Welcome to Season 3 of Writing Excuses! With eighteen hours and fourteen months of podcasting history behind us, it seems appropriate for us to talk about history, and how to write it. We talk about the iceberg principle — 90% of the history stuff you write never gets seen by the reader, it’s just there … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 1: World-Building History
Season 03 Archives
Don’t you just hate it when things unfold out of order? Why do writers do that? We explain why they do it, and how they do it, and then we discuss how to avoid some common mistakes. Non-linear storytelling is inherently risky, after all. Maybe not as risky as jumping ahead two episodes in a … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 4: Non Linear Story Telling
This episode was recorded live at CONduit in Salt Lake City with special guest Aprilynne Pike. Our topic: How do we “keep it real” when writing speculative fiction? What does that even mean? (Okay, it means making the stuff that exists in real life seem real.) Short answer: Research. We talk about how we go … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 2: Keeping it Real with Aprilynne Pike
Howard here… I’ve learned that it’s a really bad idea to run out for a bio-break between podcasts. When I returned to the packed panel room I could tell that everyone’s attitude towards me was subtly different. It wasn’t until we started recording that I realized Brandon had turned our Q&A panel into a “Stump … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 3: Stumping Howard at Conduit
How do you take criticism? How do you react, if you even do react? Does criticism cause you to change the way you work? Criticism can come from your peers in a writing group, from editors sending you rejection letters, and from those one-star Amazon reviewers who are out there looking for something to hate. … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 5: How to Take Criticism
Last week we recorded four episodes, but apparently they haven’t been dropped into the hopper for posting yet. I blame the long weekend and good barbecue. As soon as the file has been processed by Producer Jordo I’ll start writing it up and get ol’ 3.6 on the air for your edification. Sorry for the … Continue reading Season 3 Episode 6 Delayed by Holiday Weekend
What are dramatic breaks? We open this episode with Howard very genuinely playing Doctor Watson to Brandon’s Holmes, which is amusing because as it turns out, Howard uses dramatic breaks every day. Simply put they are the points in the narrative, typically at the end of a chapter, where we cut to another scene. Sometimes … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 6: Dramatic Breaks
You’ve seen it done… “Zombie Apocalypse in Space.” “Perry Mason in the Armed Forces.” It’s genre blending, where the author takes themes prevalent in two different genres and combines them to create something new. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. We call down a few examples of both, and offer you listeners the sage advice … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 7: Genre Blending
As we did with The Dark Knight and Watchmen (the comic, not the movie), once again we turn our searing critical insight on a major work of successful storytelling talk about what they did right. If you loved the new Star Trek movie, or even just kind of liked it, we’ll tell you what the … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 8: What Star Trek Did Right
As genre-fiction writers we attend a lot of conventions. As aspiring genre-fiction writers you probably want to be attending conventions. But which ones should you spend time and money on, and what should you plan to do while you’re there? We start by categorizing conventions – literary conventions, anime conventions, media conventions, conferences and trade-shows. … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 9: Conventions You Should Be Attending
Last week we discussed what kinds of events that you, the aspiring author, should be attending. This week we cover what you should and shouldn’t be doing there. And we start with some don’ts. The word of the day? “Booth Barnacle.” If last week’s ‘cast was a little long-winded, this one is downright rambling, coming … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 10: The Dos and Don’ts of Attending Cons
Let’s talk “trimming.” Why do it? Well… because your manuscript is longer than it needs to be. Yes, we’re talking to you. AND you. And you, too. None of you are exempt! (Well… maybe YOU are, but you can’t be allowed to believe it.) So… what do you trim? We’ve covered “Killing Your Darlings” way … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 11: Trimming
Meanwhile, several side-characters found themselves looking for a sub-plot in the tavern. Something funny, or perhaps romantic to take the load off of the main story, but still tense enough to keep the pace going. Or maybe something that will let them introduce important elements to the main plot without the reader knowing that’s what’s … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 12: Subplots
Howard here, folks. On behalf of the entire Writing Excuses team I’d like to apologize in advance for that which you are about to receive. You know how sometimes one of those crazy thoughts seems like a good idea, and the more you talk about it the better the idea seems, and so then you … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 13: Dialects and In-World Jargon
Mary Robinette Kowal joins us again, live at WorldCon 67 in Montreal! This time we fell back on that tried-and-true “Questions from the Audience” format, so the topic is pretty much what the audience asks for on the fly. If the questions were all over the map, our answers require a new school of cartography. … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 15: Writing Process Q&A, with Mary Robinette Kowal
John Brown, debut author of Servant of a Dark God, joins us for this discussion of the avoidance of self-insertion. In polite company we call this the “Mary Sue,” because it’s difficult to say “self-insertion” in polite company, much less with a straight face. In broader terms, what we’re covering is voice, and how to … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 16: The Anti-Mary Sue Episode
Mary is back! We still had a Mary Robinette Kowal episode from WorldCon 67, and now you have it too! We take questions from the audience, and then answer them. Here are the questions: What do you do if your characters revolt and start to take over the story? When you became a writer what … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 17: Characters & Worldbuilding Q&A with Mary Robinette Kowal
John Brown rejoins us for this discussion of repetition. How do we, as writers, avoid repeating ourselves? We’re not just talking about the literal re-use of words and phrases here. We’re interested in avoiding the re-use of themes, character arcs, and plotlines. Forget the problems Howard might have coming up with a new joke… he … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 18: How To Not Repeat Yourself
John Brown joins us again, and tells us that fiction “is all about guiding an emotional response in a reader.” We begin with a discussion of depression, which John (like many of us) had to deal with. He tells us about the paths for emotional response, and how a beginning writer can end up in … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 19: Emotion in Fiction with John Brown
Larry Correia, whose debut novel Monster Hunter International hit the market this summer, joins us for a discussion of plot-driven vs. character driven fiction. We start with a definition of terms and a discussion of the battlefield. Then we dive into the nuts and bolts of how to write what it is you want to … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 20: Plot- vs. Character-Driven Fiction
Larry Correia is either the guy who did everything wrong and then broke into publishing anyway, or he’s the exception who proves the rule. He self-published Monster Hunter International, and then got picked up by Baen Books. If you’re considering self-publishing, this is the podcast for you. This week’s episode of Writing Excuses is brought … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 21: Pitfalls of Self Publishing with Larry Correia
You are going to love this episode. Seriously. Brandon throws an idea at Dan and Howard, and then we spend 15 minutes expanding on that idea as if we were going to base a story around it. You people who keep asking where we get our ideas? You’re asking the wrong question. Ideas are easy … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 22: Idea to Story
Question: Can you write a good book without a plot twist? Better question: is it a good book if your readers predicted what was coming? Best question: is a podcast about predictable prose itself predictable? No, seriously… the best question is “how can we use predictable, formulaic plotting effectively?” We actually answer that one. Writing … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 23: How to Write Without Twists
Jake Black fills in for Brandon “#1 New York Times Bestselling Author” Sanderson this week, and that’s perfect because Jake writes comics and Brandon doesn’t. So mostly this is Dan holding Jake’s and my feet to the fire. We’ll talk about the business of writing comics next week. This week it’s more nuts-and-bolts, and we … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 24: Writing Comics with Jake Black
Dan and Howard are again joined by Jake Black, who writes comics (and some other things) for a living. Jake tells us how he got into the business, and we talk about how this might be applied to other folks. But you can’t do it exactly the way he did it because they’ve bricked that … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 25: The Business of Writing Comics
Dan, Howard, and Jordo descended into the basement at Dragon’s Keep where members of the local NaNoWriMo chapter were attempting to bolster their word-counts for the day. We talked to them about National Novel Writing Month, and about the things that were getting them stuck. Good times! Writing Prompt: Kill one of your characters with … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 26: NaNoWriMo
A Monday without Writing Excuses is kind of like a Tuesday without Writing Excuses, only far less aggravating. With Brandon once again by our side(s), we venture once more into the realm of humor: this time, specifically considering how to blend humor with decidedly unhumorous elements such as drama and horror. Why do humor and … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 27: Mixing Humor with Drama and Horror
Is there a disconnect? Brandon specifically introduces the episode as “World-building political correctness,” but the title here says “World-Building Gender Roles.” And then Brandon goes on to blame Howard for picking the title. There is, in fact, a disconnect. Oh the mirth! Howard was imagining a slightly wider scope for the ‘cast, but Brandon focused … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 28: World-Building Gender Roles
This episode totally would have updated earlier if I’d only known sooner that it was ready to go. Jordo says he emailed me early this evening, but if he HAD then you’d have been listening to this by 8:00pm Sunday. So… how much of that do you believe? Is the Narrator lying to you, or … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 30: Unreliable Narrators
What is an Antihero? There are lots of definitions of this word, so Dan boils it down to just three: The Frodo, The Punisher, and The Talented Mister Ripley. And that third definition is the one Brandon believes to be the most correct, at least in the strict literary sense. This was a difficult ‘cast … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 29: Antiheroes
Tragedy. It’s just TRAGIC. Tragedy is also one of the classical forms that writers need to know how to work within. Why? Well… because the Greeks thought we should be forced to have strong emotional responses to literature. Writing Prompt: Write a delightful story about happy, cheerful anthropomorphic creatures who all die horribly. This episode … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 31: Tragedy
For starters, let’s clear the air. Yes, the first episode of the new year is also the last episode of Writing Excuses Season 3. And yes, we’ll be getting Season 2 and Season 3 on CDs pretty soon here. Collaboration! This is one of our all-time most requested topics, and we’re covering it now because … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 32: Collaboration