Your Hosts: Dan, Dongwon, Piper, and Howard You had questions for agents, Dongwon has answers! How do you go about becoming an agent? How do an agent and author work together? At what point do agent and author talk about the “sticky stuff?” Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson
Make a list of the questions, especially the hard ones, you want to ask prospective agents.
Extreme Makeover: A Novel, by Dan Wells
Your Hosts: Brandon, Dan, and Howard, with special guests Janci Patterson and Megan Walker Janci Patterson and Megan Walker joined us to talk about their pre-writing process, which involves role-playing in a room full of dioramas with Barbie dolls. As pre-writing processes go, this one was completely new to us, and we very quickly decided … Continue reading 15.29: Barbie Pre-Writing, with Janci Patterson and Megan Walker
Role-play, with toys, a scene from something you’ve written.
Your Hosts: Brandon, Victoria, Dan, and Howard Small evils? Yes, please! This episode isn’t about writing the big villainy of world domination, but about focusing on the more relatable villainy of small evils—the little crimes, the minor antagonisms—which can be the key to connecting the reader to the book. Liner Notes: The deadly nightshade incident Howard … Continue reading 15.28: Small Evils
Base a villain on yourself
The Kingdom of Liars, by Nick Martel
Your Hosts: Brandon, Dan, and Howard, with special guest Eric Flint Eric Flint joined us at SpikeCon (host of the 2019 NASFIC) to talk about creating alternate histories. His Ring of Fire book series is enormous in scope, and has many, many more people working on it than just Eric Flint. We get a bit … Continue reading 15.27: Alternate History, with Eric Flint
Plan your day so you know which bit to write first. Sit down and write something first.
1632: Ring of Fire Book 1, by Eric Flint
Your Hosts: Brandon, Howard, and Dan with special guest David Weber David Weber joined us at NASFIC to talk about the importance of risking failure on any path (especially a writer’s path) to success–whether you’re risking rejection in the submission process, or the possibility that the book you write won’t be the amazing thing you’ve … Continue reading 15.26: Taking the Chance, with David Weber
Go home and roll up a character.
The Gordian Protocol, by David Weber and Jacob Holo
For a number of reasons (most prominently “we don’t want to run you through two airports and then lock you on a cruise ship in the middle of a global pandemic”), we have canceled our cruise and are taking it online! This is really good news for a lot of you, because it is way … Continue reading The Writing Excuses Retreat Goes Virtual!
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard The MICE quotient is a tool for categorizing story elements—Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event—and we’ve talked about it quite a bit in the past. When a listener asked how we might use the MICE quotient to create, inform, manage, and otherwise help us “do” conflict in our stories, … Continue reading 15.25: Using the MICE Quotient for Conflict
Free write a character doing something. Identify the MICE elements. Pick one, and build additional conflict around it.
Escaping Exodus, by Nicky Drayden
Your Hosts: Brandon, Howard, and Dan, with special guest Jim Butcher Jim Butcher joined us at NASFIC for a discussion about how we can keep long-running serials engaging after numerous books. Credits: this episode was recorded before a live audience by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson
Something we didn’t know was intelligent has been intelligent all along.
The Aeronaut’s Windlass, by Jim Butcher