All posts by Howard Tayler

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.13: Finding the Core Conflict

1 Comment

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.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:31 — 14.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

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

10 Comments

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.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:02 — 15.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

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)

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.11: Turning Up the Contrast With Juxtaposition

3 Comments

Our deconstruction and categorization of tension continues this week with an exploration of Juxtaposition, which is a contrast between two elements that supplies tension by allowing the reader to insert themselves.

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.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:49 — 15.3MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Try to add tension to a scene in your work-in-progress by inverting or juxtaposing elements.

When Franny Stands Up, by Eden Robins —MRK

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.10: Anticipation is More Than Just Making Us Wait

2 Comments

Last week we talked about tension, and promised that we’d be breaking it down into more pieces. This week we’re discussing one of those pieces: Anticipation. We sub-divided it as follows:

  • Surprise
  • Suspense
  • Humor
  • Promises

We talk about how to create anticipatory tension well, where the pitfalls are, and how this fits into the creation of our 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.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:15 — 13.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Look at your current WIP. Are there genre tropes that you can subvert? Can you pay off reader anticipation by delivering something other than what the genre has led the reader to expect?

Dead Country, by Max Gladstone

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.09: Unpacking the Tension

4 Comments

For the next several episodes we’ll be talking about tension. That may seem like a lot of time to spend on just one word, but as we unpack that word we see that there’s plenty of material to work with, and there’s a generous supply of tools in that material.

For our purposes, we’ve categorized the tension subcategories as follows:

  • Anticipation
  • Juxtaposition
  • Unanswered Questions
  • Conflict
  • Microtension

Your own taxonomy may differ, and that’s fine, but having a taxonomy is important because when we name our tools we’re better at using them.

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.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:40 — 15.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

In this episode we covered five types of tension: Anticipation, Juxtaposition, Unanswered Questions, Conflict, and Microtension. Look at your current WIP (or something that you are reading) and identify examples of each of these.

Dark One: Forgotten, by Brandon Sanderson & Dan Wells
This will be featured in an upcoming “Deep Dive” episode.

Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.08: Building a Mystery

4 Comments

After last week’s deep dive into The Spare Man we’re ready to talk more generally about mysteries, and the tools we use to write them. Obviously we can’t cover all of that in just one episode, but don’t worry. In upcoming episodes we’ll explore more of these tools in detail.

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.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:11 — 16.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Give yourself some context for the upcoming episodes. Read a mystery!

The Glass Onion (Netflix)

Demonstration, Project in Depth, Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.07: Deep Dive into THE SPARE MAN

6 Comments

Spoiler Alert! This week is our deep dive into Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Spare Man. It’s a sci-fi mystery novel often described as “The Thin Man in space.”

Deep dive episodes are necessarily full of spoilers because we ask all kinds of how and why questions specific to the writing of the work in question. If you haven’t yet read The Spare Man, you might consider doing that before listening to this episode. We’re not the boss of you, but we believe you’ll get more out of this episode and the novel if you read the novel first.

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.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:16 — 23.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Do you like murder mysteries? Write down the elements that must be present for a murder mystery to be satisfying for you.

The Thin Man (1934)

Career and Lifestyle, Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.06: An Interview With Howard Tayler

2 Comments

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

In this episode we interview Howard Tayler, one of the founding members of the podcast, and the creator of Schlock Mercenary. The first question: how did this twenty-year ride change you? And a later question: what comes next?

Liner Notes: We’ll eventually do a deep dive on the final three books of the Schlock Mercenary saga. You can read for free starting here.

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

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:01 — 14.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Take an index card for each key beat in a scene you’ve written. Illustrate each beat with stick figures and smiley/frowny/angry faces.

Schlock Mercenary: Mandatory Failure, Function of Firepower, and Sergeant in Motion (the three final books available online), by Howard Tayler, colored by Travis Walton