Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Our hosts explore how to write compelling confrontations—whether physical fights or emotional arguments—in a live episode recorded on the Writing Excuses Cruise. Building off Dan Wells’ class Why Your Fight Scene Is Boring, our hosts break down reactions into four elements: focus, physicality, thought, and action. The discussion dives into how newness, character…
How can listening inform the way you write? We decided to ask Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author—best known for The Power of Habit and most recently released Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, a compelling guide that explores the art and science of meaningful conversation. …
Time isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a powerful tool in storytelling. In this episode, we explore how time shapes narratives, beyond just plot structure. From magnifying moments in a fight scene to revealing a character’s morals through temporal shifts, we unpack how timing, pacing, and the passage of time can deepen…
This week, we’re digging into context—what it is, why it matters, and how it can totally transform your storytelling. Whether you’re working in fantasy, sci-fi, or anything in between, the details you choose to include (or leave out) can make your world feel rich, real, and emotionally resonant. We talk…
What does cooking have to do with writing? In this episode, we explore how the creative choices we make in the kitchen—whether it’s improvising with missing ingredients or following a beloved recipe—mirror the choices we make on the page. From frozen dinners to fine dining, we discuss how all forms…
This season, we’ve been exploring different approaches to writing through the lens of other crafts and their respective toolkits. We had the pleasure of speaking with furniture-maker, writer, and publisher Christopher Schwarz. Christopher is an incredible artist, writer, and is also the founder of Lost Arts Press, which publishes books on hand…
People often think of first person POV as the most intimate voice. But in a way, we think second person might be more intimate. With second person, you’re forcing the reader’s subjectivity into the fiction itself. You are integrating the person who is reading the story into the experience of being in the story–…
Third person limited is one of the most popular storytelling lenses. Yet it is often understood differently by various authors and readers. So today we’re diving into the complexities, intricacies, and beautiful constraints of third person limited—don’t worry, we’ll be tackling third person omniscient in our next episode! With third…
We’re now going to have a few episodes focusing on the lens of proximity—specifically, how close you are to a character. Today, we’re talking about first person. First person seems like it would be one of the most natural forms of storytelling, because it’s the one we use when talking…
Today, we’re returning to different personal metaphors for how we all think about writing and storytelling. In this episode, we’re talking about how DongWon uses fashion as a helpful metaphor to think about storytelling. For both fashion and writing, whether you know it or not, you are already engaging with…
