Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
“Your short story should definitely be a novel.” It’s something writers are often told when they write short stories. What tips and tricks can you use to keep your idea within the length of the story you’re trying to tell? We dive into worldbuilding in miniature, pacing, and character development. We also…
Are you interested in experimenting with different writing forms? Do you want to try an unusual or different way of writing? Well this week, we have an episode dedicated to non-traditional formats for writing. In this episode, we think about experimental short fiction from the point of view of publishing…
All unreliable narrators aren’t unreliable in the same way. How do they differ and how does that change the way that we write them? Erin shares her unified theory (look at the graphic below!) of unreliable narrators. Homework: Take an event that you’re familiar with, and write about it as…
What does it mean if your writing is voice-y? How do you give your character a natural voice? We approach this question from the high-level perspective of craft, and the granular level of word choice and sentence structure. Erin talks about the research she did about Appalachian English for her…
Writing Excuses Retreat Scholarship Fund Writing Excuses Retreats are in-person events where writers gather to network and hone their craft. The location changes each time, with at least one annual gathering aboard a cruise ship. It’s our goal to make these retreats as accessible as possible. To that end, our…
Writing Excuses Retreats Since 2013, Writing Excuses has offered retreats and workshops designed to help writers connect, grow, and dig deeper into their craft. We recognize writing is not as solitary an act as many think. Writing Excuses Retreats aim to create safe and inviting spaces for generating ideas and…
Welcome to the last week of National Novel Writing Month! It’s okay if you aren’t going to finish your book, and it’s also okay if you don’t have 50,000 words! You still did a thing—you created a story that didn’t exist We want to talk about endings. How do you…
It’s week four of NaNoWriMo! Or, National Novel Writing Month, which happens every year for the month of November. This week, we are talking about how to write climaxes, how to write resolutions, and what exactly the three-quarter mark is. How do you write a climax scene? How to keep…
We are now three weeks into NaNoWriMo—where writers are attempting to write a novel in the month of November. For this episode, our writers talk about how to raise the stakes in your story. To make something feel more threatening, you don’t have to make it bigger or flashier, but…
Welcome to the first official week of National Novel Writing Month (or, almost the end of this week)! In this episode, we dive into how to write an inciting incident. What is an inciting incident? It is often the thing that goes wrong in your story. Within the first page,…
