Tools, not rules. For writers, by writers.
Recorded live at LTUE, Michaelbrent Collings guest-starred for a discussion about self publishing. The landscape continues to change, and Collings is fully engaged in it. He begins by stressing the importance of truly understanding the craft of writing—every professional writer needs this—and then talks turkey about Kindle Direct, Bookbub, formats and lengths,…
Nancy Fulda joins us to talk about the Elemental Genre of Idea, and how to write stories driven by a sense of fascination.
Gama Ray Martinez joins us at LTUE to field questions on the Element of Wonder, which were submitted by members of our audience. Here are the questions: How do you create wonder in non-genre stories, where there are no super-powers, spaceships, or spellcasters? How do you avoid making the wonder…
If the Element of Wonder is the driving force behind “sense of wonder” science fiction and fantasy, then that same element can be used to give wondrous flavor to stories whose driving force lies among the other elemental genres. We talk about how to use wonder at smaller scales, how…
Gail Carriger joins us to talk about her Convention Survival Kit, which is full of things most of us wish we’d known to pack with us years ago.
We’ve introduced the concept of Elemental Genre already. It’s time to start digging in to the elements themselves, beginning with the Element of Wonder. We started with this one because “sense of wonder” is a term that gets used to describe what makes some science fiction stories work. In this…
Michelle Lyons McFarland, Monica Valentinelli, and Shanna Germain join Howard and Dan at GenCon, and talk about the craft of world building for role playing games.
Let’s map Newton’s Laws of Motion onto writing. Because a wordcount at rest tends to remain at rest…
Elemental Genre becomes particularly useful when you start blending the elements for sub-plots, character arcs, or even mash-ups.
We asked the Out Of Excuses alumni to give you their favorite episodes, with an eye toward the ones that they think listeners could start with. We’ve created a menu in the left-hand sidebar with these episodes for quick reference. Here’s that same list, with words from the alumni explaining their recommendations.…
