Writing Excuses
Episodes
NaNoWriMo 2018 Bonus Episode, with Mercedes Lackey
15 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard, with special guest Mercedes Lackey NaNoWriMo 2018 is half-way over today. Are you stuck? Do you ...
13.45: Next Level Narration
11 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Amal, and Maurice Narration is that stuff which tells your story, but isn't dialog. It's the voice of you...
NaNoWriMo 2018 Mini-Episode 2
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Mini-Episode Hosts: Amal El-Mohtar and Maurice Broaddus, with Special Asides from Mary Robinette Kowal We're a week in to NaNoWriMo. If you&#...
13.44: Alien Characters
04 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard As writers of speculative fiction we are frequently tasked with writing a species or race of alie...
NaNoWriMo 2018 Mini-Episode 1
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Mini-Episode Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard Back in 2017 we recorded a bonus episode for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo...
13.43: Characters Who Are Smarter Than You Are
28 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Amal Many of us write characters who know more than we know, and/or who think faster than we do. Writing ...
13.42: Writing Excuses Talks to an Astronaut, with Special Guest Kjell Lindgren
21 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with special space-guest Kjell Lindgren Kjell Lindgren, flight surgeon, Expedition 44/45, joined us for a...
13.41: Fixing Character Problems, Part II
14 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Amal, Mary, and Maurice This is the second of our pair of episodes in which we talk about how we, your hosts, fix the problems we...
13.40: Fixing Character Problems, Part I
07 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard This is the first of two episodes in which we'll talk about how we, your hosts, fix the problems we'...
13.39: What Writers Get Wrong, With Wendy Tolliver
30 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with special guest Wendy Tolliver Wendy skis, and snowboards, and writes YA novels. She is also the paren...
13.38: How to Find and Use Alpha Readers
23 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard We begin by making a useful distinction between alpha and beta reader: the alpha reader is an industry p...
13.37: What Writers Get Wrong, with J.Y. Yang
16 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard with special guest J.Y. Yang J.Y. Yang is a Hugo-nominated short story writer from Singapore who identifies...
13.36: Confronting the Default
09 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Amal, Mary, and Maurice If you live in the northern hemisphere, inland, perhaps above the 40th parallel, you are probably quite s...
13.35: Cliché vs. Archetype
02 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Tropes, archetypes, and even cliches are tools in our toolboxes. There's no avoiding them, but there a...
13.34: Q&A on Character Arcs
26 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard You had questions. We came up with answers. The questions are below: How do you fulfill promises about c...
13.b1: Bonus Episode — Elephants and Death, with Lawrence Schoen
22 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with special guest Lawrence Schoen Lawrence Schoen, clinical psychologist, cognitive hypnotist, small press publisher, Kli...
13.33: Reading Outside the Box
19 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard, with Kristie Claxton Kristie Claxton joined us at WXR 2017 to talk about reading outside of the spaces whe...
13.32: How To Handle Weighty Topics
12 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice How can we, as writers, best handle weighty matters? This is our year on character, so we'll approach...
13.31: Learning to Listen as a Writer
05 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard "Write what you know" gets misapplied a lot. In this episode we'll talk about how to know thing...
13.30: Project in Depth, THE CALCULATING STARS, with Kjell Lindgren
29 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, and Dan, with Kjell Lindgren Spoiler Alert! If you haven't yet read The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel, by M...
13.29: Iconic Heroes
22 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard The term "iconic hero" allows us to differentiate between different kinds of heroes who appear i...
13.28: What Writers Get Wrong, with Wildstyle
15 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
At GenCon Indy 2017 we were joined by Wildstyle (@MrWildstyle on Twitter), who wears many hats, and many of the hats he wears are donned in service of...
13.27: Characters as Foils
08 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice A foil is a character who serves as a contrast to another character. The foil might be a sidekick, an ant...
13.26: Character Relationships
01 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Our characters become far more interesting when they begin interacting with each other. These interactions—...
13.25: Our Journey With Character
24 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard Brandon wanted to ask us how our perspectives on character have changed since the very beginning of our...
13.24: What Writers Get Wrong, with Piper, Aliette, and Wesley, with special guest Ken Liu
17 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Piper Drake, Aliette de Bodard, and Wesley Chu, with special guest Ken Liu Our hosts for this episode are experts in a great many differe...
13.23: Internal Conflicts
10 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice Internal conflicts, simply put, are problems your characters have with themselves. In this episode we add...
13.22: Character Arcs
03 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard When Mary says we could do fifteen different episodes on character arcs, she's being conservative. Notw...
13.21: Q&A on Character Depth and Motivation
27 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard Our listeners submitted some great questions! How do you fairly and even-handedly write a deeply compell...
13.20: Fear and Writing, with Emma Newman
20 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard, with special guest Emma Newman Emma Newman, author, audio book narrator, and podcaster, joined us on the B...
13.19: Backstories
13 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice Character backstories: these are the tales that describe how the characters in your story became who they...
13.18: Naturally Revealing Character Motivation
06 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What motivates us? What really motivates us? Why? (Note: our motivations are probably not in service of som...
13.17: What Writers Get Wrong, with Jamahl Crouch
29 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with Jamahl Crouch Jamahl Crouch (Illusmm1 on Instagram) joined us at the GenCon Indy Writers Symposium t...
13.16: Avoiding Flat Characters
22 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard For our purposes, the term "flat character" refers to a character who lacks the depth required t...
13.15: What Writers Get Wrong, with Mike Stop Continues
15 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Recorded live at WXR 2017. Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard, with special guest Mike Stop Continues Mike has multiple areas of expertise, bu...
13.14: Character Nuance
08 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice Let's talk about characters who have conflict built right into them; characters whose attributes and ...
13.13: Character Voice
01 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Character voice, the flow, order, and feel of words that is unique to a particular character, is extremely ...
13.12: Q&A on Heroes, Villains, and Main Characters
25 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Cast: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, Howard You had questions about heroes, villains, and main characters. We have answers! Here are the questions: How d...
13.11: Writing Secondary Characters, with Charlaine Harris
18 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with special guest Charlaine Harris Charlaine Harris joined us in front of a live audience at the GenCon W...
13.10: Handling a Large Cast
11 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice What are our favorite techniques for managing large casts of characters, and how do our processes differ ...
13.9: Quick Characterization
04 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard How do you go about defining a character for your readers when you don't have many words to devote to t...
13.8: Making Characters Distinctive
25 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard What do we do to make our characters distinctive? Often we categorize the distinctions as flaws or quirk...
13.7: What Writers Get Wrong, with Lou Perry
18 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Lou Perry joined us in front of a live audience at GenCon Indy to talk about law and courtrooms, and what w...
13.6: External Conflicts for Characters
11 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice An external conflict is a story driver that originates outside the protagonist. In this episode a large ...
13.5: Villain, Antagonist, Obstacle
04 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What's the difference between villains and antagonists? How is an obstacle character different from tho...
13.4: Protagonists Who Aren’t Sympathetic
28 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard This week we're joined by Valynne Maetani, who'll be one of our hosts all year. We're discus...
13.3: What Writers Get Wrong, with Aliette de Bodard
21 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard This year's third-week episodes will all follow a common theme: "what writers get wrong." Each...
13.2: Writing Active Characters
14 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice This week we welcome Amal El-Mohtar and Maurice Broaddus to the Writing Excuses cast for a discussion of ...
13.1: Hero, Protagonist, Main Character
07 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard 2018 is our Year of Character, and we kick it off with a quick exploration of the differences between heroe...
12.53: Writing Excuses True Confessions
31 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It's the end of 2017, so let's talk about the things that we've tried to make work, and failed at. Not things that we tried before arrivi...
12.52: Cross-Genres as Gateways
24 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Howard, and Dan What are the books which have drawn us from the bookshelf genres where you're the most comfortable in...
12.51: Constructed Languages, with Dirk Elzinga
17 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard, Mary, Dan, with guest host Beth Meacham Dirk Elzinga, an associate professor of linguistics, joined us live at LTUE to talk about...
12.50: Form and Function
10 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley How does the shape of your physical medium change the art you're making? What are the tools that...
12.49: Non-linear Narratives
03 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We begin the final month of our year on structure with a discussion of non-linear structures. These include flashbacks, POVs that are out of chronolog...
12.48: Q&A on Novels and Series, with Brian McClellan
26 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Brian McClellan joined us to field questions about writing novels and series. Here are the questions: How do you write an ending that is open for sequ...
12.47: Screenwriting and the Writers Room, with JD Payne
19 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Screenwriter JD Payne joined us before a live audience at LTUE to talk about writing for the screen, specifically regarding doing this work with other...
12.46: Reinventing Yourself
12 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley We discuss the idea of "reinventing yourself," which can mean anything from "trying some...
12.45: Structuring a Series
05 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Before you can decide on a structure for your series, you may find it helpful to decide what kind of ser...
12.44: NaNoWriMo 2017 Primer
29 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard We're going to share some of our experiences with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in an ef...
12.43: Serialized Storytelling
22 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard We're talking about the extreme long-form serial story here, and how to keep things interesting witho...
12.42: Adapting Your Stories for Game Play, with Alan Bahr
15 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Mary, Dan, and Howard, with guest host Beth Meacham Alan Bahr of Ragnarok Publications, joined us at LTUE 2017 to talk about adapting...
12.41: Raising the Stakes
08 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley When we talk about "raising the stakes," we mean making the outcomes of the events in a stor...
12.40: Structuring a Novel
01 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What makes something a novel, rather than just a serialized collection of stuff that happens? How do we use...
12.39: Q&A on Short(er) Fiction
24 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard Our listeners sent us some questions about writing shorter fiction. Here are the questions: How do you m...
12.38: What Do Editors Really Want, with Toni Weisskopf and Cat Rambo
17 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Dan and Howard Toni Weisskopf and Cat Rambo joined Dan and Howard to discuss what it is that editors "really want." Question To ...
12.37: Subplots
10 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley What makes a plot a subplot? Must subplots and main plots be linked by something more binding than t...
12.36: Structuring a Mid-Length Piece
03 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Larger than a short story, smaller than a novel... there's quite a bit of space between those two thres...
12.35: Short Fiction Markets, with Spencer Ellsworth and guest host Beth Meacham
27 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Mary, Dan, and Howard, with guest host Beth Meacham Spencer Ellsworth and Beth Meacham joined us before a live audience at LTUE 2017 for a...
12.34: Fulfilling the Reader’s Fantasy, with Brian McClellan
20 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard Brian McClellan joins us for a discussion on fulfilling the promises we make to our readers—specificall...
12.33: How to be Brief, Yet Powerful
13 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley We've talked about some of the structural guidelines for short stories. In this episode we'll...
12.32: Structuring a Short Piece
06 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard We begin our exploration of short story structure with a re-cap of the MACE quotient (Milieu, Ask/Answer,...
12.31: What Makes a Good Monster, with Courtney Alameda
30 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard, Mary, and Dan, with guest host Susan Chang Courtney Alameda joined us at LTUE 2017 to talk monsters, and what makes the best ones...
12.30: Tools for Writers
23 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard We are often asked what software we use to get our work done. In this episode we answer that question in ...
12.29: “Oh Crap, the Cops are Here!” with Joe McKinney
16 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with Steve Diamond, and special guest Joe McKinney We invited Steve Diamond, who has been a guest before, and who has som...
12.28: Trimming and Expanding
09 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Revision: it's when you make a too-short piece longer, or a too-long piece shorter.Our Sponsors:* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out...
12.27: Choosing a Length
02 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We discuss the ways in which we decide upon the length of the stories we write, and at which point(s) in the creative process we make that decision.Ou...
12.26: Q&A on Outlining and Discovery Writing
25 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard Our listeners had questions about outlining and discovery writing. Here are a few of the very best: Do you...
12.25: Hiring an Editor, with Callie Stoker
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with special guest Callie Stoker Callie Stoker joined Howard and Dan at the World Horror convention to answer our questio...
12.24: Creating Great Outlines
11 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley How might you go about creating great outlines? There are many processes, and we cover several of the...
12.23: Proposals, Pitches, and Queries
04 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Let's talk about selling your stuff. In this episode we discuss query letters, pitches, and proposals—...
12.22: Hybrid Outlining and Discovery Writing
28 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard What can discovery writers learn from outlining? What can outliners learn from discovery writing? Is there...
12.21: Narrative Bumper Pool, with Bill Fawcett and Carrie Patel
21 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with special guests Bill Fawcett and Carrie Patel Bill and Carrie both have extensive experience writing for games, and t...
12.20: Retrofitting Structure into a First Draft
14 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley We're speaking again, at least in part, to discovery writers. In this case, we're talking abo...
12.19: Structure on the Fly
07 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard This episode is for you discovery writers, especially those of you for whom our current season of structure...
12.18: Gendered Dialect, with J.R. Johansson
30 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard, Mary, and Dan, with guest-host Susan Chang, and special guest J.R. Johannsen J.R. Johannson joined Howard, Mary, Dan, and guest-h...
12.17: Q&A on Style, Diction, and Paragraphing
23 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard We fielded some questions on style, diction, and paragraphing: Is it okay to have pretty prose in a straig...
12.16: Writing Crime Fiction with Brian Keene
16 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Keene joined Dan and Howard at the World Horror Convention to talk about writing crime fiction, including how he goes about getting readers to f...
12.15: Pacing With Chapters
09 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley What makes a chapter? WHY is a chapter? How do we chapter, and do we always chapter the same way? Sho...
12.14: Controlling Pacing with Structure
03 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Let's talk about the structural tools we use to control pacing. These include sentence length and punc...
12.13: Beautiful Prose, Purple Prose
26 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The rising, golden sun crested the snowcapped eastern mountains, its first morning rays pouring like molten lemon through the window to glisten and gl...
12.12: Words as Words, with Linda Addison
19 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with Special Guest Linda Addison Linda Addison joined us at the World Horror Convention in 2016 for a discussion of the s...
12.11: Diction
12 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley Let's talk about word choice. And when we say "let's" we mean "we're going to...
12.10: Developing Your Own, Personal Style
05 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard talk about authorial voice, and how to stop being afraid of examining how you "sound" when you write.Our Sponso...
12.9: Q&A on Viewpoint
26 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard answer listener questions on viewpoint.Our Sponsors:* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out MasterClass: ht...
12.8 Short Stories as Exploration, with Tananarive Due
19 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Tananrive Due, whose short-fiction expertise is exemplified in her collection, Ghost Summer, joined us on t...
12.7: Description Through the Third Person Lens
12 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley The third-person POV lens can be used for simultaneously describing the world to the reader and descr...
12.6: Variations on Third Person
05 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard This episode focuses on the third person POV, and some variations on them, like omniscient and limited, and...
12.5: Literary Fiction
29 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley This week we talk about the genre of Literary Fiction. Our first hurdle is the word "literary"...
12.4: Hybrid Viewpoints
22 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard, with Sandra Tayler Piper J. Drake joins the cast for our week-four episodes, of which this is the first....
12.3: Project in Depth, “Risk Assessment,” by Sandra Tayler
15 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with Sandra Tayler This Project in Depth episode contains spoilers for "Risk Assessment," which i...