Shows / Writing Excuses
Episodes
Writing Excuses19.20: How to Make Worlds Feel Big Without Overwhelming the Reader (A Close Reading on Worldbuilding: Focusing on Scale)
How do you use language and scale to focus your writing? Today, we think about scale and movement across vast spaces. What do characters’ movements tell us…
Writing Excuses19.19: A Close Reading on Worldbuilding: An Overview and why A Memory Called Empire
Why is worldbuilding is essential in your writing? Today, we answer this question and dive into some working definitions of how we want to talk about it. After…
Writing Excuses19.18: How to Build Fictional Economies
Sometimes we know the action and themes of your story, but you don’t know how to build an economy that supports those. Well today, we explain just how to do…
Writing Excuses19.17: Novellas- the Goldilocks of Publishing
How do you find the right size for your story? And speaking of size, what do novellas do differently than both short stories and novels? What even is the…
Writing Excuses19.16: An Interview with Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
Today we get to talk to the inimitable Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. Amal and Max are on the podcast to tell us about how they wrote a book together (hint…
Writing Excuses19.15: A Close Reading on Voice: Tying It All Together
As we conclude our first deep dive of our close reading series, we want to explore how the evolution of voice helped carry readers throughout "This Is How…
Writing Excuses19.14: A Close Reading on Voice- Epistolary Storytelling Through Voice
What's epistolary writing? Well, it's writing through letters. But it's also a lot more than that. As we continue to dive into the concept of Voice, we want to…
Writing Excuses19.13: A Close Reading on Voice: Blue's Perspective - Confidence and Vulnerability
On our third episode diving into Voice through the novella “This Is How You Lose The Time War,” we begin to explore the different voices that make up the two…
Writing Excuses19.12: A Close Reading on Voice - Red's Perspective - Muscular Prose
Today, we are doing a very close read of Red's opening narration and how Red’s voice communicates both character and world in an effective and efficient way…
Writing Excuses19.11: A Close Reading on Voice- An Overview, and Why Time War
The book that became a New York Times Bestseller because of a tweet. Well, it won LOTS of awards when it came out, but it was rediscovered by a Twitter account…
Writing Excuses19.10: Introducing Our Close Readings Series
You’ve probably seen us posting about our Close Reading Series, and in his episode, we finally officially introduce it! For most of the remainder of 2024…
Writing Excuses19.09: LIVE Recording - Rituals, Rites, and Traditions
Hosts Erin and DongWon are joined by Fonda Lee and Mahtab Narsimhan for a special episode about creating traditions in your fictional writing. In this episode…
Writing Excuses19.08: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Working with an Editor
An agent, an editor, and a writer walk into a Zoom room and record a podcast... but really... that's (part of) what this episode is!First off, a reminder that…
Writing Excuses19.07: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Intention
For our second episode in this three-part series on revising your NaNoWriMo novel—or any other larger project you have—we are diving into intentions with Tor…
Writing Excuses19.06: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Length
Ali Fisher, editor at Tor Books and member of the podcast Rude Tales of Magic, joins us for a three-part series on editing. First up: length! How do you edit…
Writing Excuses19.05: LIVE Recording - Revisions with Mahtab Narsimhan
Some writers love revisions and some would rather scrub the toilet than revise their writing. On this episode, we are joined by author Mahtab Narsimhan, who…
Writing Excuses19.04: LIVE Recording - Pacing with Guest Fonda Lee
Pacing is one of the most subjective and difficult aspects of storytelling to get right. What is pacing? How do you know what the right pace is for a story…
Writing Excuses19.03: Behind The Scenes with our Producer and Recording Engineer
A few months ago, we were on a cruise ship in Alaska recording podcast episodes for 2024!This live recording features a Q&A with cruise attendees, who were…
Writing Excuses19.02: Q&A Episode with WX Core Cast
We have a LIVE podcast recording from September 2023, when we were hosting one of our writing retreats on a cruise ship in Alaska! (To learn about our next WX…
Writing Excuses19.01: Interview with Abraham Verghese
In our first episode of 2024, we interviewed author and physician Abraham Verghese, who most recently published "The Covenant of Water." We talked with…
Writing Excuses18.53: Funding the Writing Life
Rent isn't paid in words alone. How do all of us, in various stages of our careers, keep ourselves afloat as we go about the writing life? We're getting in the…
Writing Excuses18.52: Writing Inside The Box
"Your short story should definitely be a novel." It's something writers are often told when they write short stories. What tips and tricks can you use…
Writing Excuses18.51: So You Wanna Play With Format?
Are you interested in experimenting with different writing forms? Do you want to try an unusual or different way of writing? Well this week, we have an episode…
Writing Excuses18.50: The Unreliable Narrator
All unreliable narrators aren't unreliable in the same way. How do they differ and how does that change the way that we write them? Erin shares her unified…
Writing Excuses18.49: Giving Your Story A Voice
What does it mean if your writing is voice-y? How do you give your character a natural voice? We approach this question from the high-level perspective of…
Writing Excuses18.48: NaNoWriMo Week 5 - Writing Endings
Welcome to the last week of National Novel Writing Month! It’s okay if you aren’t going to finish your book, and it’s also okay if you don’t have 50,000 words!…
Writing Excuses18.47: NaNoWriMo Week 4 - Climaxes, or OH MY GOD NO
It’s week four of NaNoWriMo! Or, National Novel Writing Month, which happens every year for the month of November. This week, we are talking about how to write…
Writing Excuses18.46: NaNoWriMo Week 3 - Raising the Stakes
We are now three weeks into NaNoWriMo—where writers are attempting to write a novel in the month of November. For this episode, our writers talk about how to…
Writing Excuses18.45: NaNoWriMo Week 2 - Inciting Incident
Welcome to the first official week of National Novel Writing Month (or, almost the end of this week)! In this episode, we dive into how to write an inciting…
Writing Excuses18.44: NaNoWriMo Week 1- Getting Started
Welcome to National Novel Writing Month! For November, writers all over the world are trying to complete a novel, or write 50,000 words. In honor of NaNoWriMo…
Writing Excuses18.43: Worldbuilding in Miniature
If you're writing short fiction, how much of your world do you even need to figure out? Should you have it all written out? Can you just wing it? This week on…
Writing Excuses18.42: Creating Magic Outside of a System
How do you write about magic? How do you build a world with magic and spells and potions? We dive into the rules and laws behind magical worlds. We often think…
Writing Excuses18.41: Deep Dive: Erin's Short Fiction Extravaganza
If you write short stories or enjoy speculative fiction, this episode is for you. Our host Erin Roberts has written short stories, interactive fiction, and has…
Writing Excuses18.40: How To Make Money From Your Hobby (with special guest Sandra Tayler!)
Or, The Business of the End of Schlock MercenaryHow did Howard start making money from his hobby of drawing and writing comics? How did he self-publish? We…
Writing Excuses18.39: How To Write An Ending
Deep Dive: Sergeant In MotionHow do you write an ending to a book? How do you finish something you’ve been writing for over 20 years? Howard Tayler talks to us…
Writing Excuses18.38: How Do You Write A Series With Books That Stand Alone?
Deep Dive: A Function of FirepowerHow do you write the middle of a book? How do you write an ending to a story? For this week’s episode about writing, we focus…
Writing Excuses18.37: Mandatory Failure
We talk with Howard Tayler about the story structure of a story with a BIG disaster in the middle - one which we don't recover from until the next book. We…
Writing Excuses18.36: The Soggy Middle Pays the Rent (or, "Stand Alone With Series Potential")
How do you write the middle of a book? How do you end your book? How do you know what to write next? This week, our hosts —who all work as a writers and…
Writing Excuses18.35: How to Organize Your Writing, or Managing the Mega-Arc
Let’s talk about organization! This week, we’re talking about how and what to keep track of— characters, places, names, etc. How do you organize a book? How do…
Writing Excuses18.34: Seventeen Years of Foreshadowing
18.34: 17 Years of ForeshadowingWhat can Normal Gossip teach us about foreshadowing and artful storytelling? Thinking about the 20 books that make up Howard…
Writing Excuses18.33.5: State Of The Podcast
Bonus Episode! Our first ever half-numbered episode! We are making some changes here on the podcast, and we wanted to talk to you about them. We hired a…
Writing Excuses18.33: Deep Dive: The Schlock Mercenary Finale
The first episode in our eight-episode Deep Dive into Howard’s weekly webcomic strip, Schlock Mercenary. We grill Howard on how he taught himself to draw, why…
Writing Excuses18.32: The Kirsten Vangsness Expansion Pack
We have a special guest episode! Kirsten Vangsness, Criminal Minds star, joins us to talk about her experience as a writer, actor, and playwright. She taught…
Writing Excuses18.31: Getting Personal: Mining Your Life for Themes
In our final episode diving into how and why Dan wrote “Dark One: Forgotten,” talk about how you can take something personal and mine it for fiction. We also…
Writing Excuses18.30: Planting Supernatural Seeds
How do you slowly reveal the supernatural in an obviously supernatural story? How can you prepare your audience for a reveal without disclosing it too quickly?…
Writing Excuses18.29: Collaboration And Partnership
What are the best practices for collaboration? How do you write in an established intellectual property (IP)? How do you write a new story in an established…
Writing Excuses18.28: Writing Conversational Dialogue
How do you write dialogue that sounds natural? We have some things to keep in mind when you write conversations between characters. When people converse, they…
Writing Excuses18.27: Framing Stories
Have you ever framed a story within a story? Are you looking for a way to add structure or tension to your story? In this episode, we contemplate the value…
Writing Excuses18.26: Broadening Your Writing Wheelhouse: Video Game Dialogue, RPG Adventures, & More
Let’s talk about the things you can write that are not typically what we talk about—formats that aren't novels and short stories. In this episode, we’re…
Writing Excuses18.25: To Narrator or Not to Narrator
In our second episode on Dan Wells’ audio-only book, “Dark One: Forgotten,” we provide you with tools and advice to consider when deciding whether or not to…
Writing Excuses18.24: “Dark One: Forgotten” Deep Dive
The team grills Dan on his audio-only book “Dark One: Forgotten,” which he co-wrote with Brandon Sanderson. We find out how he wrote a book that became a…
Writing Excuses18.23: Our Advice on Giving Advice
“Show don’t tell” is probably the most famous advice given to writers. But. . . we don’t necessarily agree. In our final episode of our deep dive into…
Writing Excuses18.22: On Mentorship: Sending the Elevator Back Down
How can we make publishing more inclusive? What role does mentorship play? And how can you reframe competition as collaboration? All this and more in this…
Writing Excuses18.21: The Empathy Gap: How to Understand What Your Publisher is Telling You
The relationship between a writer and a publisher is… one that isn’t talked about enough. So we made an episode about rejection letters, email etiquette, and…
Writing Excuses18.20: So You Want To Work In Publishing?
Have you ever thought of being a publisher, but don't know if it's the right choice for you? In this episode, DongWon (an agent at Howard Morhaim Literary…
Writing Excuses18.19: What is Publishing For, Anyway?
In this episode, we unpack what the publishing industry is, what exactly it does, and why it does it. We also outline the first steps for preparing to talk to…
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18.18: Launching an Author Newsletter
It's 2023 and people still use email newsletters. For some reason they're more important than ever, so let's talk about building one.Our Sponsors:* Check out…
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18.17: Build Your Author Brand, 2023 Edition
An exploration of author branding and the social media tools we use. "Figure out who you are, and then do it on purpose" - Dolly Parton.Our Sponsors:*…
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18.16: Deep Dive: Publishing is Hard, by DongWon Song
Publishing is hard. Also, Publishing is Hard is a newsletter from DongWon Song. In this episode we grill them about it.Our Sponsors:* Check out MasterClass and…
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18.15: Building a Mystery, Now With More Tools
Back in February, with Episode 18.8, we began exploring the process of writing a mystery story. That episode led us into a series of six episodes about…