Brandon, Howard, Mary, and Dan offer useful answers to that age-old question: “Where do you get your ideas?”

• Humor, 
• Ideas, 
• Research, 
• Writing Exercises

Writing Excuses Season 10, the podcasted master-class, continues with this exploration of that critical second step: what do do once you’ve got an idea that has story-legs. (Note: When we say “two weeks ago” over and over, that’s just bad math. You haven’t missed an episode.) We talk about our various approaches to this, many … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.2: I Have an Idea; What Do I Do Now? →

• Brainstorming, 
• Characters, 
• Demonstration, 
• Ideas

Cherie Priest joins us for a discussion of Lovecraftian horror.

• Cherie Priest, 
• Eldritch Horror, 
• Gender, 
• H.P. Lovecraft, 
• Horror, 
• Lovecraftian Horror, 
• Race, 
• Robert E. Howard, 
• Space Eldritch

At the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat we premiered the Season 10 concept, and we invited our attendees to give us the questions we need this month. (They’ll also be the ones providing our questions for February, but we’ll cast our net wide for questions in March.) Ideas are hard! Is it ever acceptable for … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.4: Q&A on Ideas →

• Business, 
• Discouragement, 
• Discovery Writing, 
• Fanfic, 
• Ideas, 
• Q&A, 
• Short Story

Does your draft have a boring main character? You’re not alone! Also, the problem can be solved.

• character quirks, 
• Characters, 
• Protagging, 
• Protagonist

In which Max Gladstone introduces us to the concept of the Magical 1%

• Goblin Quest, 
• History from beneath, 
• Humor, 
• Redshirts, 
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, 
• Star Wars, 
• World Building, 
• Worldbuilding

Our character-focused month continues with an exploration of the challenges involved in building a cast for your story. Whether you’re building a large or small cast, you need to know why you’re putting these people in the book, whether they’re main characters, secondary characters, or spear-carriers, and what purpose each of them actually serves in … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.7: Who Are All These People? →

• Agents of Shield, 
• Characters, 
• Spear-Carriers

It’s time for a Q&A on characters! The questions for this episode were provided by the attendees at the 2014 Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat: How do you have a character grow in power and/or expertise without needing to ridiculously overpower the villains? How do you give a flawed character a growth arc without … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.8: Q&A on Character →

• character quirks, 
• Characters, 
• Q&A

This month’s syllabus topic is story structure, and we’ll be starting with the part we start with. And that part usually isn’t the beginning — that’s where the story starts for the reader. We’re going to talk about where the story starts for you. It’s the answer to questions like “where is my story coming … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.9: Where is My Story Coming From? →

• Characters, 
• Discovery Writing, 
• MICE Quotient, 
• Outlining, 
• Plot

Wesley Chu joins us for a literal shake-up of our structure for one episode. We had loads of fun with this one. The I Ching is a collection of poems which you consult with numbered sticks. You ask a question, shake a random stick from the cup, and the corresponding poem holds your answer. In writing … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.10: Q&A with the I Ching →

• career, 
• Characters, 
• Demonstration, 
• Discovery Writing, 
• Genre Mash-ups, 
• Killing your Darlings, 
• Naming Characters, 
• Professional Jealousy, 
• Q&A, 
• Self-Publishing, 
• Wesley Chu

If you haven’t yet read “Parallel Perspectives,” from Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, we have a PDF for you to download and read before you start listening to this episode. It’s a 33mb file in a public DropBox folder. Parallel Perspectives PDF for Writing Excuses listeners Got the file? Done reading? Okay, let’s go… This week … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.11: Project In Depth: “Parallel Perspectives” →

• Characters, 
• Collaboration, 
• Outlining, 
• Pacing, 
• Project In Depth, 
• Schlock Mercenary, 
• Story Structure

Wes Chu joins us again for a Q&A about this month’s topic: story structure! Here are the questions: Do you make a conscious decision about how to structure your story before you begin writing? Is it necessary to use multiple structures (three-act, Hollywood formula, etc) in order to ensure that your story works? What tools … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.12: Story structure Q&A, with Special Guest Wesley Chu →

• Outlining, 
• Pacing, 
• Q&A, 
• Race, 
• Scrivener, 
• Story Structure, 
• Wesley Chu

Any discussion of story structure must necessarily take a look at that big, long bit between the beginning and the end, that piece where almost everything actually happens. In this episode we talk about the middles of stories, and how formulaic structures will help you get them to do all of the things that you need … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.13: Where is My Story Going? →

• Foreshadowing, 
• Mystery, 
• Romance, 
• Set Pieces, 
• Stand up and Cheer Moment, 
• Story Structure

How do you know which bits of your story have to come first?

• Beginnings, 
• Fulfilling Promises, 
• Plot, 
• Promises to the Reader

Wes Chu, author and adventurer, recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and has some things to say about all the wilderness trekking that our characters do in the books we write, and how we often forget to say anything about sleeping on inclines, altitude sickness, or packing toilet paper. The salient point: we need to remember that our … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.15: Worldbuilding Wilderness with Wes Chu →

• Fantasy, 
• Setting, 
• Wilderness, 
• World Building, 
• Worldbuilding

Let’s get that first page written in a way that will bring the reader to all the rest of the pages.

• Beginnings, 
• Characters, 
• First Lines, 
• First Paragraphs, 
• Pacing

We’ve talked beginnings all month. Now we take your questions about them.

• Beginnings, 
• in medias res, 
• Q&A

This one’s for all you folks who like to do some world building on-the-fly.

• Cultural Appropriation, 
• Culture, 
• Discovery Writing, 
• Gee Whiz, 
• Gender, 
• Puppetry, 
• Race, 
• Research, 
• World Building

What’s the difference between intrigue, suspense, and mystery? We talk about this, and then drill down on intrigue.

• Characters, 
• Dune, 
• genre, 
• House of Cards, 
• Idiot Plot, 
• Intrigue, 
• Mystery, 
• Plot, 
• POV, 
• Suspense, 
• The Blacklist, 
• Vorkosigan

You’ve done piles of world building. How do you convey this world to reader without infodumping? We talk about the different skill levels involved, and then the techniques that you’ll be using as you get better and better at what is probably the most critical skill unique to genre fiction writers.

We answer questions about consistency, alternate histories, and the Great Spoke Plague of ’77

• Cultural Appropriation, 
• Guy Gavriel Kay, 
• Secret History, 
• World Building, 
• Worldbuilding

Spoilers ahead! We dig into Of Noble Family, by Mary Robinette Kowal, focusing on language, culture, and the extensive research Mary did.

• Cultural Appropriation, 
• Glamourist Histories, 
• Of Noble Family, 
• Project In Depth, 
• Research

Instead of saying “show, don’t tell,” we say “here’s how to show.”

• Description, 
• Devil's Only Friend, 
• Show-don't-Tell, 
• Writing Exercise

Media Specialist Kiley Snyder joins us to talk about hooking young readers.

• Contemporary YA, 
• Graphic Novels, 
• Harry Potter, 
• Percy Jackson, 
• Representation in Fiction, 
• Young Adult

We talk about how we define and structure scenes in our writing, and we make reference to Scene/Sequel format, the MICE quotient, and pacing.

• MICE Quotient, 
• Pacing, 
• Scene and Sequel, 
• Story Structure

How do you “show, don’t tell” a character’s thoughts? We answer this question, and more!

• Description, 
• Setting, 
• Show-don't-Tell, 
• Workspace

Lots of people struggle with the middles of their books. One way to look at the middle is that it’s the point where you’re no longer working on that new project that has you excited, but haven’t yet gotten to the cool ending that has you excited. We talk about why the middle is important, … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.27: Why Can’t I Just Jump to the Ending? →

• Chekov's Gun, 
• Promises to the Reader, 
• Stand up and Cheer Moment, 
• Try/Fail Cycles

Marie Brennan joins us for a discussion of polytheism (and really any belief system) in our fiction.

• Brian T. McClellan, 
• Curse of the Chalion, 
• D&D Deities and Demigods, 
• jacqueline carey, 
• Marie Brennan, 
• Religion, 
• The Autumn Republic, 
• World Building, 
• Worldbuilding

Character failure is a big part of making the middle of a story work. We talk about why, and offer tips about how to make this work well for you.

• Characters, 
• Conflict, 
• Plot, 
• Try/Fail Cycles

Marie Brennan joins us again, this time to help us field your questions about middles. Here are the questions we collected from the various social media feeds: How do you maintain interest without having something explode every other chapter? In short fiction, how do you prevent try-fail cycles from bloating the story? How do you prevent … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.30: Q&A on Middles, with Marie Brennan →

• Marie Brennan, 
• Middles, 
• Sandersoning

Are we making progress? How do we communicate that to the reader?

• Character Arc, 
• National Treasure, 
• Pacing, 
• Plot, 
• Promises to the Reader, 
• Sense of Progress

Words take time to read, but that’s not the same amount of time that the words communicate…

• Chapter breaks, 
• Pacing, 
• Punctuation, 
• Scene and Sequel, 
• time compression, 
• time dilation

Marie Brennan joins us again, this time for a discussion about writing combat. She’s studied fencing, combat choreography, and is *this close* to having a black belt in shotokan karate, bringing a valuable perspective to the discussion. Also, she’s written an ebook called Writing Fight Scenes, so she knows how to talk about this stuff. … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.33: Combat, with Marie Brennan →

• Daredevil, 
• Dorothy Dunnet, 
• Jackie Chan, 
• Peter Molyneiux, 
• The Game of Kings

We wrap up this month’s discussion of pacing with a Q&A. Here are the questions we pulled out of the virtual hat (read: Twitter) for answering during the episode: What are some early indications of a pacing problem? How do you chart pacing so that it remains even? Can you control pacing using scene/sequel format? How do … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.34: Q&A on Pacing →

• Brent Weeks, 
• Jim Butcher, 
• Pacing, 
• Q&A, 
• Scene and Sequel

Charlie N. Holmberg, who was recently signed by Amazon’s 47 North imprint, joined us in front of a live audience it Sasquan (the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention) to talk about breaking in to the industry. Brandon and Dan broke in a decade ago, and Howard never actually bothered breaking in. This episode is brought … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.35: Breaking In, With Charlie N. Holmberg →

• Breaking In, 
• WorldCon, 
• Writing Career

We’ve talked about plot twists before. This episode covers the way in which the type of plot twist is dependent on, or signaled by, the context of the story. Getting plot twists right may mean surprising the reader, but it’s just as important to have the twist surprise the character. SPOILER ALERT: Avengers: Age of … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.36: How Does Context Shape Plot Twists? →

• Chekov's Gun, 
• Context, 
• Plot Twists, 
• Red Herring

This month’s wildcard episode comes to you from the 2015 GenCon Indy Writers’ Symposium, where Dan and Howard had the opportunity to interview Susan J. Morris and Marc Tassin. Susan is one of the finest moderators the symposium has ever seen, and Marc directs the event, building the schedule around good panelists and great moderators. … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.37: Being a Good Panelist and a Great Moderator, with Susan J. Morris and Marc Tassin →

• Conventions, 
• GenCon Indy, 
• Moderating, 
• Panels

Our second installment for the Master Class’s month of context covers the way dialog between characters may change meaning depending upon the context you create for them. This context may be the setting or genre, and it may also be the “beats” in which you describe what a person is doing while speaking. We talk … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.38: How Does Context Shape Dialog? →

• Beats, 
• Context, 
• Dialog, 
• Maid and Butler

Kevin J. Anderson joined us at Sasquan/WorldCon 73 to take questions about plot twists. Here are the questions that came in from our live audience: Genre Twists: good, bad, or ugly? Can you compare and contrast a good plot twist with a bad one? What is the biggest mistake professional authors make with regarding plot … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.39: Q&A on Plot Twists with Kevin J. Anderson →

• Ender's Game, 
• Plot Twists, 
• The Sixth Sense

Nalo Hopkinson joins us for this episode, which we recorded before a live audience of Out Of Excuses Workshop & Retreat attendees. October’s master class episodes focus on endings, and in this first installment we talk about what an ending really is. It’s obviously the last part of the book, but the gestalt of “ending” … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.40: What’s the Difference Between Ending and Stopping? →

• Endings, 
• Foreshadowing, 
• Fulfilling Promises

Brad Beaulieu and Jaym Gates join us from the GenCon Indy Writing Symposium to talk about good versus evil, and how your character might swing between the two. And it’s all about that swing. Moral grey areas are more interesting if we move through them. We talk about how we swing the pendulum, what difficulties we encounter, … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.41: Your Character’s Moral Pendulum →

• Character Arc, 
• Characters, 
• GenCon Indy, 
• Good vs Evil

Nalo Hopkinson joins us again, at sea, for our second Master Class installment on endings. We cover some of the reasons why an ending might not be working, and then talk about the sorts of diagnoses that will help you solve the problem. You’ll likely need to dig deep in your toolbox. Our episodes covering the … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.42: How In The World Do I Tie All This Together? →

• Endings, 
• Fulfilling Promises, 
• Hollywood Formula, 
• MICE Quotient, 
• Promises to the Reader

Delia Sherman joined us aboard the Independence of the Seas for our question-and-answer installment on endings. The questions came from the attendees at the Writing Excuses Workshop, which was, lest anyone forget, on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  The questions: Why do more short stories than novels end on tragic notes? How do you keep an ending from … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.43: Q&A on Endings, with Delia Sherman →

• Endings

November is “Revision” month here in the Writing Excuses Season 10 Master Class, so while many of you may be tempted by NaNoWriMo, there’s a different kind of work to be done… Delia Sherman joins us again, this time for a frank talk about the tools and techniques we use during our revisions.   This episode … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.44: How Do I Fix What is Broken? →

• Character Arc, 
• Editing, 
• Plot holes, 
• Revision

Dan and Howard are joined by Kameron Hurley, James L. Sutter, and Michael Underwood for an anything-goes Q&A at the GenCon Indy Writing Symposium. We had reached the end of our two-hour block, but the audience hungered for the chance to ask their questions of these guests, so the Symposium gave us an extra half hour … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.45: Q&A at the GenCon Writing Symposium, with Kameron Hurley, James L. Sutter, and Michael Underwood →

• Critique Groups, 
• Editing, 
• Triage Editing, 
• Validation, 
• Writing the Other

The microphones again find us aboard the Independence of the Seas*, to talk about how terribly ugly this manuscript is, and what we can do to make it pretty. In this episode we drill down on line-by-line, paragraph-by-paragraph revisions. This stage of the revision process is where our prose gets wordsmithed. This episode runs long, touching on: … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.46: How Do I Make This Pretty? →

• Editing, 
• Line-editing, 
• Pacing, 
• Parallelism, 
• reading aloud, 
• Revision

And now for your questions about revision. Or rather, questions from the WXR attendees, who were aboard the Independence of the Seas with us (the answers to these questions are secreted away in the audio file…): During revision, when do you think it’s acceptable to throw the whole thing out? How do you fit the … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.47: Q&A on Revision →

• Outlining, 
• Purple Prose, 
• Q&A, 
• reading aloud, 
• Revision

Spoiler Alert! We’ll be discussing the latest John Cleaver book from Dan Wells with author, podcaster, and unrepentant bacon-lover Dan Wells! If you haven’t read it, and you want to be surprised by it, stop listening and grab a copy now!

• Character Arc, 
• Horror, 
• I Am Not a Serial Killer, 
• John Cleaver, 
• Superhero Origin Story

We’re at the end of our Season Ten Master Class, and if you’ve been diligent about the homework, you may very well have a finished manuscript in your hands. What do you do with it? Daniel José Older joins us for a bit of reminiscence. We talk about some of our first submissions, and what … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.49: What Do I Do With This Thing Now? →

• Agents, 
• Conventions, 
• Editors, 
• Networking, 
• Submitting

Marco Palmieri and Michael Underwood took the stage with Howard and Dan at GenCon Indy 2015 to discuss hand-selling manuscripts. Marco Palmieri is a senior editor at Tor, and Michael Underwood is an author, and is also the North American Sales and Marketing manager for Angry Robot Books. We begin with a list of the things … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.50: How to Hand-Sell Your Manuscript to Agents and Editors, with Michael Underwood and Marco Palmieri →

• Editors, 
• MSWL, 
• Networking, 
• Publishers

Daniel José Older joins us for a Q&A on showing your work around. Here are the questions, which were submitted by attendees at the Out of Excuses workshop: What’s the best way to meet editors and agents at conventions? How do you write a good query letter? What do you mention as credentials in your … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.51: Q&A on Showing Your Work, with Daniel José Older →

• Agents, 
• Barcon, 
• Conventions, 
• Editors, 
• Pitching, 
• Query Letters, 
• Submitting

Ellen Kushner joins us for the last episode of Season 10. Per the title, folks, it’s time to be done. What does “done” mean? How do you go about declaring a project “finished” when you know there are still things wrong with it? How do you clear your head, your work space, and your life for … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.52: Moving On, with Ellen Kushner →

• Lifestyle, 
• Out of Excuses, 
• Outlining