What is horror? Why is it scary? HOW is it scary? Forced by their grandfather’s will to spend an entire night in his spooky mansion, our podcasters gather to discuss the nuts and bolts of what horror is (and isn’t) and how it works behind the scenes. Here’s a hint: as with pretty much everything else in writing, the secret comes down to compelling conflicts with engaging characters. Be warned: Howard is going to say something scary, so don’t listen to this podcast alone and/or in the dark.
This week’s Writing Excuses is brought to you by something close to Dan’s heart.
A descent into madness written from the first person point of view. You are going to descend into madness, your writing will become gibberish or something horrible will happen, and then Brandon will scream.
Writing Excuses is undergoing a complicated technical overhaul on the back end (by which we mean that Jordo, our techmonkey, is moving to a new house and has very patchy computer and Internet access). This is slowing us down, but we promise that there will be an episode available tonight. Sorry. It will all be cleared up soon, and we shouldn’t have many more problems in the future.
August 6-10, all three of your favorite writing excusers will be at WorldCon in Denver, Colorado. In addition to seeing us on panels and signings and in the massive dealer’s room, you can also join us for a number of podcasts that we will be recording live, right there, with an audience and some really awesome guest speakers. It will be, without hyperbole, the highlight of your entire life. Offerings of bacon are welcome, but not required.
For those of you unable to join us, rest assured that the traditional schedule of podcast postings will continue apace. Huzzah!
We are pleased to present the second half of “Viewpoint and Tense,” which, as we all know, is Tense. Part 1 was Viewpoint. It’s not two podcasts that both talk about tense and viewpoint, it’s two totally different podcasts that share a title for some reason. Why didn’t we just do two separate podcasts, one on tense and one on viewpoint, instead of trying to connect them like this? Because, as we tell you every week, we’re not that smart.
This week’s Writing Excuses Book of the Week: Warbreaker, by some hack.
How much research do you do? Howard’s answer: “Just enough to get by.” In this podcast we talk about why we research, how we research, and when we feel like we’ve researched enough. We also discuss hiding a lack of knowledge, and finding ways to get by without doing truly exhaustive research. Listen closely and you’ll learn why you’ll never be able to know enough, why the epic fantasy horse is a lot like a motorcycle, and whether or not one of us really needs therapy.
This week’s Writing Excuses Book of the Week: Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson
You’ve heard about viewpoint, but do you really know what it means? Discover along with Howard the magic world of person, tense, and omniscience, and how you can use them to tell your story. It’s a short journey, as quests go, but we’ll all learn a valuable lesson about writing–and about ourselves.*
*Heartfelt lessons about ourselves not guaranteed. Contents non-refundable.
