Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
A lot of people ask published authors what their writing process is like, as if it is a key to being able to write. The only important process is the one that works for you. So, we’re going to let each of our hosts spend an episode explaining their own…
Today our hosts tell you why you don’t need to listen to all of our episodes—or even most of them. Each of our five hosts weighs in on how you can combine the topics, subtopics, and lenses that each episode features in order to create a structured path forward for your own…
This is our final episode before we have Charlie Jane Anders on the podcast to talk about her writing process next week! Today we’re talking about intention by analyzing thematics, the author’s intent, and the way Anders uses tone and tradition to express the core ideas of the book. We…
If you still want to read All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, you can purchase it here! Today we’re talking about places and place-moments. We’re looking at how Anders uses context, details, and relationships to create a deep, familiar, and authentic reading experience for us, even if we’ve…
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. …
How does a room sound? Does your childhood have a taste? What is the smell of summer? In this episode, we dive into the sensory layers that anchor worldbuilding, character, and perspective. We explore how invoking smell, sound, touch, and taste can transport readers more powerfully than sight alone. What…
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…
Today we’re talking about setting, which in speculative fiction is often called worldbuilding. But once you’ve finished building the world, how do you convey that world on the page? That is, how do time and place shape your story—and your characters? In this episode, we’re talking about the power of…
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…
