Our fourth M.I.C.E. Quotient episode explores the “Character” element, and how these angsty, navel-gazing voyages of self-examination can serve either as complete stories or as elements in other stories. Also, we talk about how to do this in ways that don’t result in readers complaining about “navel-gazing” or “angsty.”
Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson
You’ve figured it out by now, right? Use the same fairy tale as last week (and the week before, and the week before that) and strip out every element that is not Character.
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard, with special guest Daniel Friend
Daniel Friend, who edits SF/F, has worked in election offices, has run for office, and has participated in campaigns. In this episode we talk about the ways elections can be worked into our stories.
Credits: This episode was recorded by Joseph Meacham, and mastered by Alex Jackson.
This is the second of our pair of episodes in which we talk about how we, your hosts, fix the problems we’ve identified with the characters in our work.
Credits: This episode was recorded by Andrew Twiss, and mastered by Alex Jackson.
Take a character in one of your stories and split them into two characters. Take two characters from another of your stories, and combine them into one.
What do we do to make our characters distinctive? Often we categorize the distinctions as flaws or quirks, and in this discussion we use those as our starting points.
Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson.
