Season 08 Archives

Writing Excuses 8.2: Hero’s Journey

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary talk about the Hero’s Journey. Finally.

Take Goldilocks and the Three Bears, apply the Campbellian Monomyth, and give us a short story.

At the time we recorded this, Hero With a Thousand Faces was available on Audible. It’s not anymore. So… go find something else educational?

Writing Excuses 8.8: Writing and Personal Health

Robison Wells joins Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard to talk about health — especially the mental kind.

Take an outline, and make a list of the questions you are going to ask your readers at the beginning of the book. Then make a (hopefully shorter) list of the questions you leave unanswered by the end of that book.

Our pick, Imagine, by Jonah Lehrer, has been pulled from Audible because the author made some stuff up! So not only can you not believe everything you read, you can’t believe everything you listen to.

Writing Excuses 8.12: Project in Depth — Deus ex Nauseum

The cast grills Howard about “Deus ex Nauseum,” the bonus story from Emperor Pius Dei

Take one story and discard every other page. Use that as framing material for a second story.

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, edited by John Joseph Adams with stories by Robert J. Sawyer, Christopher Roden, Michael Moorcock, Anne Perry, Neil Gaiman, Anthony Burgess, and Laurie R. King, narrated by Simon Vance and Anne Flosnik.

Writing Excuses 8.15: Narrative Rhythm

We begin with an audio glitch and a jumbling of our usual intro. Why? Because it breaks rhythm, and sometimes you may actually want to do that. Narrative rhythm is the pattern of story elements and associated structures that help drive the reader’s pace through a book. Consciously managed, narrative rhythm is a a critical … Continue reading Writing Excuses 8.15: Narrative Rhythm

Re-write a classic fairy-tale, first with nothing but rising action, and then with the addition of some falling action.

Writing Excuses 8.22: Pre-writing with E.J. Patten

E.J. Patten joins us to talk about pre-writing — all that work that gets done before the prose happens.

Kids get magical powers from their Halloween costumes…

E.J. Patten’s books aren’t available on Audible, but if you’re looking for Cthulhu that isn’t for kids, H.P. Lovecraft’s classics “Call of Cthulhu” and “Reanimator” can be found in H.P. Lovecraft, Volume 2, narrated by Garrick Hogan.

Writing Excuses 8.24: Project in Depth–Kiss Me Twice

Mary walks Brandon, Dan, and Howard through the processes for writing “Kiss Me Twice,” her Hugo-nominated novella

Pick your favorite actor or actress, gather your favorite quotes from them in their films, and string them together in a single character’s voice in a new context.

Empire State, by Adam Christopher, narrated by Phil Gigante

Writing Excuses 8.27: Chapter Breakdowns

How do we break our books into chapters, and how to we build those chapters to begin with?

Outline a two-character plot arc, and then break it into chapters. Experiment with big blocks and little blocks of POV in this chapter-chopped outline, and consider how this will affect the arc.

Promise of Blood, by Brian McClellan, narrated by Christian Rodska

Writing Excuses 8.30: Writing Reluctant Characters

The cast discusses how to make reluctant, non-proactive, non-go-getting characters interesting to read about.

Create a character who is either weak or reluctant, determine why they are weak or reluctant, and then write the decision point.

Celebromancy, by Michael R. Underwood, narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal, who gets to make a light-saber noise as part of the narration…

Writing Excuses 8.31: Combining Dialogue, Blocking, and Description

The cast talks about making dialogue, blocking, and description work together for exposition and story-telling.

(Which is Actually Homework) Write description for half an hour. A full half hour. Set a timer! Try to use all five senses. Now write a single paragraph in which we establish a single character in that setting. Finally, write three sentences that convey the character, the description, and the character’s emotional state. Want more exercises like this one? Here you go! (courtesy of Mary.)

Bloody Jack, by L.A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren

Writing Excuses 8.34: Survivorship Bias

The cast talks about their survivorship bias, and how to pay attention to that bias so that listeners can extract advice from us that might actually work for you

A very successful author or artist has a fan who decides to emulate that creator’s life in crazy, cargo-cult detail in an effort to become similarly successful.

We plugged Michael Moorcock’s Elric series for you, but those are no longer available on Audible. You might consider Moorcock’s Blood: A Southern Fantasy instead.

Writing Excuses 8.35: Digging Yourself Out of Holes with Jeph Jacques

Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content joins us to talk about discovery writing, and how he digs himself out of holes when he writes himself into them.

Go back to whatever you wrote most recently and come up with a different solution for the scene, changing the emotional beat of the scene.

The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks, narrated by Peter Kenny

Writing Excuses 8.42: The Internal Heckler vs. The Internal Editor

“Silence your internal editor” may not be very good advice. We talk about why.

Oh no! We forgot to give you a writing prompt! Fine… Your internal heckler turns out to be a real person/entity/being/whatever. Not everybody’s internal heckler—yours. Why?

The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Mary Robinette Kowal, Justine Eyre

Writing Excuses 8.44: Talking Publishing with Tom Doherty

Tom Doherty, president and founder of Tor books, joins us at GenCon to talk publishing.

Write a story about a publisher trying to predict the next trend, and the technology he’s using to do it.

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Harlan Ellison. As Tom points out during the cast, it’s unusual for a book to make The New York Times Best Sellers list twenty-eight years after its publication.

Writing Excuses 8.45: Gencon Q&A With Wesley Chu

Wes Chu joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard for a live audience Q&A at GenCon

Revoke your right to use “thought” verbs, then communicate thoughts, knowledge, and awareness in your POV character. The original challenge for this prompt came from this blog post by Chuck Palahniuk.

Chimes at Midnight, by Seanan McGuire, narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal

Writing Excuses 8.47: Roguishness with Scott Lynch

Scott Lynch, author of The Republic of Thieves, joins Brandon, Howard, and Mary before a live audience at GenCon Indy to talk about roguishness. Why do we like rogues? What can a roguish character accomplish in terms of story purposes? Can the rogue accomplish things a more classically moral character cannot? Most importantly, what do authors … Continue reading Writing Excuses 8.47: Roguishness with Scott Lynch

For research purposes… okay, no. Forget that. Complicate a scene or story by adding an unexpected injury or illness.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, narrated by Michael Page

Writing Excuses 8.49: Hard Social Science Fiction with Joel Shepherd

Joel Shepherd joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard to talk about hard social science.

Pick two people on the same side of a conflict, but give them completely different motivations for fighting on that side.

Crossover: Cassandra Kresnov Book 1, by Joel Sheperd, narrated by Dina Pearlman

Writing Excuses 8.51: Creative non-fiction with Mette Ivie Harrison

Mette Ivie Harrison joins us to discuss creative non-fiction, the genre in which the tools of creative writing are applied to factually accurate narratives.

Try your hand at creative non-fiction. Takes something that is ordinary to you, but which may be unusual or extraordinary for other people, and write about it in a way that evokes wonder.

Steelheart, by Brandon Sanderson, narrated by Macleod Andrews

Writing Excuses 8.52: You Think You Don’t Have Time to Write, with Mette Ivie Harrison

Mette Ivie Harrison joins us to talk about the reasons you think you don’t have time to write.

Come up with a reason why the writer in your story absolutely cannot write, then have your writer manage to write anyway.

Metatropolis: Green Space, in which Mary has a story. Lots of writers, lots of narrators. Go have a look!