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 that we’ve folded, spindled, and/or mutilated since then.
There were a lot of them! This episode runs close to thirty minutes long…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:27 — 20.3MB)
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Try something you’re sure you’ll fail at… or maybe take the week off.
Ladycastle, by Delilah Dawson,
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? What can we learn about our own writing by reading these gateway books? How can we set about writing them ourselves?
Credits: this episode was recorded in Cosmere House Studios by Dan Dan the Audioman Thompson, and mastered at the intersection of Cowboys and the Great Lakes by Alex Jackson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:46 — 12.2MB)
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Write a story where one of the characters thinks they’re in a different genre than the genre of the story itself.
The Diabolic, by SJ Kincaid
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 writers, might go about constructing them for our work.
Liner Notes: The big stack of notes from Dirk required its own page. Below are links to specific tools mentioned during the episode.
Credits: This episode was recorded live at LTUE by Dan Dan the Audioman Thompson and mastered beneath a pyramid of stone tablet encyclopedias by Alex Jackson.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:51 — 13.0MB)
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Come up to with a non-combat, non-warfare metaphor to talk about a debate.
Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin
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 effects?
Credits: This episode was recorded in Chicago by Andrew Twiss, and mastered by Alex Jackson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:58 — 15.8MB)
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Play “exquisite corpse.”
1) Write the first line of a story.
2) Hand it to someone else. Have them illustrate that line.
3) They hand their illustration (but not your first line) to a third person, who writes a line describing what’s happening in their picture.
4) Their line goes to another person who illustrates it…
Oathbringer, by Brandon Sanderson
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 techniques.
Credits: this episode was recorded in Cosmere House Studios by Dan Dan the Audioman Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:39 — 12.2MB)
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Watch fan edits of non-linear stories that put them in order. Also, put your outline on index cards, then shuffle them randomly.
The Butcher of Khardov, by Dan Wells
The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries (defaced edition), by Howard Tayler
Your Mama’s Adventures in Parenting, by Mary Robinette Kowal
Mulholland Homebrews Sinister Shop of Secret Pets, which will have been written by Brandon Sanderson