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- Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 29: Antiheroes
What is an Antihero? There are lots of definitions of this word, so Dan boils it down to just three: The Frodo, The Punisher, and The Talented Mister Ripley…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 30: Unreliable Narrators
This episode totally would have updated earlier if I'd only known sooner that it was ready to go. Jordo says he emailed me early this evening, but if he HAD…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 28: World-Building Gender Roles
Is there a disconnect? Brandon specifically introduces the episode as "World-building political correctness," but the title here says…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 27: Mixing Humor with Drama and Horror
A Monday without Writing Excuses is kind of like a Tuesday without Writing Excuses, only far less aggravating. With Brandon once again by our side(s), we…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 26: NaNoWriMo
Dan, Howard, and Jordo descended into the basement at Dragon's Keep where members of the local NaNoWriMo chapter were attempting to bolster their word-counts…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 25: The Business of Writing Comics
Dan and Howard are again joined by Jake Black, who writes comics (and some other things) for a living. Jake tells us how he got into the business, and we talk…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 24: Writing Comics with Jake Black
Jake Black fills in for Brandon "#1 New York Times Bestselling Author" Sanderson this week, and that's perfect because Jake writes comics and Brandon…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 23: How to Write Without Twists
Question: Can you write a good book without a plot twist? Better question: is it a good book if your readers predicted what was coming? Best question: is a…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 22: Idea to Story
You are going to love this episode. Seriously. Brandon throws an idea at Dan and Howard, and then we spend 15 minutes expanding on that idea as if we were…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 21: Pitfalls of Self Publishing with Larry Correia
Larry Correia is either the guy who did everything wrong and then broke into publishing anyway, or he's the exception who proves the rule. He self-published…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 20: Plot- vs. Character-Driven Fiction
Larry Correia, whose debut novel Monster Hunter International hit the market this summer, joins us for a discussion of plot-driven vs. character driven…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 19: Emotion in Fiction with John Brown
John Brown joins us again, and tells us that fiction "is all about guiding an emotional response in a reader." We begin with a discussion of…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 18: How To Not Repeat Yourself
John Brown rejoins us for this discussion of repetition. How do we, as writers, avoid repeating ourselves? We're not just talking about the literal re-use of…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 17: Characters & Worldbuilding Q&A with Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary is back! We still had a Mary Robinette Kowal episode from WorldCon 67, and now you have it too! We take questions from the audience, and then answer them…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 16: The Anti-Mary Sue Episode
John Brown, debut author of Servant of a Dark God, joins us for this discussion of the avoidance of self-insertion. In polite company we call this the…
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Writing Excuses: Parsec Award Acceptance Speech
We won a Parsec Award at Dragon*Con, and it's a darn good thing we weren't there in person to give an acceptance speech. Otherwise this podcast might have…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 15: Writing Process Q&A, with Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal joins us again, live at WorldCon 67 in Montreal! This time we fell back on that tried-and-true "Questions from the Audience"…
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3.14: The Four Principles of Puppetry, with Mary Robinette Kowal
Aside from being a delightful author and a Campbell award winner, Mary Robinette Kowal is a professional puppeteer. She joined us at WorldCon 67 in Montreal…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 13: Dialects and In-World Jargon
Howard here, folks. On behalf of the entire Writing Excuses team I'd like to apologize in advance for that which you are about to receive. You know how…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 12: Subplots
Meanwhile, several side-characters found themselves looking for a sub-plot in the tavern. Something funny, or perhaps romantic to take the load off of the main…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 11: Trimming
Let's talk "trimming." Why do it? Well... because your manuscript is longer than it needs to be. Yes, we're talking to you. AND you. And you, too. None…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 10: The Dos and Don’ts of Attending Cons
Last week we discussed what kinds of events that you, the aspiring author, should be attending. This week we cover what you should and shouldn't be doing…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 9: Conventions You Should Be Attending
As genre-fiction writers we attend a lot of conventions. As aspiring genre-fiction writers you probably want to be attending conventions. But which ones should…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 8: What Star Trek Did Right
As we did with The Dark Knight and Watchmen (the comic, not the movie), once again we turn our searing critical insight on a major work of successful…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 7: Genre Blending
You've seen it done... "Zombie Apocalypse in Space." "Perry Mason in the Armed Forces." It's genre blending, where the author takes themes…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 6: Dramatic Breaks
What are dramatic breaks? We open this episode with Howard very genuinely playing Doctor Watson to Brandon's Holmes, which is amusing because as it turns out…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 5: How to Take Criticism
How do you take criticism? How do you react, if you even do react? Does criticism cause you to change the way you work? Criticism can come from your peers in a…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 3: Stumping Howard at Conduit
Howard here... I've learned that it's a really bad idea to run out for a bio-break between podcasts. When I returned to the packed panel room I could tell that…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 2: Keeping it Real with Aprilynne Pike
This episode was recorded live at CONduit in Salt Lake City with special guest Aprilynne Pike. Our topic: How do we "keep it real" when writing…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 4: Non Linear Story Telling
Don't you just hate it when things unfold out of order? Why do writers do that? We explain why they do it, and how they do it, and then we discuss how to avoid…
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Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 1: World-Building History
Welcome to Season 3 of Writing Excuses! With eighteen hours and fourteen months of podcasting history behind us, it seems appropriate for us to talk about…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 33: How To Not Be Overwhelmed
And here we are, at the final episode of Writing Excuses, Season 2. As promised, this episode is going to be super-useful to new writers, but it's going to be…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 32: The Most Important Thing Dan Learned In The Last Year
This the third in our series of retrospective episodes. The most important thing Dan learned this year? Being a full-time author is a lot different than he…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 31: The Most Important Thing Brandon Learned In The Last Year
Here's the second part of our three-part "what we learned this year" series. This time around Brandon tells us the most important thing he learned this…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 30: The Most Important Thing Howard Learned In The Last Year
This is the first of a three-part series in which Brandon, Dan, and Howard tell each other (and you, of course) about the most important thing each of them has…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 29: How not to end your book
Let's talk about failure... but let's talk about it so that we can avoid it. How do you know if your ending has flopped? What kind of approaches to ending a…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 28: Applying Critical Reading: “Watchmen”
Last week we talked about reading critically, reading as writers. This week we decided to apply that critical reading skill to Watchmen, the Hugo award-winning…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 27: Reading Critically
As a writer you obviously know how to read. But being a writer changes how you read, and what you read, and even why you read. Do you read more, or less as a…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 26: How Publishing is Changing in the new Century
Nancy Fulda, assistant editor at Baen's Universe and editor-in-chief and founder of Anthology Builder, joins us again while Dan Wells is out celebrating his…
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Writing Excuses Episode 632: Now that we’ve got time travel what do we do with it?
This... THIS is why speculative fiction writers should never be trusted with actual technology.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and use my code…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 25: The Seven Deadly Sins of Slush Stories
Nancy Fulda fills in for Dan for this week's episode (he was sick, she was in town, huzzah!) but she's more than just "filling in." She's FEATURED…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 24: Writing Habits and Q&A with Tracy Hickman
Tracy Hickman joins us again at "Life, The Universe, and Everything," and in this episode we let Brandon ask him random questions while Dan and Howard…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 23: Avoiding the Cliché with Tracy Hickman
We took Writing Excuses on the road last month for "Life, The Universe, and Everything," the symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy at Brigham Young…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 22: Marketing 201, Branding for Authors
"Branding," not "Brandon," just so we're clear. Brand-ING. We open with the definition of "branding," talking about what it is, and…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 21: Fight Scenes
Rob Wells joins the Writing Excuses crew for a second 'cast, this time dealing with fight scenes. We talk about good blocking versus a bad blow-by-blow, and…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 20: Marketing 101 for Creators
Howard takes the moderatorial lead on this episode in which he, Brandon, and Dan are joined by Rob Wells for a discussion of marketing. What is marketing?…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 19: Do Creative Writing Classes Help
Brandon and Dan met during a creative writing class at Brigham Young University, and Brandon went on to get a Master's Degree in the field. Howard has no…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 18: World Building Governments
Let's get back to world-building, and dig into a tough one: government. In this case we're talking about government as part of the backdrop, rather than…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 17: Website Marketing for Authors
Our producer Jordan Sanderson joins us for this week's installment, in which we likely make all kinds of enemies among the authorial community by exposing the…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 16: Non-Human Races
The Writing Excuses crew returns to world-building, this time to discuss the creation of non-human races. Why do genre-fiction writers use aliens and monsters…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 15: Knowing When To Begin
When do you know when you're ready to begin? What does that question even mean? Apparently Brandon gets asked it a lot, though, so he posed it for the group…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 14: Writing Habits
We get asked a lot about our writing habits. So your Writing Excuses hosts spend the whole 'cast discussing their schedules, their work environments, and the…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 13: Violence
All three of your Writing Excuses hosts include a measure of violence in their written work. So Brandon, Dan, and Howard decide to clear the air a little bit…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 12: Theme
For the first time in eleven episodes, we have a "normal" one. No special guests, no special locations, and no new format tricks. This episode grows…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 11: Talking Publishing and Writing with Dave Wolverton
Dave Wolverton joins us for a third and final episode, and the Writing Excuses team pumps him for information before letting him escape. We find out why he…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 10: The Boring Parts
Dave Farland, aka Dave Wolverton again joins the Writing Excuses team, and helps us discuss boredom. Specifically, we cover how to deal with it, how to go…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 9: Romance, with Dave Wolverton
This week (and for the following two weeks) the Writing Excuses crew is joined by author Dave Wolverton, who also writes under the name David Farland. This…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 8: The Three Act Structure with Bob Defendi
With Brandon still mysteriously missing, Professor Bob Defendi returns to take Dan and Howard on a magical journey through the three-act format: every step…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 7: Using Writing Formulas with Bob Defendi
Howard, Dan, and guest Bob Defendi open this episode with some high literary humor. Bob fills in for Brandon as we discuss formulas writers use in crafting…
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Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 6: Endings
Episode 6, recorded live at Dragon's Keep opens with monkey noises and greeting-card pith, and ends with... well, we'll just let you listen. Is it a storybook…