Shows / Writing Excuses
Episodes
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.20: How Do I Write a Story, Not an Encyclopedia?
You've done piles of world building. How do you convey this world to reader without infodumping? We talk about the different skill levels involved, and then…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.19: Intrigue
What's the difference between intrigue, suspense, and mystery? We talk about this, and then drill down on intrigue.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use…
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Writing Excuses 10.18: Build an Entire World? Are You Crazy?
This one's for all you folks who like to do some world building on-the-fly.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.17: Q&A on Beginnings
We've talked beginnings all month. Now we take your questions about them.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.16: What Do I Do With All This Blank Space?
Let's get that first page written in a way that will bring the reader to all the rest of the pages.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
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Writing Excuses 10.15: Worldbuilding Wilderness with Wes Chu
Wes Chu, author and adventurer, recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and has some things to say about all the wilderness trekking that our characters do in the…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.14: How Much of the Beginning Needs to Come First?
How do you know which bits of your story have to come first?Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a great deal…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.13: Where is My Story Going?
Any discussion of story structure must necessarily take a look at that big, long bit between the beginning and the end, that piece where almost everything…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.12: Story structure Q&A, with Special Guest Wesley Chu
Wes Chu joins us again for a Q&A about this month's topic: story structure! Here are the questions: Do you make a conscious decision about how to structure…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.11: Project In Depth: “Parallel Perspectives”
If you haven't yet read "Parallel Perspectives," from Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, we have a PDF for you to download and read before you…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.10: Q&A with the I Ching
Wesley Chu joins us for a literal shake-up of our structure for one episode. We had loads of fun with this one. The I Ching is a collection of poems which you…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.9: Where is My Story Coming From?
This month's syllabus topic is story structure, and we'll be starting with the part we start with. And that part usually isn't the beginning -- that's where…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.8: Q&A on Character
It's time for a Q&A on characters! The questions for this episode were provided by the attendees at the 2014 Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat: How do you…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.7: Who Are All These People?
Our character-focused month continues with an exploration of the challenges involved in building a cast for your story. Whether you're building a large or…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.6: The Worldbuilding Revolves Around Me (“The Magical 1%”)
In which Max Gladstone introduces us to the concept of the Magical 1%Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a great…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.5: What Do You Mean My Main Character is Boring?
Does your draft have a boring main character? You're not alone! Also, the problem can be solved.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.4: Q&A on Ideas
At the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat we premiered the Season 10 concept, and we invited our attendees to give us the questions we need this month…
- Writing Excuses
2015 Hugo Award Eligibility – SHADOWS BENEATH
Don't forget to nominate for the 2015 Hugo Ballot, and if you like Writing Excuses, please consider nominating Shadows Beneath for Best Related Work.Our…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.3: Lovecraftian Horror
Cherie Priest joins us for a discussion of Lovecraftian horror.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a great deal…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.2: I Have an Idea; What Do I Do Now?
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…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 10.1: Seriously, Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Brandon, Howard, Mary, and Dan offer useful answers to that age-old question: "Where do you get your ideas?"Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.54: Capstone to Season 9
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…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.53: Writing For Fun
You know what's fun? WRITING! Writing is fun. And that, more than anything else, is why we do it. Or at least it's why we decided to do it. Making sure that it…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses Season 9.52: From the Page to the Stage
Allison W. Hill and C. Austin Hill joined us at the Out of Excuses Retreat to talk about turning A Night of Blacker Darkness, by Dan Wells, into a stage play…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.51: Q&A At The Retreat
If there's a crowd with good questions, it's the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat attendees. Given the trend toward moral ambiguity, is there still a place…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.50: Writing for the Enfranchised Reader
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…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.48: Neurobolics of Characters
As authors we spend a lot of time trying to make our readers care about the characters we create. We have a wide variety of techniques at our disposal to…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.49: Hiding the Open Grave
So, you're planning to kill somebody, but you don't want anyone to see it coming. How do you make that happen? We begin by talking about the hints that writers…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.47: Conversation With a Bookseller
Sara Glassman joins us to talk about back cover copy, covers, query letters, signings, and what booksellers look for on page one.Our Sponsors:* Check out…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.46: Disability in Narrative
Charlie Harmon, one of the luminaries of Utah area fandom, joined us to talk about disability in narrative. She's been going blind gradually since she was a…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.45: Tools for Writing from Oral Storytelling
M. Todd Gallowglas is a writer and a storyteller who has spent years doing traditional oral storytelling at renaissance fairs. He joined us at…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.44: Getting in the Writer’s Mindset with Peter Beagle
We were thrilled to have Peter Beagle join us for an episode, recorded live at Westercon 67. We talked about the writer's mindset, and how to get into it…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.43: Writing Mysteries
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…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.42: The Convention-Author Relationship, with Deirdre Saoirse Moen
Deirdre Saoirse Moen, who organizes fan-run literary cons and schedules programs for them, joins us to talk about programming from the convention's point of…
- Writing Excuses
Registration is open for the 2015 Out of Excuses Writing Workshop and Retreat
Registration is now open for the 2015 Out of Excuses Writing Workshop and Retreat. For the last two years the event has had a very limited size, and as a…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.41: Fan Writing, with Christopher J. Garcia
Christopher J. Garcia, publisher and editor of The Drink Tank, joins us for a discussion of fan writing.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.40: Understanding Royalties, with Paul Stevens
Paul Stevens, an editor at Tor, joined us in front of a live audience at Westercon 67 to talk about royalties.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.39: Publicity for Books
Patty Garcia, Director of Publicity at Tor, joins us to discuss publicizing booksOur Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.38: Q&A at Westercon
Peter Orullian joins us in front of a live audience at Westercon 67 for a Q&A. The questions include: As a writer, how do you handle reviewing other people's…
- Writing Excuses
9.37: Training A Critique Group, with Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
Kathleen Dalton Woodbury, the forum moderator at the Hatrack River writers group joined us at Westercon 67 to talk about critique groups. We cover how…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.36: Writing Instruction
David Farland joins, along with a live audience at Westercon 67, for a discussion on writing instruction.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.35: What to do when you disagree with your editor
Peter Orullian joins us to discuss managing the author-editor relationship when things go wrong.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.34: Science Fiction as Science Education
Brad "Doctor Zombie" Voytek talks to us about making science accessible and attractive through science fiction.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.33: Microcasting
Q&A in which we cover proofreading, writing time, career stuff, and no, you can't have any of our DNA.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
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Writing Excuses 9.32: Adjusting Character Proactivity
We talk about how to make characters more or less proactive in the stories we tell.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.31: Critiquing “An Honest Death”
The fourth of the SHADOWS BENEATH critique episodes, in which Howard is stuck...Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.30: Critiquing A Fire in the Heavens
The third of the SHADOWS BENEATH critique episodes, in which Mary schools us with Milford...Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.29: Part 2 of 2, Critiquing Sixth of the Dusk
The second 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 2 of 2.Our…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.28: Part 1 of 2, Critiquing Sixth of the Dusk
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.Our…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.27: Pre-writing
Pre-writing: It's like pre-cooking, only with more abandoned prologues and fewer refried beans.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.26: Adjusting Character Competence
In which we discuss adjusting how competent our characters appear...Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a great…
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Writing Excuses 9.25: Adjusting Character Sympathy
In which we discuss adjusting how sympathetic the reader is toward a particular character...Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.24: Side Quests
Side quests come in a couple of forms -- they may be something inside the book that takes the characters away from the main plotline, or they may be adventures…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.23: World Building Without Breaking Viewpoint
How do you describe water from the point of view of a fish?Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a great deal…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.22: Microcasting
Prologues, motivations, and research, oh my!Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a great deal…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.21: Sanderson’s 3rd Law
When building your world, go deep rather than going wide.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a great deal…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.20: Creator vs Creation
How do we interact with readers who find meaning in our works that we don't recall putting in there?Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.19: Showing Emotion
How to go about showing a character's emotions without them seeming emo.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.18: Microcasting
We answer questions on tropes, narrative styles, editing, rule-breaking and more.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES…
- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses 9.17: Microcasting
A Q&A episode with Eric James StoneOur Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code masterclass.com/EXCUSES for a great deal: https://MasterClass.com*…