Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Writing Excuses Season 10, the podcasted master-class, continues with this exploration of that critical second step: what do do once you’ve got an idea that has story-legs. (Note: When we say “two weeks ago” over and over, that’s just bad math. You haven’t missed an episode.) We talk about our…
Brandon, Howard, Mary, and Dan offer useful answers to that age-old question: “Where do you get your ideas?”
As 2014 draws to a close we say goodbye to Season 9, and talk a bit about what we’ve each learned this year. Howard explained the surprising changes that came with a change in his work space Mary told us how she reached a new understanding of pacing Brandon talked about…
Recorded live in front of the Out of Excuses students, a crowd of savvy readers if ever there was one, we talk about how to effectively write for readers who are familiar with the genre or story structure in which we’re writing. It’s a tricky problem, since genre fiction is…
Live from Westercon 67 and Fantasy Con, Mette Ivie Harrison and J.R. Johannson join us to talk about writing for the mystery genre. We begin by talking about the key differences between thrillers and mysteries, and then move into how this understanding can drive our story structures. We discuss how characters…
Patty Garcia, Director of Publicity at Tor, joins us to discuss publicizing books
David Farland joins, along with a live audience at Westercon 67, for a discussion on writing instruction.
The first of the SHADOWS BENEATH critique episodes, in which we thrash on a new Cosmere story from Brandon Sanderson so that he can fix it. Part 1 of 2.
Pre-writing: It’s like pre-cooking, only with more abandoned prologues and fewer refried beans.
When building your world, go deep rather than going wide.
