Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Alyssa Wong, Campbell Award nominee and Nebula Award winner, joins us to talk about impostor syndrome. This is the frame of mind that many successful writers suffer from, in which they worry that they’re not really good enough at writing to be enjoying their success. Worse, this mindset can prevent…
Let’s get this out of the way up front: in the syntax of elemental genres, the phrase “the element of thriller” is clunky. But we’ll say it anyway. We discuss the difference between the drivers in thrillers, horror stories, and mysteries, and use the elemental genre tools to assist in…
How do we go about describing the clothing our characters are wearing? How do we use that to add depth to our story? What are the common mistakes that writers make when they start dressing their characters? Rebecca McKinney joined us on stage at LTUE to address all this. Liner…
Subscribers to Writer’s Digest will find Writing Excuses mentioned in the May/June 2016 issue of Writer’s Digest. One of the features in that issue is “101 Best Websites for Writers.” We’re alongside one hundred other valuable online resources, and it’s no stretch to say that this list alone is worth the price…
This is a Q&A about ideas that does NOT include the question “Where do you get your ideas?”
Nancy Fulda joins us to talk about the Elemental Genre of Idea, and how to write stories driven by a sense of fascination.
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.
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.…
The fourth annual Out of Excuses Retreat will be bigger and better than ever, and at this point that’s saying a lot. Last year’s retreat was a crazy experiment—could we actually do this on a cruise ship?—but it worked so well that the students wanted to pay it forward so…
