Your Hosts: Dan Wells, C.L. Polk, Charlotte Forfieh, and Mary Robinette Kowal Our third M.I.C.E. Quotient episode asks about the “Inquiry” element, and the ways in which we can use this element to structure our stories—whether we’re writing murder mysteries, thrillers, or anything else in which the turning of pages asks and eventually answers questions. Credits: This episode was … Continue reading 16.37: Deep Dive Into “Inquiry” →

• MICE Quotient, 
• Mystery, 
• Police Procedural, 
• Sherlock Holmes, 
• Thriller

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, C.L. Polk, Charlotte Forfieh, and Mary Robinette Kowal The next eight episodes are a deep dive into the M.I.C.E. Quotient, so we’ll begin with a definition. M.I.C.E. is an organizational tool which categorizes story elements as Milieu, Inquiry, Character, or Event. It helps authors know which elements are in play, and … Continue reading 16.35: What is the M.I.C.E. Quotient? →

• Master Class, 
• MICE Quotient, 
• Novella, 
• Novels, 
• Short Story, 
• Story Structure

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Novels deliver a lot of information, and it’s helpful to consider that delivery in terms of layers. Novels are layer cakes, and we’re not talking about a three-layer birthday cake. We’re talking about a dobosh torte, or a mille crepe cake. And if we’ve … Continue reading 16.34: Novels Are Layer Cakes →

• First Pages, 
• First Paragraphs, 
• free indirect speech, 
• Story Structure

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Few pieces of writing advice get repeated as much as that old saw “show, don’t tell.” We’re here to show tell you that it’s not only not universally applicable, much of the time it’s wrong¹. Tell, don’t show, especially in the early pages of … Continue reading 16.33: Tell, Don’t Show →

• Description, 
• First Lines, 
• First Paragraphs, 
• Narration, 
• Show-don't-Tell

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler In this episode we explore the first page of The Killing Floor, by Lee Childs, with the goal of learning how to build  good first pages for own own work. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson Liner Notes: … Continue reading 16.32: First Page Fundamentals—THE KILLING FLOOR, by Lee Childs →

• First Lines, 
• First Pages, 
• First Paragraphs

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler In this episode we explore the first page of Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, with the goal of learning how to build  good first pages for own own work. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson Liner Notes: here … Continue reading 16.31: First Page Fundamentals—MOBY DICK →

• First Lines, 
• First Pages, 
• First Paragraphs, 
• First Person

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler How do we build trust with our readers? What does that even mean? In this episode we discuss ways in which we let our readers know what they can expect from the book they’re holding, and how we set about getting the to trust … Continue reading 16.29: Building Trust →

• Characters, 
• First Lines, 
• First Paragraphs, 
• raising the stakes

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Let’s have a frank, and possibly painful discussion about the ways in which the first page can go wrong. It may seem like hackneyed writing advice, but rules like “don’t start with the main character waking up” are rules for a reason.  In this … Continue reading 16.28: Common First-Page Mistakes →

• First Lines, 
• First Paragraphs