Tools, not rules. For writers, by writers.
Some of the most frequently asked questions that we get on Writing Excuses revolve around how to Write the Other. In order to answer that need, which takes more than 15 minutes, we’ve partnered with Tempest Bradford and Nisi Shawl (who literally wrote the book Writing the Other) to bring…
Subscribers to Writer’s Digest will find Writing Excuses mentioned in the May/June 2016 issue of Writer’s Digest. One of the features in that issue is “101 Best Websites for Writers.” We’re alongside one hundred other valuable online resources, and it’s no stretch to say that this list alone is worth the price…
Just this morning we learned that readers, listeners, and commenters over at r/fantasy have voted Writing Excuses as Best Related Work for the 2015 Stabby Awards. Thank you, Reddit! The trophy is an actual stabby thing. We’re honored by this award, and in reviewing the nominees and the winners over…
The fourth annual Out of Excuses Retreat will be bigger and better than ever, and at this point that’s saying a lot. Last year’s retreat was a crazy experiment—could we actually do this on a cruise ship?—but it worked so well that the students wanted to pay it forward so…
The word “genre” has a lot of weight to it. Arguments about whether a particular work is, or is not, part of a given genre are long, and tedious. Season Eleven will not be engaging in those arguments. We’re giving all that a wide miss by adding an adjective, and defining…
The 2016 Out of Excuses Writing Workshop and Retreat will be held from September 17th through the 24th on a cruise ship, back by popular demand.
The base price of $1300 covers the full week of intensive seminars, writing exercises, and free writing time, plus meals, double-occupancy lodging, and a cruise to three different Caribbean destinations.
It is time to retire the old Writing Excuses website.
This site has been using the same WordPress theme since the very beginning, in early 2008, and that particular theme felt very “2005.” This means Writing Excuses is about eleven years overdue for a change, which is a neat trick for an eight-year-old site.
You’re reading this on the new theme, which was rolled out by Howard and Izzy on January 1st.
We still have a lot of work to do. The new theme exposes a bunch of pages that will be super useful once they’re finished, but it’s going to take time. Expect things to occasionally be broken, then better, then worse, then really good. But even at “really good” there will still be stuff to fine-tune.
Please be patient, and per the post title, pardon the (metaphorical) dust while we remodel.
Congratulations, Shveta Thakrar! The scholarship jury at The Carl Brandon Society selected Shveta Thakrar as the recipient of this year’s Writing Excuses Scholarship. Shveta has accepted, and we all look forward to meeting her in person at the Out of Excuses event in September. The Carl Brandon Society jury members were: Nisi…
One of the things that we’ve liked about the Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreats in the past has been that we’ve had a small student teacher ratio. When we were setting up the cruise, and decided to remove the membership cap, we knew that we wanted to try to preserve…
Don’t forget to nominate for the 2015 Hugo Ballot, and if you like Writing Excuses, please consider nominating Shadows Beneath for Best Related Work.
