Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.

Writing Excuses Episode 11: The Business of Writing

So… you’re ready for the big-time. You’re a writer, and the writing is almost paying the bills. Hurray! Now, how do you balance your life so that you can make the jump to writing full-time? How do you manage your time? How do you keep your artistic side from accusing…

Writing Excuses Episode 10: Pacing

Pacing… it’s all about keeping the tension up, keeping things snappy, and keeping the reader interested. This week the Writing Excuses crew delivers some tips, tricks, and tools you can use to get your story flowing in all the right ways. Also, on Sunday The Salt Lake Tribune posted an…

Writing Excuses Episode 9: Sci-Fi Sub-Genre

This week we continue our discussion on Science Fiction with a discussion of various Sub-genres, why they’re different, and what you can do to make sure you know your audience. Sub-genres covered: Space Opera, Military, Hard SF, and Cyberpunk. Sub-genres not covered: Dystopia, Steam-punk, and whatever it is Philip K.…

Writing Excuses Episode 7: Villains

Are flaws necessary for villains? What traits make for a really good (err… evil?) villain? What’s the difference between Sauron and Gollum? (“That’s the LAST time I send you out shopping for Gollums, son…”) Liner Notes: The Evil Overlord List, a handy reference for tropes to avoid (or, as the…

Comment Moderation back on

They say it takes one person to ruin it for the rest of us and in this case it’s cheap pharmaceuticals to blame, we’ve been getting too much spam lately so I’m turning back on comment moderation. If you’ve already got a comment on the site you should hopefully have…

Writing Excuses Episode 5: Heroes and Protagonists

What makes a good hero? Why is Dirk Pitt so cool? Why do people like Superman? And why does Howard-with-a-chest-cold start to sound like Barry White? Some of these questions are answered in this episode while others are better left unexplained. LINER NOTES: Howard repeatedly invoked John August’s blog post…