Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, Howard, and Brandon Welcome to 2021, and Season 16 of Writing Excuses. This year we’re dividing the year into “master classes” or “intensive courses.” We’re kicking it off with Brandon’s episodes, which are all about the business of writing, and the first of those is this one! So… your career … Continue reading 16.01: Your Career is Your Business →

• Agents, 
• Business, 
• Publishing, 
• Writing Career

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, Howard, and Brandon It sounds like a mean thing to say, but it’s not a wrong thing to say. A publisher is a corporation, and a corporation doesn’t have friends. It has contractual relationships. We can make friends with people who work for publishers, but those are not the same … Continue reading 16.02: Publishers Are Not Your Friends →

• Agents, 
• Contracts, 
• Publishing, 
• Writing Career

Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Howard, and Brandon Erin Roberts joins us for our third installment in Brandon’s business-of-writing series. In this episode we’re covering pitfalls and common problems—including some predatory practices—for you to be on the lookout for while you develop your career as a writer. Credits: This episode was recorded my Marshall Carr, and … Continue reading 16.3: Publishing Pitfalls →

• Agents, 
• Business, 
• Critique Groups, 
• Editors, 
• Self-Publishing, 
• Writing Career

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, Erin, Brandon, and Howard Networking is an invaluable part of any business, and the business of writing is no exception. In this episode we’ll talk about how to do it effectively, genuinely, and in ways that benefit the entire community. Credits: This episode was recorded my Marshall Carr, and mastered … Continue reading 16.4: Networking →

• Agents, 
• Conventions, 
• Critique Groups, 
• Editors, 
• Networking, 
• WXR

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, Brandon, and Erin Here’s our deep dive into the subject of contracts in the publishing business. We can only go so deep during a fifteen-minute episode, so we ran about twice as long as usual. We discuss some of the things you should look for, things you should watch out … Continue reading 16.5: Pros and Contracts →

• Agents, 
• commercial publishing, 
• Contracts, 
• Publishers

Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, and Howard Branding, in marketing terms for writers, is the process of establishing a recognizable identity—a brand— for you and your works in the marketplace of readers, and people who buy things for readers. In this episode we talk about what our brands need to be doing for us, and … Continue reading 16.6: Building Your Brand →

• Branding, 
• Conventions, 
• John Cleaver, 
• Marketing, 
• Middle Grade, 
• Panels, 
• Pitching, 
• YA

Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, Howard Let’s look a the business considerations of whether that thing you’re writing is a standalone story, or part of a series. The factors are complex, and a single factor (like, say distribution channel) isn’t likely to make the decision clear cut. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, … Continue reading 16.7: To Series, or Not to Series →

• Cosmere, 
• John Cleaver, 
• Schlock Mercenary, 
• Series, 
• Trilogy

Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, and Howard Let’s talk about how promote yourself and your work, and how to do it well. The tools we use for this continue to evolve, and in this discussion we’ll cover things that have worked, things that have stopped working, things we use now, and strategies we apply to … Continue reading 16.8: Smart Promotion →

• Branding, 
• Marketing, 
• Social Media

Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, and Howard How many different ways can our writing earn money for us? What additional work, besides “just” writing, do we need to do in order to get that money? In this episode we discuss finding and managing multiple revenue streams, whether that means writing for new audiences, or monetizing … Continue reading 16.9: Crossing The Revenue Streams →

• GoFundMe, 
• IndieGoGo, 
• Kickstarter, 
• Merchandising, 
• Writing Career

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard, with special guest Kevin J. Anderson Kevin J. Anderson joins us to talk about how others have helped us in our careers, and how we might continue that tradition and help others. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, and mastered by Alex Jackson  

• Mentoring, 
• Pay It Forward, 
• Superstars Writing Seminars, 
• WXR

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard This is how we begin our master class on poetry, with Amal El-Mohtar: With not one question, but two. What is poetry? What is prose? Yes, both questions are a trap. Or maybe two traps. But definitely a beginning. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, and … Continue reading 16.11: What is Poetry? →

• Poetry, 
• Prose

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Can you hear your writing sing, being intoned instead of read? With the dialogs as tunes whose tags say “sung” instead of “said?” When the rhythm of your prose echoes the rhythm of a song you’ll see perhaps you’ve been a poet all along. Credits: This episode was … Continue reading 16.12 : Singing Versus Speaking →

• Master Class, 
• Poetry

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Patterns in the way we’re speaking may betray which ‘brain’ we’re using; often bound by what’s familiar, sometimes loosed for free-er choosing. Writing like the day-brain’s thinking Singing while the night-brain’s winking All the cadence going funky (golden-mantled howler monkey) Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, and … Continue reading 16.13: Day Brain vs. Night Brain →

• Master Class, 
• Poetry, 
• reading aloud

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard We might begin with description. Or we might begin by deconstructing the act of describing. Wait. No, not there. Let’s jump in AFTER the deconstruction. Let’s leap beyond a statement of topic, let’s hurdle clear of mundane declarations of the audio file’s length, and together plunge headlong … Continue reading 16.14: Poetic Language →

• Master Class, 
• Poetry, 
• Purple Prose

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Rigorous structure in poetic form is commonly pointed at when we declare Poems have meters and rhymes, as the norm. Yet words without patterns can roar like a storm So why pay attention, why study with care Rigorous structure in poetic form? Just set it aside, surrender the … Continue reading 16.15: Poetic Structure, Part I →

• Haiku, 
• Master Class, 
• Poetry, 
• structure

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard How does a poem happen? Absent an external structure, what makes a thing a poem? The key word in that question may be “external,” because ultimately the poem on the page will be the implicit definition of its own structure—even if it borrows a “non-poetic” structure from another … Continue reading 16.16: Poetic Structure: Part II →

• Master Class, 
• Poem, 
• Poetry, 
• structure

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Rhyming is powerful. It can signal a form, or telegraph whimsy. It can be predictable, surprising, and sometimes both. It may also be seen as childish. When, then, is it time to rhyme? Will rhyming “internally” fit? As opposed to a line-ending bit. For answers, just listen. But … Continue reading 16.17: The Time To Rhyme →

• Poetry, 
• Rhyming

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, James L. Sutter, Dan Wells, Cassandra Khaw, and Howard Tayler For the next eight episodes we’ll be talking about roleplaying games, and how that medium relates to writers, writing, career opportunities, and more. We’re led by James L. Sutter and Cassandra Khaw on this particular quest. In this episode we … Continue reading 16.19: Intro to Roleplaying Games →

• Master Class, 
• RPGs

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, James L. Sutter, Dan Wells, Cassandra Khaw, and Howard Tayler How do you give players meaningful choices while still keeping the story within a reasonable set of boundaries? In this episode James and Cassandra lead us in a discussion of branching narratives, and the ways in which we as writers … Continue reading 16.20: Branching Narratives →

• Choose Your Own Adventure, 
• Game Design, 
• Planet Mercenary, 
• RPGs, 
• Schlock Mercenary

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, James L. Sutter, Dan Wells, Cassandra Khaw, and Howard Tayler So, you’re the hero of your own story, and the hero gets choices, and in many ways directs the story. In our discussion of interactive fiction and writing for games, the subject of “player characters” is essential. From the array … Continue reading 16.21: Player Characters →

• Characters, 
• Choose Your Own Adventure, 
• RPGs

NOTE: Some of these details have CHANGED as of June 9th, thanks to a very cool upgrade Royal Caribbean made to our sailing. The new information is marked in bold italics, and full details are available at the registration link. Join fellow writers for an in-depth masterclass at sea on board the Royal Caribbean’s Liberty … Continue reading WXR 2021: The Writing Excuses Cruise Masterclass →

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Cassandra Khaw, Dan Wells, James L. Sutter, and Howard Tayler Let’s have a discussion about scenes and set pieces, and let’s lead with this: prose writers often create longer pieces using scenes as building blocks, and in this thing writing for game design is very, very similar. Scenes and set … Continue reading 16.22: Scenes and Set Pieces →

• Game Design, 
• Master Class, 
• Scene and Sequel, 
• Set Pieces

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Cassandra Khaw, Dan Wells, James L. Sutter, and Howard Tayler Let’s talk about how players interact with the mechanics of the game, and what kinds of requirements those might put on the writers. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

• Game Design, 
• Master Class, 
• RPGs

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dongwon, and Dan What’s this bonus episode thing? Well, for starters IT’S URGENT, because as of this writing you have just ten more days to get the promised pricing for WXR at sea in 2021. What ELSE is it? Well, this bonus episode describes the difference between workshops, retreats, and master … Continue reading BONUS EPISODE! 2021 WXR Early-Bird Announcement →

• Master Class, 
• WXR

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Cassandra Khaw, Dan Wells, James L. Sutter, and Howard Tayler Worldbuilding is one of our favorite topics, and it’s a domain in which game design and novel writing share a lot of territory. In this episode we talk about how much we love it, and how much we enjoy letting other … Continue reading 16.24: Worldbuilding for Games →

• Game Design, 
• Master Class, 
• Worldbuilding

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Cassandra Khaw, Dan Wells, James L. Sutter, and Howard Tayler Our series of game writing episodes draws to a close with a discussion about working with teams. This last skill set, these ways in which you learn to excel at collaborative projects, is often far more important than any of your … Continue reading 16.26: Working With Teams →

• Collaboration, 
• Master Class

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Our controversial episode title comes to us via John Schwarzwelder, and it points up nicely the importance of today’s topic, which is first lines, first pages, and how we set about convincing people (who may or may not want to read a book) to … Continue reading 16.27: Nobody Wants to Read a Book →

• Back Cover Copy, 
• First Lines, 
• First Paragraphs

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

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 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 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 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 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: 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: 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 Our fourth M.I.C.E. Quotient episode explores the “Character” element, and how these angsty, navel-gazing voyages of self-examination can serve either as complete stories or as elements in other stories. Also, we talk about how to do this in ways that don’t result in readers complaining about … Continue reading 16.38: Deep Dive into “Character” →

• Character, 
• Character Arc, 
• character flaws, 
• character quirks, 
• MICE Quotient

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, C.L. Polk, Charlotte Forfieh, and Mary Robinette Kowal Our fifth M.I.C.E. Quotient episode focuses on the “Event” element, and explores how to use disruption of the status quo as the driving element for story. From plumbing problems to alien invasions, event stories are often structured by telling how difficult it is to return to … Continue reading 16.39: Deep Dive into “Event” →

• MICE Quotient, 
• Status Quo

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, C.L. Polk, Charlotte Forfieh, and Mary Robinette Kowal Now that we’ve drilled down into each of the M.I.C.E. elements (Milieu, Inquiry, Character, and Event) it’s time to explore nesting them. This sixth installment in our M.I.C.E. Quotient series focuses on the “FILO” (first-in, last-out) or “nested parentheses” method for symmetrically creating a story using … Continue reading 16.40: Nesting Threads in the M.I.C.E. Quotient →

• MICE Quotient, 
• Story Structure, 
• Tension

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, C.L. Polk, Charlotte Forfieh, and Mary Robinette Kowal With the M.I.C.E. elements (Milieu, Inquiry, Character, and Event) explained, and the concept of nesting, or braiding the M.I.C.E. threads, we’re ready to dive into that most difficult part of the story: the middle. Enough of us dread (or at least struggle with) middle-of-story writing that … Continue reading 16.41: Middles and Conflicts with M.I.C.E. Structure →

• Conflict, 
• MICE Quotient, 
• Middles, 
• Sagging Middle, 
• Story Structure, 
• Try/Fail Cycles

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, C.L. Polk, Charlotte Forfieh, and Mary Robinette Kowal Our eighth and final M.I.C.E. Quotient discussion will explore using M.I.C.E. as a diagnostic tool. So… your manuscript is done, but something isn’t working. How do you figure out where the problem is? If the ending isn’t satisfying, M.I.C.E. can tell you whether the ending itself … Continue reading 16.42: M.I.C.E. Quotient, After the Fact →

• Editing, 
• Endings, 
• MICE Quotient, 
• Revision

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler We’re beginning another master class, another deep dive series of episodes, and this time around we’ll be led into the realms of good worldbuilding by Fonda Lee. In this episode Fonda talks about her process, which includes plotting and character creation along with … Continue reading 16.43: The Narrative Holy Trinity of World, Character, and Plot, with Fonda Lee →

• Character, 
• Plot, 
• Worldbuilding

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler The world of your book is most often shown to us through the eyes of the characters who live in that world. In this episode we discuss the fact that those characters have biases which will distort the reader’s perception of the world. Knowing this, … Continue reading 16.44: World and Character Part 1: All Your Characters Are Biased →

• Character, 
• POV, 
• Unreliable Narrator, 
• Worldbuilding

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler Let’s follow up on character biases with an exploration of moral frame. When we say someone is “morally gray” or “morally ambiguous,” what we’re really talking about is the way they fit into the moral frame defined by society. In this episode we talk about … Continue reading 16.45: World and Character Part 2: Moral Frame →

• Character, 
• Character and Viewpoint, 
• Morality Play, 
• Worldbuilding

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler In our world, the ostensibly “real” one (simulation theory notwithstanding), stuff is changing all the time. Why, then, do we see so many fantasy worlds whose once-upon-a-times seem timeless? A more important question: how might we, as writers cognizant of the ubiquity of change, work … Continue reading 16.46: World and Plot: The Only Constant is Change →

• Culture, 
• history, 
• Technology, 
• Worldbuilding

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler Writers are illusionists, and worldbuilding requires no small mastery of that particular magic. In this episode we’ll explore the creation of believable illusions through the techniques of similarity, specificity, and selective depth. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

• Worldbuilding

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler As we do our worldbuilding with similarity, specificity, and selective depth (per the previous episode), we should take care to apply these things throughout our stories. In this episode we discuss how these elements we’ve world-built can become “textures.” Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall … Continue reading 16.48: Believable Worlds Part 2: Creating Texture →

• Star Wars, 
• Worldbuilding, 
• Write What You Know

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler Magic and technology are tools that we, as writers, use to tell interesting stories, and they’re very, very similar tools. In this episode we’ll examine some ways in which both magical and technological elements can be used in our stories. Credits: This episode was recorded by … Continue reading 16.49: Magic and Technology: Two Sides of the Same Coin →

• Magic Systems, 
• Science Fiction, 
• Worldbuilding

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler Here at the end of our 8-episode intensive series on Worldbuilding we discuss stepping away from the defaults, the clichés, and the tropes, and choosing every element deliberately. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the tropes. We’re just suggesting that they be included only after deciding we … Continue reading 16.50: Worldbuilding Finale: Making Deliberate Choices →

• Tropes, 
• Unconscious Bias, 
• Worldbuilding

Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd Our next 8-episode intensive is all about promises and expectations. Our guest hosts are Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd. They’re joining us to talk about how the promises we make to our audiences, and the expectations they bring with them, are a … Continue reading 16.51: Promises are a Structure →

• Branding, 
• Foreshadowing, 
• Fulfilling Promises, 
• Master Class, 
• Million Dollar Baby, 
• Promises to the Reader, 
• Red Herring, 
• Star Trek Lower Decks, 
• The Lunar Chronicles

Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd The structure you’re using for your story isn’t just helping you organize your plotting. It’s telling the audience what’s going to happen. Story structures make promises to audiences, and these audience expectations are, in large measure, outside of our control. In this episode we talk about the expectations … Continue reading 16.52: Structure is a Promise →

• Fulfilling Promises, 
• Hero With a Thousand Faces, 
• Kishōtenketsu, 
• MICE Quotient, 
• Police Procedural, 
• Promises to the Reader, 
• seven-point story structure, 
• Story Structure, 
• Three-Act Format