Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.

12.5: Literary Fiction

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 all other genres are somehow not literature. In that vein, then, we’re talking about mainstream, or “non-genre”…

12.4: Hybrid Viewpoints

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 hybrid viewpoints—blending 1st and 3rd person, framing stories, stories-within-stories, and unreliable narration—and how to best serve our work…

The 2017 WX Retreat Scholarships

The fifth annual Out of Excuses Retreat will be in Europe! And we couldn’t be more excited. Some people were worried about our ability to provide scholarships this year, because flying people to Europe is so much more expensive than flying them to Florida, but we have learned to never…

Writing the Other: a Discount Code for Listeners

Our friends at Writing the Other continue to host a wide range of classes addressing the manifold facets, angles, and approaches to getting our not-the-same-as-us characters written correctly. On February 26th, Beyond the Basic Bi: Writing Bisexual Characters will be taught by BiNet’s Faith Cheltenham from 3pm to 5pm Eastern Time. Writing Excuses listeners…

WXR 2017 in the Baltic Sea

Hello, 2017! And hello to you, dear Writing Excuses listeners. We’ve already started our new year of episodes, which focuses on the nitty-gritty details of story structure and includes some exciting guest hosts, so check it out. Our other exciting announcement, of course, is the retreat. 2017 will be our…

12.1: Variations on First Person

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 a bit. You’ll be hearing some new voices soon! They belong to: Wesley Chu Piper J. Drake…