How do you take a good character and make them evil? And why would you want to do this? Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard answer that second question first, and then walk you through the process of doing this.
Come up with a list of three things that are important to your main character. Push one of those things out of alignment so that it will draw your character to the antagonist’s side.
Hard Magic, by Larry Correia, narrated by Bronson Pinchot
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about fictional ecologies.
Take a horrible, hard-to-domesticate animal, and then create a culture in which somebody has figured out how to domesticate these beasties.
A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge, narrated by Peter Larkin
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard tackle worldbuilding flora and fauna again, this time through negative examples, pizza-trees, and a can of worms.
Populate Excustoria’s coast with some magically, meteorically mutated life.
Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card, narrated by Stefan Rudniki. It’s a fantastic example of well-constructed flora and fauna, and it’s also a good example of how to make a sequel almost completely unlike the book that came before it.
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard help you keep it short and simple.
Give us a group of people on a long trip in space, with a problem, which they solve. Do it in 150 words.
Farenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, narrated by the author
Sam Sykes joins Dan Wells and Mary Robinette Kowal for a discussion of sound, smell, taste, and touch in prose.
Write the point-of-view of a character whose vision is obscured, and describe how they use their other senses to attempt to determine where they are.
Terrorists in Love: The Real Stories of Islamic Radicals, by Ken Ballen, narrated by Peter Ganim
In this particularly self-indulgent episode of Writing Excuses we take you behind the marshmallow. We explain the origins of the ‘cast, and offer you rare insight into what makes this show what it is. We talk about how the show evolved, how our equipment came to be “borrowed,” and how Mary came to be involved.
Give us a story with an old, colonial British type eating marshmallows. For extra points, set it in the Schlockiverse. (Note: no actual points will be awarded.)
Our stuff! Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson, Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal, (and lots of things narrated by Mary), and Dan Wells’ John Cleaver trilogy.
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about Historical Fantasy (differentiating it from Alternate History), its popularity, and how you might go about beginning to write it.
Identify a historical period that you like, and write a story in that setting. Don’t bother researching anything until you’re done.
His Majesty’s Dragon: Temeraire, Book 1, by Naomi Novik, narrated by Simon Vance
Sarah Pinborough joins Mary and Dan at World Fantasy for a very writerly discussion of London. Also, they discuss using a city as a character.
Take a city to which you have been, and set a chase scene there.
The Terror, by Dan Simmons, narrated by Simon Vance
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard field questions from Twitter, including what to do if you don’t like your characters, keeping your plot on track, and how grounded in real geography your urban fantasy should be. There is also a question about bacon.
Write what one of your characters would write if that character had a blog.
One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire, narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal
David Brin joins Mary and Dan for a discussion of the importance of criticism.
What if dreams became so much more vivid that when you woke up, for a full hour you didn’t know whether you were still dreaming or not?
Startide Rising, by David Brin, narrated by George Wilson
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard field seven questions in fifteen minutes and forty-two seconds: a new land-speed record!
Listener Bill Housely provided this one—a lone woman who runs an orbital refueling post makes first contact when some aliens arrive in desperate need of fuel.
Persuasion, by Jane Austen. Note that there are lots of available recordings. We recommend something unabridged, like the version linked here.
Brandon, Mary, and Howard talk about the strengths of the omniscient POV, how to use it well, and what pitfalls to avoid.
1) Stick an omniscient narrator scene in between two 3rd-person limited scenes. 2) Have two characters carry on a dialog which is out of sync with what each of them are thinking.
Acacia, by David Anthony Durham, narrated by Dick Hill
Brandon and Mary school Howard on “Man vs. Nature.” They might school the rest of us, too.
“Jack Black stranded alone on an alien planet.” Your challenge? Make us like the main character and want him to live…
Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey, narrated by Dick Hill
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard tell you all the reasons why you shouldn’t actually be writing, and why, especially at this time of the year, these writing excuses are so critically important to your career.
Write a series of 16 numerals. This is probably Jordo’s credit card number, or at least one of them (in one of the many universes where he is still allowed to use credit cards.) Go shopping! Oh, you’ll need the expiration date! It’s April 1st, 2012.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Dummies, by Rob Wilson and Rhena Branch, narrated by Simon Slater
In this outlining demonstration Mary reads from an early outline, then Brandon, Dan, and Howard brutally dissect it.
Take an existing folk tale and re-tell it using the Dora the Explorer formula for quests.
Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal, releases this week! We’ve put links to it over here on our brand new Book of the Week page!
In this second part a VERY SPECIAL two-part session of Writing Excuses Brandon, Dan, and Howard continue to tear into Mary’s first novel outline.
Give us a monkey, a bronze pot, a baby, and pizza in completely different situations than what we heard in Mary’s outline.
Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay, narrated by Simon Vance
Guest and gun-nut Larry Correia joins the Writing Excuses crew to talk firearms, fiction, and common mistakes.
Give us a character who, after reading one Larry Correia novel, goes out and procures a grenade launcher.
Spellbound: Book II of the Grimnoir Chronicles, by Larry Corriea, narrated by Bronson Pinchot
What is your “voice” and how do you identify it? James Artimus Owen joins us for this discussion before a live audience at Life, The Universe, and Everything at Utah Valley University.
Find a writing buddy, swap stories halfway through, and then compare notes.
Here, There Be Dragons, by James A. Owen, narrated by Stephen Langton
A Q&A with James Dashner covering paragraph edits, plotting, writing prequels to existing series, and more.
You get kidnapped and put in an asylum for the criminally sane.
Everneath, by Brody Ashton, narrated by Amy Rubinate
Michael R. Collings and Michaelbrent Collings discuss cathartic horror with Brandon, Dan, and Mary in front of a live audience at UVU.
Adapt the unadaptable fairy tale Mary introduced us to (the one about the little old lady who catches on fire and dies).
The Slab, by Michael R. Collings, narrated by Andy Bowyer
Howard answers questions about “Force Multiplication,” (the 12th Schlock Mercenary book) as posed by Brandon, Dan, and Mary.
Do this with your own work—have your friends interview you in depth about something you’ve finished, or something you’re currently working on.
Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett, narrated by Stephen Briggs
A microcast is our word for an asynchronous Q&A episode: you ask us tons of questions online, either through twitter or facebook or our listenermail account (on the sidebar), and we want to answer as many of them as we can. Not every answer can fill an entire episode, though, so we take the smaller … Continue reading Writing Excuses 7.22: Microcasting
Write a flashback, in a prologue, with a mirror scene. Yes.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley
Recorded live, our regular ‘casters discuss time travel, and somehow manage not to become any of their own parents, or even uncles.
You can only go back in time as far as your own life-span, but somebody needs to go back a hundred years. A team of 100-year-olds is assembled as time traveling heroes.
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, narrated by Fred Berman and Phoebe Stole
Brandon answers “The Way of Kings” questions from Mary, Howard, and Dan.
Take a character of yours, and split that character into a character and a foil.
Stranger in a Strange Land (unabridged), by Robert A. Heinlein, narrated by Christopher Hurt
Capers and Heists as a plot form, with lots of movies cited as examples.
Your characters need to perform a reverse-heist, putting jewels into a safe without getting caught.
The Great Train Robbery, by Michael Crichton, narrated by Michael Cumpsty
Recorded live at Utah Valley University, here’s another Q&A episode from the LTUE Symposium! The questions: What was Brandon’s plan with Mistborn and the themes regarding establishment? Why does Kelsier shrug so much? (This leads into a fun discussion of “tells.”) How do you know when to stop a chapter? What about expanding it? How … Continue reading Writing Excuses 7.26: Q&A at UVU part 2
From Earl K. Hill, our cameraman: tell a whole story from the view of the sidekick.
Partials, by Dan Wells, narrated by Julia Whelan
Do we value originality too much? What does it mean to be original, and how can we, as authors, write wonderful things when all of the good ideas have already been used?
Regarding riding mounted beasts — make the cost to the rider so high that it’s almost never worth it. Now create circumstances under which it’s always worth it.
Sharpe’s Rifles, by Bernard Cornwell, narrated by Frederick Davidson
Mary Robinette Kowal talks in depth about her novel Glamour In Glass, fielding questions from Brandon, Dan, and Howard.
Have Queen Victoria’s cousin not die. How is history changed?
The Hollow City, by Dan Wells, which, as of this writing, doesn’t show up on Audible’s site. We counsel patience.
What do you do when your villain is more interesting and engaging than your hero? The first step? Admit that this is a problem…
Take a hero and give him a hobby, and something alive that he loves.
Imager, the first book of the Imager Portfolio, by L.E. Modesitt Jr, narrated by William Dufris
The crew fields questions about criticism, suspension of disbelief, tension, and more.
The story of the writer and her VERY ENTHUSIASTIC alien fan who is impossible to escape.
Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones, narrated by Jenny Sterlin
Spoilers galore as we discuss “Hollow City,” in depth, with author Dan Wells
Go find an interesting mental illness (quick, before Dan takes all the good ones.) Now write from the sufferer’s POV, but don’t tell us what’s actually wrong.
Sucks to be Me, by Kimberly Pauley, narrated by Nancy Wu
Eric James Stone joins the cast to talk astronomy as a tool for world-building
Your colonists are going to a world whose axial tilt is different from Earth’s. How are the seasons different?
Helliconia Spring by Brian Aldiss, narrated by Christopher Slade
Emote! Now do it authentically! In this episode we’ll explain how we do it, and hopefully help you do it better.
Describe a setting. Then, without using any emotion-words, describe that same setting again three more times from a happy, sad, and angry point of view.
All Men of Genius, by Lev AC Rosen, narrated by Emily Gray
Finishing one project means it’s time to start the next one. And no, it’s not necessarily going to get easier…
“The Hairy Housewife,” because Brandon didn’t hear Howard correctly the first time he said “harried.”
The Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant, wraps up with Blackout, and is a very satisfying example of a series that does something different with each book.
RPG Luminary Monte Cook joins us at GenCon Indy 2012 to talk about writing for games, and the perils of trying to adapt game play back into prose.
For some reason one character is put into the body of another character.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon, narrated by David Colacci
Dan needs help writing a short story, so Brandon, Mary, and Howard endeavor to help him. Hopefully this will be educational for the rest of you.
Google military three-letter-acronyms (IED and RPG are off-limits.) Swap out one of the words for a supernatural descriptor beginning with the same letter. That’s your story seed.
Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, by John Scalzi, narrated by Wil Wheaton
Pantsing! What are we even talking about? We’re talking about discovery writing, but apparently some folks think it’s more fun to call it “seat-of-your-pants” writing. In this cast we cover this exhilarating process, and how it might best be applied. Mary uses the “yes-but, no-and” trick. Dan starts with an end in mind, and then … Continue reading Writing Excuses 7.37: Pantsing
Cheerful ruffians, civilized louts, yes-but, no-and, ready, set, go.
Existence, by David Brin, narrated by Kevin T. Collins, Robin Miles, and L. J. Ganser.
Shanna Germain joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard for a frank discussion of love scenes.
Put your characters in a place they cannot escape, and keep them there.
Shanna plugged “One Hot Summer,” but the actual title is One Long Hot Summer. It is not currently available Audible, but it’s available on Amazon at the link above. There are lots of OTHER things on Audible for you to listen to, including four titles featuring Shanna Germain.
Killing characters for all the right reasons, and knowing what the wrong ones are.
Find a way to kill a character. Then write it in three ways: sad, heroic, and accidental. As an alternative, take a story you’ve already written, and write a different ending so that someone dies instead of living, or lives instead of dying.
Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, by Mignon Fogarty, narrated by the Grammar Girl herself
Maurice Broaddus joins us to talk about “writing the other” — writing other cultures, races, genders — basically anybody who isn’t much like you.
You’re on a sidewalk late at night. You’re approached by three young, black males. Write the scene from their perspective. (Alternatively, simply jump off from “magical redneck,” but note that Maurice has already done that one.)
The House of Discarded Dreams, by Ekaterina Sedia, narrated by Robin Miles
Dan Wells walks us through the seven-point story structure format he uses, and then we demonstrate by brainstorming this on a sample story.
Try out the seven-point story structure for yourself. Outline something!
Janci Patterson joins us to talk about contemporary YA , her debut novel “Chasing the Skip,” and writing from a pitch.
Pick a place where teenagers are not typically allowed, and put a teenager in that place.
Chasing the Skip, by Janci Patterson. It’s not currently available as of October 14th, but it’s coming real soon.
James L. Sutter, Pathfinder editor with Paizo, talks to us about tie-in fiction.
Write a story in which all the characters are simultaneously the good guy AND the bad guy.
Railsea, by China Mieville, narrated by Jonathan Crowley
Jim Zub talks writing comics with Brandon, Howard, and Mary at GenCon Indy
Introduce a place without using dialog. Describe five panels for an artist to draw, so that the reader has been introduced to the location.
Swords and Deviltry: The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, by Fritz Lieber, narrated by Jonathan Davis and Neil Gaiman
It’s microcasting time! This week we take a crack at the following listener questions: What percentage of a rough draft makes it into print? What are the pitfalls of jumping from novels to short fiction, and vice versa? Do you need to start with short fiction first? (This answer involves this link to Jim C. … Continue reading Writing Excuses 7.45: Microcasting
Write a story about a squid who’s trying to write a space opera which is not about squids in space.
Hellhole, by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert
Brandon and Mary take time out from World Fantasy to encourage everyone participating in NaNoWriMo.
Brandon talks in depth about his novella “The Emperor’s Soul”
Come up with a magic system based on stamps, but that has nothing to do with forgery.
Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov, narrated by William Dufris
Dan Wells and Robison Wells give you a pep talk for the second week of NaNoWriMo.
What are the things that matter to your characters? What things matter to your readers? After we get the obligatory ambiguity out of the way, we settle into talking about the “stakes” and the escalation thereof.
Raise the stakes without resorting to risks to reputation, livelihood, or mental health. Or explosions. Don’t use those, either.
Control Point: Shadow Ops, by Myke Cole, narrated by Corey Jackson
Howard Tayler gives NaNoWriMo participants a pep-talk on their way into the last week of the month.
Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary review some of Emma Coats’ “Pixar Rules” for storytelling
“The Multi-Tentacled Space Goat cannot come and save us again.”
Foundation, by Isaac Asimov, narrated by Scott Brick
Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal provide last-minute writing advice to you NaNoWriMo’ers out there…
We’ve talked about where to start. Now Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about how to start — what goes “in” when you’re going “in late, out early.”
Start a new story. Give us character, place, and sense of tone. Do it one sentence, and do it within 13 lines (which is what typically appears on the first page of a manuscript.)
The Green Glass Sea, by Ellen Klages, narrated by Julie Dretzen
Mary Robinette Kowal schools Brandon, Dan, and Howard with her outlining system.
Give us a magic system in which the thumbnail, the under painting, the other imagery are the basis for the magic.
The Dragon Factory, by Jonathan Mayberry, narrated by Ray Porter
Mary invites Brandon, Dan, and Howard to brainstorm a story with her.
In a setting in which magnetic fields are dramatically different between locations, give us a story about traveling between those locations.
The Broken Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin, narrated by Casaundra Freeman
A fast-paced Q&A covering discouragement, magic systems, ideas, and our embarrassing early projects.
Two different characters, two different magic systems…
Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor, narrated by Anne Flosnik
How is “Men in Black” like “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?” This week on Writing Excuses we talk about Secret History, and how to do it well.
Take a popular piece of entertainment, grab a side-character, and give us their secret story.
A Short Stay in Hell, by Stephen L. Peck, narrated by Sergei Burbank
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard each take a look at some changing aspect of the industry, and how they’re reacting to that change.
Figure out what you would like the future of writing to look like. Now write a story about how we get there.
The Last Light of the Sun, by Guy Gavriel Kay, narrated by Holter Graham