Welcome to Writing Excuses!

Writing Excuses has been running since 2008 so we have A LOT of episodes. Knowing where to start can be tricky so we’ve created a bit of a guide to help you out depending on where you are in your writing and what you are looking to get out of it.

We also do not recommend starting in season 1! We mean it! Please do not start by listening to our earliest episodes. We have spent eight years becoming better writers and better podcasters than the people we were when we recorded those. There’s some good stuff back there, sure, but you want to start with the best stuff, right?

If you are someone who likes to listen in chronological order you but you are staring down 19 seasons worth of content with wide eyes then we would suggest starting in season 18 as it heralds a bit of a refresh for us when we said goodbye to original host Brandon Sanderson and welcomed DongWon Song and Erin Roberts. The other option is to start with Season 10 if you are hungry for a lot of episodes to work on.

To get to know all the current hosts, here are our interview episodes of the hosts that we did to kick off our new era of the podcast:

• Dan Wells
• DongWon Song
• Erin Roberts
• Howard Tayler
• Mary Robinette Kowal

If you are looking for specific topics our search feature works pretty well as we have worked hard to tag each episode with the appropriate topics. Below you can also find an every-evolving list of topics that will take you to the tag group.

• The MICE Quotient
• Structure
• World building
• Writing the Other
• Q&A
• Career & Lifestyle
• Close Reading Series

Guests! We have had many guests on the podcast and if you are looking for someone in particular, here is the list of all our guests and the episodes they appear in.

And lastly, here are some full season suggestions if you want some specific topics but also like chronological order:

• Season 10 – write your novel from scratch! Start with how to get an idea and work your way to revision in a year 
• Season 11 – we define a new term (made up by Brandon) and dive into Elemental Genre for the whole season
• Season 12 – a season focused on story structure and all the variations of it
• Season 13 – let’s talk character in all its nitty gritty details
• Season 14 – a whole season on world building! Dive into every detail of your world

Take it Slowly

If you’re serious about letting Writing Excuses help you become a better writer, listen to one episode, and then stop listening, and start writing. Do the homework! Use the writing prompt.

Of course, in this age of binge-watching television programs, that’s quite a bit to ask. If you’re planning to binge-listen, you should probably start with Season 10. It’s not like we’ll spoil the cliffhangers of Season 7 and 8, because there weren’t any of those. You can always go back.

Episodes end with a writing prompt, and with an injunction: “You’re out of excuses. Now go write.” You might plan to binge-listen only to find yourself itching to open a blank document and begin putting words to the page.

Give in to the urge to write. Let it consume you.

Writing is one of those pursuits which one might study at great length without actually learning to write well. The study must be coupled with some actual practice.

Writers write! Good writers started out as bad writers who kept writing anyway. We all have different reasons for writing, but whatever our goals as writers, it’s impossible to meet them without beginning with the butt-in-chair, hands-on-keyboard part.