Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Our hosts explore how to write compelling confrontations—whether physical fights or emotional arguments—in a live episode recorded on the Writing Excuses Cruise. Building off Dan Wells’ class Why Your Fight Scene Is Boring, our hosts break down reactions into four elements: focus, physicality, thought, and action. The discussion dives into how newness, character…
This episode was recorded live at our 2024 Writing Excuses Cruise. (Did you know that we host a writing retreat on a cruise every year!?! You can learn more at https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/) While on a boat in Mexico, Erin Roberts was joined by Marshall Carr—our incredible recording engineer who is also a…
This episode was recorded live at our 2024 Writing Excuses Cruise. (Did you know that we host a writing retreat on a cruise every year!?! You can learn more at https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/.) While on a boat in Mexico, we were joined by author Mark Oshiro and literary agent Kate McKean. In addition…
This episode was recorded live at our 2024 Writing Excuses Cruise. (Did you know that we host a writing retreat on a cruise every year!?! You can learn more at https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/.) While on a boat in Mexico, we were joined by author Mark Oshiro and literary agent Kate McKean. In addition…
Hosts Erin and DongWon are joined by Fonda Lee and Mahtab Narsimhan for a special episode about creating traditions in your fictional writing. In this episode, we’ll explore some of the following: -How do you build traditions and rituals in your fictional world (choosing what becomes a tradition or ritual…
Some writers love revisions and some would rather scrub the toilet than revise their writing. On this episode, we are joined by author Mahtab Narsimhan, who many will recognize as a host from past seasons! Mahtab talks with our hosts about how she thinks about revisions. How do you revise…
Pacing is one of the most subjective and difficult aspects of storytelling to get right. What is pacing? How do you know what the right pace is for a story, and what techniques can you use to speed up or slow down your narrative? Homework Assignment from Fonda Lee: Take…
A few months ago, we were on a cruise ship in Alaska recording podcast episodes for 2024! This live recording features a Q&A with cruise attendees, who were given the opportunity to ask questions to Marshall Carr, our audio engineer, and Emma Reynolds, our producer. In this episode, we talked…
We have a LIVE podcast recording from September 2023, when we were hosting one of our writing retreats on a cruise ship in Alaska! To learn about our next WX Retreats, check out: https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/ Or apply for our scholarships by January 31 at https://writingexcuses.com/scholarships/ This episode features questions from our writers, and…
Your Hosts: Brandon, Dan, Mary Robinette, and Howard This Q&A session was recorded before a live audience aboard ship at WXR 2022, Here are some paraphrasings of the questions our attendees asked: How do you make your world feel big without infodumping? How do you balance a sense of progress…
