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.
Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
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…
Writing Excuses often features guests as a way to bring different voices and perspectives to the show. Our show would not be possible without our guests, whose expertise and perspectives are a critical part of the podcast. Below is an inexhaustive list of the many guests we have had the…
Registration is now open for the 2016 Out of Excuses Writing Workshop and Retreat.
The 2016 Out of Excuses Writing Workshop and Retreat will be held from September 17th through the 24th on a cruise ship, back by popular demand.
The base price of $1300 covers the full week of intensive seminars, writing exercises, and free writing time, plus meals, double-occupancy lodging, and a cruise to three different Caribbean destinations.
It is time to retire the old Writing Excuses website.
This site has been using the same WordPress theme since the very beginning, in early 2008, and that particular theme felt very “2005.” This means Writing Excuses is about eleven years overdue for a change, which is a neat trick for an eight-year-old site.
You’re reading this on the new theme, which was rolled out by Howard and Izzy on January 1st.
We still have a lot of work to do. The new theme exposes a bunch of pages that will be super useful once they’re finished, but it’s going to take time. Expect things to occasionally be broken, then better, then worse, then really good. But even at “really good” there will still be stuff to fine-tune.
Please be patient, and per the post title, pardon the (metaphorical) dust while we remodel.
Ellen Kushner joins us for the last episode of Season 10. Per the title, folks, it’s time to be done. What does “done” mean? How do you go about declaring a project “finished” when you know there are still things wrong with it? How do you clear your head, your work…
Daniel José Older joins us for a Q&A on showing your work around. Here are the questions, which were submitted by attendees at the Out of Excuses workshop: What’s the best way to meet editors and agents at conventions? How do you write a good query letter? What do you…
Marco Palmieri and Michael Underwood took the stage with Howard and Dan at GenCon Indy 2015 to discuss hand-selling manuscripts. Marco Palmieri is a senior editor at Tor, and Michael Underwood is an author, and is also the North American Sales and Marketing manager for Angry Robot Books. We begin with…