Monthly Archives: December 2020

Archive Seasons 11-15, Guest, Season 15, Theory and Technique

15.52: Economy of Phrase, Being the Concentrated Concatenation of Complex Thoughts in Just a Very Few Words Which Must Fit In A Very Very Small Box, With Patrick Rothfuss

5 Comments

Your Hosts: Howard, Mary Robinette, and Dan, with special guest Patrick Rothfuss

Did we have too much fun applying ironic humor to the title of this episode? Possibly! Patrick Rothfuss joins us to talk about economy of phrase, and the ways in which big ideas can be expressed with a few of the exactly-right words.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:01 — 16.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Take a scene from your prose work, and remove all the blocking and dialog tags. Now space out the dialog on the page, and attempt to convey the missing information with stick figures and smiley faces.

JimZub.com comic-writing tutorials
(Start here!)
Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud

Archive Seasons 11-15, Guest, Season 15, Theory and Technique

15.51: Feedback—When to Listen, and When to Ignore, with special guest Mahtab Narsimhan

6 Comments

Your Hosts: Dan, Howard, Mahtab, and Brandon

We’re often taught that the best critique group feedback is reactions to the writing, rather than  advice for fixing it. But prescriptive feedback—critiques that include suggestions for you how to might rewrite something—is an important part of the process.

In this episode we discuss how we curate our critique groups and filter their feedback to improve our writing, and our experiences with these groups.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, and mastered by Alex Jackson

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:15 — 15.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Random Critique Exercise: 
1) You and a writer friend each prepare a critique of a different thing.
2) File the serial numbers off (character names, locations, etc) and swap critiques.
3) Treat this critique from your friend as if it was for your manuscript. Discover what wrong advice looks like, and how often a broken watch might actually be correct.

What Unites Us, by Dan Rather

Archive Seasons 11-15, Season 15

15.50: Juggling Ensembles

4 Comments

Your Hosts: Brandon, Victoria, Dan, and Howard

Our listeners have asked about how we handle managing a large cast of characters. This is something we’ve all struggled with, and sometimes we’ve failed at it pretty spectacularly. In this episode we talk about how we turned our failures into learning, and what we do today to keep our ensembles in line and our stories on track.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:45 — 13.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Take something you’ve written, something with a cast of at least three characters, and change the point-of-view and/or main character.

This is How You Lose The Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Archive Seasons 11-15, Career and Lifestyle, Guest, Season 15, Theory and Technique

15.49: Maintaining Passion for a Story, with special guest Mahtab Narsimhan

7 Comments

Your Hosts: Dan, Howard, Mahtab, and Brandon

This episode comes from a question we’re often asked: “how do you stay excited about a story you’re working on?” We talk about how we maintain our passion for the stories we’re working on, and how that’s not the same as being super excited to write every time we sit down at the keyboard

Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, and mastered by Alex Jackson

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:40 — 12.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Return to your notes or your outline and look for the things that excited you about writing this story. Write those down.

Dust, by Arthur Slade