Category Archives: Career and Lifestyle

These episodes talk, at least in part, about how to manage your career as a writer, and how to keep writing.

15.20: Mental Wellness and Writing

May 17, 2020 Howard Tayler 5 Comments

Your Hosts: Brandon, Victoria, Dan, and Howard

In this episode we’ll be talking about the things we do to stay creative, productive, healthy, and happy. For the purposes of this discussion, “mental wellness” is not about coping with mental illness, it’s about self-care.

Liner Notes: Here’s the gridded lifestyle tracker for the homework, lifted directly from Victoria’s Twitter feed.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:37 — 17.0MB)

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Get some paper and some colored pencils, and create a lifestyle tracker.

Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren

Career and Lifestyle, Guest, Season 15

15.18: Finding a Community, with Shauna Hoffman

May 3, 2020 Howard Tayler 10 Comments

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, and Lari¹, with special guest Shauna Hoffman

Many Writing Excuses listeners (especially WXR alumni) already know Shauna Hoffman. She joins us to talk about how to deal with the fact that we, as authors, often feel isolated.

The listener question that sparked this episode: “How do you keep the pressure off when you feel alone?”

How indeed? If this feels timely, well, some of that is coincidence. And some, of course, is not².

Credits: This episode was recorded remotely³, using a variety of VOIP tools, and was mastered by Alex Jackson.

¹ Larissa Helena is joining us as a guest host. She has worked as a literary agent, a translator, and a rights manager, and we look forward to hearing more from her this season.
² Yes, the irony of this being the first of our recorded-during-sparkling-isolation episodes is something we’re leaning into.
³ This is the first airing of a Writing Excuses episode in which the participants not physically present in the same room. We suspect it won’t be the last, and that we’ll get better at it.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:23 — 14.1MB)

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Make a list of people you can reach out to this week—people who might inspire you, help you feel like part of a community.

Guy Free Working on Me, by Shauna Hoffman

Career and Lifestyle, Season 15, Theory and Technique

15.14: Agent Query Trenches

April 5, 2020 Howard Tayler 3 Comments

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard

The title of this episode comes to us from listener questions along the lines of “what do you do when you’re ‘in the trenches’ querying agents?” Our answers, predictably, have almost nothing to do with actual trenches.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Joseph Meacham, and mastered by Alex Jackson

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

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Read some 1-star reviews of your favorite books

Seven Deadly Shadows, by Courtney Alameda & Valynne E. Maetani, narrated by Traci Kato-Kiriyama

Career and Lifestyle, Season 15

15.12: Writing the Other—Being an Ally

March 22, 2020 Howard Tayler 8 Comments

Your Hosts: Piper, Tempest, Dongwon, with special guest Erin Roberts

What can we do to be allies to members of marginalized groups? Many of us want to find ways to help others have safe, comfortable places within our communities, but worry about coming across the wrong way. In this episode, our hosts talk about how we can do this well as writers, as members of writing communities, and in society at large.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:30 — 16.2MB)

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Find the most recent story that you’ve consumed. Do two of the following: Leave a review, talk about it on social media, tell someone in person, or tell a bookseller or Librarian

Steel Crow Saga, by Paul Krueger

Career and Lifestyle, Season 15

15.09: Choose Your Own Adventurous Publishing Path

March 1, 2020 Howard Tayler 9 Comments

Your Hosts: Dan, Dongwon, Piper, and Howard

“Should I go self-pub? Should I go traditional? Can I do both? How do I decide where my book fits?”

In this episode we’ll cover these, and many more questions as best we’re able.

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

Liner Notes:

¹ RWA membership is required for these forums. This episode was recorded in September of 2019

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:37 — 17.7MB)

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Write the “choose your own adventurous publishing path” flow chart with decision points, and write a fun little fiction about your future career possibilities.

Romance Your Brand: Building a Marketable Genre Fiction Series, by Zoe York

Career and Lifestyle, Live Audience, Season 15, Theory and Technique

15.08: Q&A on a Ship

February 23, 2020 Howard Tayler 4 Comments

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, Dongwon, and Howard

At WXR 19 we recorded live, and took audience questions aboard the ship. Here they are! (You’ll have to listen to the episode for the answers.)

What have you learned in the past year that has improved your craft?
When you’re having trouble, how do you know if it’s “I don’t feel like writing” or “there’s a problem with the manuscript?”
How far ahead do you plan your careers?
How do you tell when a fight/battle/showdown is going on for too long?
How do you continue to learn and improve on your craft?
How do you manage and prioritize your time when you’re working on multiple projects?
How do you feel about multiple first-person POVs in a single book?
What are the most important elements to include on the last page of your book?
What are some things we can do to strengthen our voice when writing in third person?
How do you decide who to have as alpha and beta readers?
In secondary world stories, how do you decide whether to call a horse a horse?
How much leeway will an editor or agent give a story when it’s not ready, but it shows promise?

Liner Notes: “Sometimes Writer’s Block is Really Depression”
Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:37 — 19.1MB)

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Write three different first lines for your project.

Jade War, by Fonda Lee

Career and Lifestyle, Season 15

15.05: Setting Goals for Your Career

February 2, 2020 Howard Tayler 5 Comments

Your Hosts: Brandon, Victoria, Dan, and Howard

What kind of career goal-setting do you do? We had a discussion in this vein with Dongwon a few weeks ago, but neither Brandon nor Victoria participated then, so it’s worth revisiting.

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

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