

Instead of saying "show, don't tell," we say "here's how to show."

Writing Excuses 10.24: Hooking Younger Readers from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.845809

Media Specialist Kiley Snyder joins us to talk about hooking young readers.

Writing Excuses 10.25: What Makes a Scene? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.841119

We talk about how we define and structure scenes in our writing, and we make reference to Scene/Sequel format, the MICE quotient, and pacing.

Writing Excuses 10.26: Q&A on Scenes and Description from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.836556

How do you "show, don't tell" a character's thoughts? We answer this question, and more!

Writing Excuses 10.27: Why Can’t I Just Jump to the Ending? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.832293

Lots of people struggle with the middles of their books. One way to look at the middle is that it's the point where you're no longer working on that new project that has you excited, but...

Writing Excuses 10.28: Polytheism in Fiction, with Marie Brennan from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.828224

Marie Brennan joins us for a discussion of polytheism (and really any belief system) in our fiction.

Writing Excuses 10.29: Why Should My Characters Fail Spectacularly? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.823920

Character failure is a big part of making the middle of a story work. We talk about why, and offer tips about how to make this work well for you.

Writing Excuses 10.30: Q&A on Middles, with Marie Brennan from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.819869

Marie Brennan joins us again, this time to help us field your questions about middles. Here are the questions we collected from the various social media feeds: How do you maintain interest witho...

Writing Excuses 10.31: How Do I Control the Reader’s Sense of Progress? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.815559

Are we making progress? How do we communicate that to the reader?

Writing Excuses 10.32: How Do I Control the Speed of the Story? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.811124

Words take time to read, but that's not the same amount of time that the words communicate...

Writing Excuses 10.33: Combat, with Marie Brennan from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.805972

Marie Brennan joins us again, this time for a discussion about writing combat. She's studied fencing, combat choreography, and is *this close* to having a black belt in shotokan karate, brin...

Writing Excuses 10.34: Q&A on Pacing from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.801323

We wrap up this month's discussion of pacing with a Q&A. Here are the questions we pulled out of the virtual hat (read: Twitter) for answering during the episode: What are some early ind...

Writing Excuses 10.35: Breaking In, With Charlie N. Holmberg from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.796434

Charlie N. Holmberg, who was recently signed by Amazon's 47 North imprint, joined us in front of a live audience it Sasquan (the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention) to talk about breaking...

Writing Excuses 10.36: How Does Context Shape Plot Twists? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.791230

We've talked about plot twists before. This episode covers the way in which the type of plot twist is dependent on, or signaled by, the context of the story. Getting plot twists right may me...

Writing Excuses 10.37: Being a Good Panelist and a Great Moderator, with Susan J. Morris and Marc Tassin from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.785951

This month's wildcard episode comes to you from the 2015 GenCon Indy Writers' Symposium, where Dan and Howard had the opportunity to interview Susan J. Morris and Marc Tassin. Susan is o...

Writing Excuses 10.38: How Does Context Shape Dialog? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.779955

Our second installment for the Master Class's month of context covers the way dialog between characters may change meaning depending upon the context you create for them. This context may be...

Writing Excuses 10.39: Q&A on Plot Twists with Kevin J. Anderson from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.774879

Kevin J. Anderson joined us at Sasquan/WorldCon 73 to take questions about plot twists. Here are the questions that came in from our live audience: Genre Twists: good, bad, or ugly? Can you comp...

Writing Excuses 10.40: What’s the Difference Between Ending and Stopping? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.769444

Nalo Hopkinson joins us for this episode, which we recorded before a live audience of Out Of Excuses Workshop & Retreat attendees. October's master class episodes focus on endings, and i...

Writing Excuses 10.41: Your Character’s Moral Pendulum from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.764046

Brad Beaulieu and Jaym Gates join us from the GenCon Indy Writing Symposium to talk about good versus evil, and how your character might swing between the two. And it's all about that swing....

Writing Excuses 10.42: How In The World Do I Tie All This Together? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.758119

Nalo Hopkinson joins us again, at sea, for our second Master Class installment on endings. We cover some of the reasons why an ending might not be working, and then talk about the sorts of diagn...

Writing Excuses 10.43: Q&A on Endings, with Delia Sherman from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.750193

Delia Sherman joined us aboard the Independence of the Seas for our question-and-answer installment on endings. The questions came from the attendees at the Writing Excuses Workshop, which was, ...

Writing Excuses 10.44: How Do I Fix What is Broken? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.743545

November is "Revision" month here in the Writing Excuses Season 10 Master Class, so while many of you may be tempted by NaNoWriMo, there's a different kind of work to be done... Deli...

Writing Excuses 10.45: Q&A at the GenCon Writing Symposium, with Kameron Hurley, James L. Sutter, and Michael Underwood from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.736860

Dan and Howard are joined by Kameron Hurley, James L. Sutter, and Michael Underwood for an anything-goes Q&A at the GenCon Indy Writing Symposium. We had reached the end of our two-hour bloc...

Writing Excuses 10.46: How Do I Make This Pretty? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.730165

The microphones again find us aboard the Independence of the Seas*, to talk about how terribly ugly this manuscript is, and what we can do to make it pretty. In this episode we drill down on lin...

Writing Excuses 10.47: Q&A on Revision from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.723573

And now for your questions about revision. Or rather, questions from the WXR attendees, who were aboard the Independence of the Seas with us (the answers to these questions are secreted away in ...

Writing Excuses 10.48: Project in Depth, The Devil’s Only Friend from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.716699

Spoiler Alert! We'll be discussing the latest John Cleaver book from Dan Wells with author, podcaster, and unrepentant bacon-lover Dan Wells! If you haven't read it, and you want to be s...

Writing Excuses 10.49: What Do I Do With This Thing Now? from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.710153

We're at the end of our Season Ten Master Class, and if you've been diligent about the homework, you may very well have a finished manuscript in your hands. What do you do with it? Danie...

Writing Excuses 10.50: How to Hand-Sell Your Manuscript to Agents and Editors, with Michael Underwood and Marco Palmieri from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.704404

Marco Palmieri and Michael Underwood took the stage with Howard and Dan at GenCon Indy 2015 to discuss hand-selling manuscripts. Marco Palmieri is a senior editor at Tor, and Michael Underwood i...

Writing Excuses 10.51: Q&A on Showing Your Work, with Daniel José Older from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.698292

Daniel José Older joins us for a Q&A on showing your work around. Here are the questions, which were submitted by attendees at the Out of Excuses workshop: What's the best way to meet ed...

Writing Excuses 10.52: Moving On, with Ellen Kushner from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.692297

Ellen Kushner joins us for the last episode of Season 10. Per the title, folks, it's time to be done. What does "done" mean? How do you go about declaring a project "finished"...

Writing Excuses 11.1: Introduction to Elemental Genre from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.686309

The word "genre" has a lot of weight to it. Arguments about whether a particular work is, or is not, part of a given genre are long, and tedious. Season Eleven will not be engaging in th...

11.2: How To Get The Most Out Of A Conference, with Kathy Chung from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.680043

What's the difference between a conference and a convention? How do we, as writers, get the most out of them?

11.03: Layering The Elemental Genres from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.674384

Elemental Genre becomes particularly useful when you start blending the elements for sub-plots, character arcs, or even mash-ups.

11.04: Newton’s Laws of Writing from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.665274

Let's map Newton's Laws of Motion onto writing. Because a wordcount at rest tends to remain at rest...

11.05: Writing and World Building for Role Playing Games from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.660943

Michelle Lyons McFarland, Monica Valentinelli, and Shanna Germain join Howard and Dan at GenCon, and talk about the craft of world building for role playing games.

11.06: The Element of Wonder from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.656952

We've introduced the concept of Elemental Genre already. It's time to start digging in to the elements themselves, beginning with the Element of Wonder. We started with this one because ...

11.07: The Convention Survival Kit, with Gail Carriger from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.653164

Gail Carriger joins us to talk about her Convention Survival Kit, which is full of things most of us wish we'd known to pack with us years ago.

11.08: Wonder as a Subgenre from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.648211

If the Element of Wonder is the driving force behind "sense of wonder" science fiction and fantasy, then that same element can be used to give wondrous flavor to stories whose driving fo...

11.09: Q&A on the Element of Wonder from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.643221

Gama Ray Martinez joins us at LTUE to field questions on the Element of Wonder, which were submitted by members of our audience. Here are the questions: How do you create wonder in non-genre sto...

11.10: Idea, as Genre, with Nancy Fulda from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.639308

Nancy Fulda joins us to talk about the Elemental Genre of Idea, and how to write stories driven by a sense of fascination.

11.11: Self Publishing in 2016, with Michaelbrent Collings from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.635057

Recorded live at LTUE, Michaelbrent Collings guest-starred for a discussion about self publishing. The landscape continues to change, and Collings is fully engaged in it. He begins by stressing ...

11.12: Idea as Subgenre, With Nancy Fulda from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.631022

Nancy Fulda is back for our second episode on the Idea elemental genre. We cover some tools for exploring an idea, and then drill down a bit on how to use that exploration, or even multiple expl...

11.13: Elemental Idea Q&A from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.627794

This is a Q&A about ideas that does NOT include the question "Where do you get your ideas?"

11.14: The Element of Adventure from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.624549

Our exploration of elemental genres continues with the sense of "I want to do that."

11.15: The Environment, with L.E. Modessit, Jr. from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.621196

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. joined us at LTUE for a world building discussion centered around the way the environment informs the story. We talk about lead in Roman plumbing, water lilies in Las Vegas se...

11.16: Adventure as a Subgenre from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.617634

Let's be adventurous. Let's move beyond simply being cooks, and strive to become chefs. In this episode we explore using the element of adventure as an ingredient in something that has f...

11.17: Elemental Adventure Q&A from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.614190

You may still have questions about how to apply elemental adventure in your work. Hopefully your questions are similar to the ones we collected below, because these are the ones we answered: Wha...

11.18: Elemental Horror from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.610572

Steve Diamond joins us to kick off our month on the elemental genre of horror. We explore the emotional components that readers seek from horror, and then drill down into the ways that we can cr...

11.19: Fashion for Writers, with Rebecca McKinney from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.606696

How do we go about describing the clothing our characters are wearing? How do we use that to add depth to our story? What are the common mistakes that writers make when they start dressing their...

11.20: Horror as a Subgenre from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.602408

Steve Diamond joins us again to talk horror, this time about using elemental horror as part of our stories' elemental ensemble. We discuss how the sense of dread can be a page-turning motiva...

11.21: Q&A on Elemental Horror, with Steve Diamond from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.598165

Steve Diamond joins us for our third and final Elemental Horror episode as we field your questions about this particular building block. Here are the questions we selected from your submissions:...

11.22: Examining Unconscious Biases, with Shannon Hale from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.593933

Shannon Hale joins us at LTUE for a live-audience session in which we explore gender biases, and extrapolate from there to our many other unconscious biases. Our unconscious biases are not just ...

11.23: The Element of Mystery from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.589720

Mystery may well be the most common element in use, at least in some form or another, across the many bookshelf genres comprising "fiction." We discuss the driving force of elemental mys...

11.24: Stakes! from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.584962

We talk a lot about "raising the stakes" in our writing. When we say "stakes," we're referring to the things that keep our characters involved in the conflict, rather than ju...

11.25: Elemental Mystery is Everywhere from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.579541

Per our Elemental Genre theme, this week we further explore elemental mystery. Elemental mystery can be found in any work in which our curiosity is what keeps us turning pages. The type of satis...

11.26: Elemental Mystery Q&A from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.575333

In this episode we field some questions about elemental mystery. Here they are! How do you balance between two mysteries in the same story? What types of mysteries can fit well as sub-plots? Wha...

11.27: The Elemental Thriller from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.569898

Let's get this out of the way up front: in the syntax of elemental genres, the phrase "the element of thriller" is clunky. But we'll say it anyway. We discuss the difference betw...

11.28: Impostor Syndrome, with Alyssa Wong from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.563341

Alyssa Wong, Campbell Award nominee and Nebula Award winner, joins us to talk about impostor syndrome. This is the frame of mind that many successful writers suffer from, in which they worry tha...

11.29: Elemental Thriller as a Subgenre from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.557123

Thrillers are, by their very nature, page-turners. In this episode we look at the thriller element as part of a story whose principal driver is one of the other elemental genres. We consider som...

11.30: Elemental Thriller Q&A from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.551019

We fielded the following questions about the "Thriller" elemental genre from listeners on Facebook and Twitter: How do I build tension consistently through my story? How do you maintain ...

11.31: Futurism, with Trina Marie Phillips from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.542116

Trina Marie Phillips joined us at Phoenix Comic Con to talk about her work as a futurist. Futurism, for those unfamiliar with our use of the term here, is related to science fiction, but it rema...

11.32: The Element of Humor from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.536789

"Talking about humor is the least funny thing you can do." —Howard Tayler You have been warned! and with that out of the way... What is the driving force that gets readers to turn pages ...

11.33: Crossover Fiction, with Victoria Schwab from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.532630

Victoria Schwab, who also writes as V.E. Schwab, joined us in Phoenix to talk about crossover fiction—in this context the term means books that target a given demographic but which have a much b...

11.34: Humor as a Sub-Genre from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.522812

Humor is present as an element, at least to some degree, in a substantial amount of the media we consume. In this episode we discuss some stylistic tools for applying humor to our work, and how ...

11.35: Elemental Humor Q&A with Victoria Schwab from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.519835

For our third Elemental Humor episode Victoria Schwab joins us as we field questions taken from our audience at Phoenix Comic-Con. Here are the questions: How do you add humor to a serious story...

11.36: The Elemental Relationship from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.516819

In elemental relationship stories the primary page-turning driver is the relationship between two or three characters ¹. In this episode we discuss ways in which we can write character relations...

11.37: Casting Your Book, with Gama Martinez from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.513553

Live from Phoenix Comic Con, Gama Martinez joins us for a discussion of casting your book. This is the process by which you create a cast of characters for your story ahead of creating the story...

11.38: The Elemental Relationship as a Sub-Genre from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.507809

We find the elemental relationship in all kinds of stories that are not fundamentally about relationships. The intimate interaction between characters is part of how we define the characters, ho...

11.39: Elemental Relationship Q&A, with Greg van Eekhout from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.504243

Greg van Eekhout joined us at Phoenix Comic Con for a live-audience Q&A session about Elemental Relationship writing. Here are the questions: What is your favorite way to establish relations...

11.40: Elemental Drama from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.500882

The word "drama" gets thrown around a lot. What do we mean when we use "drama" as an elemental genre? For us, Elemental Drama focuses on one character's transformation, and h...

11.41: The Editor’s Wish List, with Navah Wolfe from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.497634

Navah Wolfe, an editor at Saga Press, joined us to talk about the manuscripts she would really like to see. Ordinarily we don't encourage people to write to the market, but Navah asked speci...

11.Bonus-01: Characterization and Differentiation, with Robin Hobb from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.494616

Robin Hobb joined us at GenCon Indy for a discussion of characterization and differentiation. And by "discussion," what we really mean is "we ask Robin all the questions." We lea...

11.42: Elemental Drama as a Sub-Genre from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.491333

Focusing on elemental drama can be tricky. Remember, elemental drama is basically "character change." A great many stories use character change in some way—it's almost ubiquitous. In...

11.43: Elemental Drama Q&A, with Tananarive Due from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.488129

Our third Elemental Drama episode is a Q&A, featuring Tananarive Due. The questions are from the attendees at the Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreat: Rather than having a protagonist chang...

11.44: Project in Depth, GHOST TALKERS, by Mary Robinette Kowal from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.484694

Spoiler Alert! If you haven't yet read Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal, this episode will spoil great swathes of book for you. Also, you probably won't get as much out of it. This...

11.Bonus-02: Horrifying the Children, with Darren Shan from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.480846

Happy Halloween! Darren Shan talks horror with us in this bonus episode, made possible by our Patreon supporters.

11.Bonus-03: Some Books Have Maps in the Front, with Maurice Broaddus, Mur Lafferty, and James Sutter from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.476205

Three days late for the beginning of NaNoWriMo 2016, here's a bonus episode about maps. Because nothing says "keep writing" like "hey, let's draw a map now!" Dan and Howa...

11.45: Elemental Issue, with Desiree Burch from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.471165

For November, our elemental genre is "Issue," and we were joined by actor, writer, and comedian Desiree Burch. The Elemental Issue is similar to the Elemental Idea, but the type of idea ...

11.46: Colonialism, with Steven Barnes, Tempest Bradford, DongWon Song, and Shveta Thakrar from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.466585

Our listeners have been asking for an in-depth, "crunchy" episode on colonialism, and related issues like cultural appropriation, for a couple of years now. Our voices, however, are not ...

11.47: Issue as a Subgenre, with Steven Barnes from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.461223

Steven Barnes joins us to tackle Elemental Issue, round two, in which we look at how to address it as a sub-element. He describes the thesis/antithesis approach, and we move then to logical fram...

11.48: Elemental Issue Q&A, with DongWon Song from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.455759

DongWon Song, literary agent with HMLA, joins us for a Q&A on the elemental genre of "Issue." Here are the questions, which were submitted by the attendees at WXR '16: Can only c...

11.Bonus-04: Fantasy Food, with Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.447908

Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch joined Howard and Dan at GenCon Indy to talk about fantasy food, and how we engage our readers' appetites with our fiction. We talk economics, logistics, senso...

11.49: Elemental Ensemble, with Michael Damien Thomas from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.440154

Michael Damien Thomas, co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of Uncanny Magazine, joined us for a discussion of the elemental genre that contains most of the stories we refer to as "heists....

11.50: Hand-Selling Your Book to Potential Readers, with Michael R. Underwood from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.427193

Michael R. Underwood has talked to us about hand-selling books before, but that was about pitching to agents and editors. This time around he's talking about placing your product in the hand...

11.51: Ensemble as a Sub-Genre, with Lynne M. Thomas from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.421861

Lynne M. Thomas joins us to continue our discussion of the Elemental Ensemble, which is one of our favorite elemental tools. It's not just for heists. It adds interest, emotion, and lots of ...

11.52: Elemental Ensemble Q&A, With Claudia Gray from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.414277

Claudia Gray joined us aboard Oasis of the Seas to answer our attendees questions about the Elemental Ensemble. Here are the questions: Can you fit an ensemble into a short story? What the minim...

12.1: Variations on First Person from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.408330

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard We're beginning a new season, and during 2017 we will be focusing our topics on structure. We are also going to shake things by expanding our cast ...

12.2: How to Nail Character Voice in First Person from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.402673

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley This week we talk about character voice, and how to get it right in First Person. This POV is a strong tool for developing memorable characters. ...

12.3: Project in Depth, “Risk Assessment,” by Sandra Tayler from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.395686

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with Sandra Tayler This Project in Depth episode contains spoilers for "Risk Assessment," which is included in Force Multiplication: Schlock M...

12.4: Hybrid Viewpoints from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.389887

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard, with Sandra Tayler Piper J. Drake joins the cast for our week-four episodes, of which this is the first. This week we'll be drilling down into hy...

12.5: Literary Fiction from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.382815

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley This week we talk about the genre of Literary Fiction. Our first hurdle is the word "literary" whose use in this context can imply that a...

12.6: Variations on Third Person from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.371442

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard This episode focuses on the third person POV, and some variations on them, like omniscient and limited, and some sub-variants like cinematic and head-h...

12.7: Description Through the Third Person Lens from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.364057

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley The third-person POV lens can be used for simultaneously describing the world to the reader and describing the character. In this episode we'...

12.8 Short Stories as Exploration, with Tananarive Due from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.357219

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Tananrive Due, whose short-fiction expertise is exemplified in her collection, Ghost Summer, joined us on the Oasis of the Seas to talk about how to us...

12.9: Q&A on Viewpoint from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.350698

Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard answer listener questions on viewpoint.

12.10: Developing Your Own, Personal Style from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.345087

Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard talk about authorial voice, and how to stop being afraid of examining how you "sound" when you write.

12.11: Diction from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.326494

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley Let's talk about word choice. And when we say "let's" we mean "we're going to talk to you about it. You don't actuall...

12.12: Words as Words, with Linda Addison from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.322166

Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with Special Guest Linda Addison Linda Addison joined us at the World Horror Convention in 2016 for a discussion of the shapes and sounds of words as seen from the pe...

12.13: Beautiful Prose, Purple Prose from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.317656

The rising, golden sun crested the snowcapped eastern mountains, its first morning rays pouring like molten lemon through the window to glisten and gleam from the chrome grille of the studio mic...

12.14: Controlling Pacing with Structure from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.312041

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Let's talk about the structural tools we use to control pacing. These include sentence length and punctuation. Also, white-space. Liner note: Here ...

12.15: Pacing With Chapters from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.306826

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley What makes a chapter? WHY is a chapter? How do we chapter, and do we always chapter the same way? Should our chapters be this many parts of speec...

12.16: Writing Crime Fiction with Brian Keene from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.301087

Brian Keene joined Dan and Howard at the World Horror Convention to talk about writing crime fiction, including how he goes about getting readers to feel the things he wants them to feel to driv...

12.17: Q&A on Style, Diction, and Paragraphing from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.295870

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard We fielded some questions on style, diction, and paragraphing: Is it okay to have pretty prose in a straightforward adventure story? How do author voi...

12.18: Gendered Dialect, with J.R. Johansson from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.290254

Your Hosts: Howard, Mary, and Dan, with guest-host Susan Chang, and special guest J.R. Johannsen J.R. Johannson joined Howard, Mary, Dan, and guest-host Susan Chang at LTUE 2017 for a discussion...

12.19: Structure on the Fly from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.284333

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard This episode is for you discovery writers, especially those of you for whom our current season of structure seems to be locking you down, or pointing u...

12.20: Retrofitting Structure into a First Draft from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.278863

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley We're speaking again, at least in part, to discovery writers. In this case, we're talking about how to take a non-outlined work and apply...

12.21: Narrative Bumper Pool, with Bill Fawcett and Carrie Patel from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.272884

Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with special guests Bill Fawcett and Carrie Patel Bill and Carrie both have extensive experience writing for games, and they joined us at GenCon Indy to talk about wr...

12.22: Hybrid Outlining and Discovery Writing from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.266688

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard What can discovery writers learn from outlining? What can outliners learn from discovery writing? Is there a balance between the two that can serve as...

12.23: Proposals, Pitches, and Queries from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.257006

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Let's talk about selling your stuff. In this episode we discuss query letters, pitches, and proposals—the tools that you use to present your materi...

12.24: Creating Great Outlines from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.248006

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley How might you go about creating great outlines? There are many processes, and we cover several of them. Credits: This episode was recorded by And...

12.25: Hiring an Editor, with Callie Stoker from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.241629

Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with special guest Callie Stoker Callie Stoker joined Howard and Dan at the World Horror convention to answer our questions about hiring an editor, which is part of t...

12.26: Q&A on Outlining and Discovery Writing from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.234835

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard Our listeners had questions about outlining and discovery writing. Here are a few of the very best: Do you outline scenes? How? How do you know when t...

12.27: Choosing a Length from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.217605

We discuss the ways in which we decide upon the length of the stories we write, and at which point(s) in the creative process we make that decision.

12.28: Trimming and Expanding from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.210114

Revision: it's when you make a too-short piece longer, or a too-long piece shorter.

12.29: “Oh Crap, the Cops are Here!” with Joe McKinney from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.201547

Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with Steve Diamond, and special guest Joe McKinney We invited Steve Diamond, who has been a guest before, and who has some law enforcement background, to help us gril...

12.30: Tools for Writers from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.195717

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard We are often asked what software we use to get our work done. In this episode we answer that question in a bit of detail. Liner Notes: Here's a li...

12.31: What Makes a Good Monster, with Courtney Alameda from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.189965

Your Hosts: Howard, Mary, and Dan, with guest host Susan Chang Courtney Alameda joined us at LTUE 2017 to talk monsters, and what makes the best ones so good. We discuss some of our favorites, a...

12.32: Structuring a Short Piece from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.184544

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard We begin our exploration of short story structure with a re-cap of the MACE quotient (Milieu, Ask/Answer, Character, Event). Then we apply that tool to...

12.33: How to be Brief, Yet Powerful from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.180640

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley We've talked about some of the structural guidelines for short stories. In this episode we'll discuss how to write in the short form whil...

12.34: Fulfilling the Reader’s Fantasy, with Brian McClellan from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.166686

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard Brian McClellan joins us for a discussion on fulfilling the promises we make to our readers—specifically the genre-specific promises made by the simpl...

12.35: Short Fiction Markets, with Spencer Ellsworth and guest host Beth Meacham from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.151737

Your Hosts: Mary, Dan, and Howard, with guest host Beth Meacham Spencer Ellsworth and Beth Meacham joined us before a live audience at LTUE 2017 for a discussion of short fiction markets, which ...

12.36: Structuring a Mid-Length Piece from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.145329

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Larger than a short story, smaller than a novel... there's quite a bit of space between those two thresholds, and in this episode we discuss the wa...

12.37: Subplots from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.138229

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley What makes a plot a subplot? Must subplots and main plots be linked by something more binding than the actual binding of the book? In this episod...

12.38: What Do Editors Really Want, with Toni Weisskopf and Cat Rambo from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.131661

Your Hosts: Dan and Howard Toni Weisskopf and Cat Rambo joined Dan and Howard to discuss what it is that editors "really want." Question To Help You Decide Whether Or Not To Send Your Ed...

12.39: Q&A on Short(er) Fiction from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.124988

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard Our listeners sent us some questions about writing shorter fiction. Here are the questions: How do you market short stories today? Has ebook self-publ...

12.40: Structuring a Novel from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.119022

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What makes something a novel, rather than just a serialized collection of stuff that happens? How do we use structure to turn collections of stuff into...

12.41: Raising the Stakes from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.112073

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley When we talk about "raising the stakes," we mean making the outcomes of the events in a story increasingly important to the reader. In th...

12.42: Adapting Your Stories for Game Play, with Alan Bahr from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.104921

Your Hosts: Mary, Dan, and Howard, with guest host Beth Meacham Alan Bahr of Ragnarok Publications, joined us at LTUE 2017 to talk about adapting a licensed property for a game, and preserving t...

12.43: Serialized Storytelling from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.098282

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard We're talking about the extreme long-form serial story here, and how to keep things interesting without forcing the main characters into an absurd...

12.44: NaNoWriMo 2017 Primer from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.091223

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard We're going to share some of our experiences with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in an effort to encourage you to participate in ways tha...

12.45: Structuring a Series from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.084010

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Before you can decide on a structure for your series, you may find it helpful to decide what kind of series you're actually building. We talk about...

12.46: Reinventing Yourself from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.077598

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley We discuss the idea of "reinventing yourself," which can mean anything from "trying something new" to "completely re-branding...

12.47: Screenwriting and the Writers Room, with JD Payne from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.069865

Screenwriter JD Payne joined us before a live audience at LTUE to talk about writing for the screen, specifically regarding doing this work with others in a room full of writers.

12.48: Q&A on Novels and Series, with Brian McClellan from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.063654

Brian McClellan joined us to field questions about writing novels and series. Here are the questions: How do you write an ending that is open for sequels, but isn't a cliffhanger? Is it a go...

12.49: Non-linear Narratives from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.056503

We begin the final month of our year on structure with a discussion of non-linear structures. These include flashbacks, POVs that are out of chronological order, and a host of other storytelling...

12.50: Form and Function from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.050118

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley How does the shape of your physical medium change the art you're making? What are the tools that affect our storytelling, and what are those ...

12.51: Constructed Languages, with Dirk Elzinga from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.042989

Your Hosts: Howard, Mary, Dan, with guest host Beth Meacham Dirk Elzinga, an associate professor of linguistics, joined us live at LTUE to talk about constructed languages, and how we, as writer...

12.52: Cross-Genres as Gateways from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.035

Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Howard, and Dan What are the books which have drawn us from the bookshelf genres where you're the most comfortable into bookshelves you haven't read from? Wha...

12.53: Writing Excuses True Confessions from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.026349

It's the end of 2017, so let's talk about the things that we've tried to make work, and failed at. Not things that we tried before arriving at career-level measures of success—things...

13.1: Hero, Protagonist, Main Character from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.020358

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard 2018 is our Year of Character, and we kick it off with a quick exploration of the differences between heroes, protagonists, and main characters. Beginn...

13.2: Writing Active Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.014341

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice This week we welcome Amal El-Mohtar and Maurice Broaddus to the Writing Excuses cast for a discussion of active characters. We cover characters who m...

13.3: What Writers Get Wrong, with Aliette de Bodard from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.007494

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard This year's third-week episodes will all follow a common theme: "what writers get wrong." Each of these episodes will feature an expert gue...

13.4: Protagonists Who Aren’t Sympathetic from 2023-12-13T17:01:12.002117

Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard This week we're joined by Valynne Maetani, who'll be one of our hosts all year. We're discussing protagonists who, per writer intent, do...

13.5: Villain, Antagonist, Obstacle from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.995799

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What's the difference between villains and antagonists? How is an obstacle character different from those other two? How are they alike? And most i...

13.6: External Conflicts for Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.981841

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice An external conflict is a story driver that originates outside the protagonist. In this episode a large part of what we'll focus on is person-vs-...

13.7: What Writers Get Wrong, with Lou Perry from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.975945

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Lou Perry joined us in front of a live audience at GenCon Indy to talk about law and courtrooms, and what writers get wrong when setting their stories ...

13.8: Making Characters Distinctive from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.970948

Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard What do we do to make our characters distinctive? Often we categorize the distinctions as flaws or quirks, and in this discussion we use those as ou...

13.9: Quick Characterization from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.965431

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard How do you go about defining a character for your readers when you don't have many words to devote to the project? What are the tricks for quickly ...

13.10: Handling a Large Cast from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.959498

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice What are our favorite techniques for managing large casts of characters, and how do our processes differ from when we're writing small casts? Wha...

13.11: Writing Secondary Characters, with Charlaine Harris from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.952876

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with special guest Charlaine Harris Charlaine Harris joined us in front of a live audience at the GenCon Writers Symposium to talk with us about secon...

13.12: Q&A on Heroes, Villains, and Main Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.942056

Your Cast: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, Howard You had questions about heroes, villains, and main characters. We have answers! Here are the questions: How do you make planned power increases not seem ...

13.13: Character Voice from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.932323

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Character voice, the flow, order, and feel of words that is unique to a particular character, is extremely useful in defining characters for the reader...

13.14: Character Nuance from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.927478

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice Let's talk about characters who have conflict built right into them; characters whose attributes and attitudes might seem to contradict one anoth...

13.15: What Writers Get Wrong, with Mike Stop Continues from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.922694

Recorded live at WXR 2017. Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard, with special guest Mike Stop Continues Mike has multiple areas of expertise, but for this episode he's talking to us sp...

13.16: Avoiding Flat Characters from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.917831

Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard For our purposes, the term "flat character" refers to a character who lacks the depth required to maintain reader interest. In this episode ...

13.17: What Writers Get Wrong, with Jamahl Crouch from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.911229

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with Jamahl Crouch Jamahl Crouch (Illusmm1 on Instagram) joined us at the GenCon Indy Writers Symposium to talk about what writers get wrong about str...

13.18: Naturally Revealing Character Motivation from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.905308

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What motivates us? What really motivates us? Why? (Note: our motivations are probably not in service of some overarching plot.) How can we use this inf...

13.19: Backstories from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.898870

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice Character backstories: these are the tales that describe how the characters in your story became who they are by the time they arrive in the book. Ho...

13.20: Fear and Writing, with Emma Newman from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.893790

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard, with special guest Emma Newman Emma Newman, author, audio book narrator, and podcaster, joined us on the Baltic sea for WXR 2017, where, six days afte...

13.21: Q&A on Character Depth and Motivation from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.887931

Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard Our listeners submitted some great questions! How do you fairly and even-handedly write a deeply compelling character you deeply dislike? What's...

13.22: Character Arcs from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.882043

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard When Mary says we could do fifteen different episodes on character arcs, she's being conservative. Notwithstanding, we set out to talk meaningfully...

13.23: Internal Conflicts from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.875489

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice Internal conflicts, simply put, are problems your characters have with themselves. In this episode we address the ways in which writers can build sto...

13.24: What Writers Get Wrong, with Piper, Aliette, and Wesley, with special guest Ken Liu from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.870434

Your Hosts: Piper Drake, Aliette de Bodard, and Wesley Chu, with special guest Ken Liu Our hosts for this episode are experts in a great many different things. One thing that they have in common...

13.25: Our Journey With Character from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.865967

Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard Brandon wanted to ask us how our perspectives on character have changed since the very beginning of our writing. It's a difficult question to an...

13.26: Character Relationships from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.859945

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Our characters become far more interesting when they begin interacting with each other. These interactions—these relationships—are often how our storie...

13.27: Characters as Foils from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.855197

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice A foil is a character who serves as a contrast to another character. The foil might be a sidekick, an antagonist, a romantic interest, or really any ...

13.28: What Writers Get Wrong, with Wildstyle from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.850131

At GenCon Indy 2017 we were joined by Wildstyle (@MrWildstyle on Twitter), who wears many hats, and many of the hats he wears are donned in service of producing hip-hop. One of the most interest...

13.29: Iconic Heroes from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.844763

Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard The term "iconic hero" allows us to differentiate between different kinds of heroes who appear in series. Nancy Drew and Conan the Barbarian...

13.30: Project in Depth, THE CALCULATING STARS, with Kjell Lindgren from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.839461

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, and Dan, with Kjell Lindgren Spoiler Alert! If you haven't yet read The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel, by Mary Robinette Kowal, you may wish to rectify...

13.31: Learning to Listen as a Writer from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.823945

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard "Write what you know" gets misapplied a lot. In this episode we'll talk about how to know things by listening well. In particular, we'r...

13.32: How To Handle Weighty Topics from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.819434

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice How can we, as writers, best handle weighty matters? This is our year on character, so we'll approach this with a focus on character creation, de...

13.33: Reading Outside the Box from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.815065

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard, with Kristie Claxton Kristie Claxton joined us at WXR 2017 to talk about reading outside of the spaces where we're comfortable and familiar. Speci...

13.b1: Bonus Episode — Elephants and Death, with Lawrence Schoen from 2023-12-13T17:01:11.810405