Career and Lifestyle, Season 18

18.19: What is Publishing For, Anyway?

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So, what is publishing for, anyway?

The question may seem glib, but DongWong Song raised it in their newsletter, and in this episode we answer (or at least refine our asking of) the question.

Liner Notes: The Publishing Question

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Describe your target audience.

Kate McKean’s Agents and Books on Substack

Season 18

18.18: Launching an Author Newsletter

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Through all the tumultuous evolution of various social media platforms one thing has remained stable: email. In this episode we talk about how to design and deploy author newsletters.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Create a newsletter and add a signup to your website.

Wings Once Cursed and Bound, by Piper J. Drake

Career and Lifestyle, Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.17: Build Your Author Brand, 2023 Edition

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Dolly Parton once said “figure out who you are, and then do it on purpose.” One of DongWon Song’s newsletter installments riffs on this, and in this episode we riff further, exploring good principles of author branding and the state of the technological tools we have at our disposal here in 2023.

Liner Notes: “Do It On Purpose,” by DongWon Song
“The Enshittification of Tik-Tok,” by Cory Doctorow 

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Write down a list of “I am a writer who…” and “I am a person who…” statements to help you understand your brand.

Kurzgesagt: In a Nutshell (YouTube) 

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.16: Deep Dive: Publishing is Hard, by DongWon Song

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Publishing is hard.

Also, Publishing is Hard is a newsletter from DongWon Song. They launched it in 2019 as an outlet for their experiences in the publishing industry.

In this episode we explore this outlet, and grill DongWon about their process.

Liner Notes: “What’s In a Name” is a good place to start with Publishing is Hard.
The Sci-Comm community Howard mentioned is huge, and you can find a small piece of it at @scicommclub on Twitter.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Your two-part assignment:
First, subscribe to a newsletter from someone whose work you admire.
Second, subscribe to a newsletter they subscribe to. Alternatively, subscribe to a newsletter recommended to you by a friend.

Friends at the Table, an actual-play podcast

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.15: Building a Mystery, Now With More Tools

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Back in February, with Episode 18.8, we began exploring the process of writing a mystery story. That episode led us into a series of six episodes about tension, and the tools we use to create and manage it. And now, with this episode (and a toolbox full of tension) we’re ready (we hope!) to revisit the creation of mystery stories.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Make a list of the tools you regularly return to while writing (MICE, three-act structure, etc). Now make a list of the tools you know about, but don’t think you use. Try to move one tool from the second list over to the first.

Into the Light, by Mark Oshiro

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.14: Heavy Lifting with Microtension

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Let’s take all our tension tools and apply them in tiny ways. A big application of tension might be an argument between two characters about a course of plot-important action. Microtension might be those characters arguing about how long to boil eggs.

In this episode we’ll explore some favorite applications of microtension, and the ways in which it can be layered to ramp up the larger, plot-focused tension.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Raise the tension in a scene by adding microtension alongside the big plot stuff.

Chlorine, by Jade Song

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.13: Finding the Core Conflict

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In our ongoing exploration of tension, the time has come to examine conflict. It can be shaped and delivered in numerous ways, but you have to know the core conflict before you can make anybody feel tense about it.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Write a conflict twice, changing the POV character’s underlying emotional needs. See how the scene changes.

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber & David Wengrow

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.12: The Long Shadow of Unanswered Questions

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Our continuing exploration of tension has taken us to a favorite technique: unanswered questions. Sure, this obviously applies to mysteries, but consider the question posed in romances: “will they get together?” In its simplest form, the unanswered question that forces a page-turn is “what happens on the next page?” In this episode we explore how to use unanswered questions to drive tension, and how to avoid some common pitfalls.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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What questions have you, in your current work-in-progress, posed for the reader? Can you pose more? Look for ways to ask questions to which the story can give multiple answers.

Ted Lasso (Apple TV)