Shows / Writing Excuses
Episodes
- Writing Excuses
18.14: Heavy Lifting with Microtension
Let's take all our tension tools and apply them in tiny ways. A big application of tension might be an argument between two characters about a course of…
- Writing Excuses
18.13: Finding the Core Conflict
In our ongoing exploration of tension, the time has come to examine conflict. It can be shaped and delivered in numerous ways, but you have to know the core…
- Writing Excuses
18.12: The Long Shadow of Unanswered Questions
Our continuing exploration of tension has taken us to a favorite technique: unanswered questions. Sure, this obviously applies to mysteries, but consider the…
- Writing Excuses
18.11: Turning Up the Contrast With Juxtaposition
Our deconstruction and categorization of tension continues this week with an exploration of Juxtaposition, which is a contrast between two elements that…
- Writing Excuses
18.10: Anticipation is More Than Just Making Us Wait
Last week we talked about tension, and promised that we'd be breaking it down into more pieces. This week we're discussing one of those pieces: Anticipation…
- Writing Excuses
18.09: Unpacking the Tension
For the next several episodes we'll be talking about tension. That may seem like a lot of time to spend on just one word, but as we unpack the word 'tension'…
- Writing Excuses
18.08: Building a Mystery
After last week's deep dive into The Spare Man we're ready to talk more generally about mysteries, and the tools we use to write them. Obviously we can't cover…
- Writing Excuses
18.07: Deep Dive into THE SPARE MAN
Spoiler Alert! This week is our deep dive into Mary Robinette Kowal's The Spare Man. It's a sci-fi mystery novel often described as "The Thin Man in…
- Writing Excuses
18.06: An Interview With Howard Tayler
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler In this episode we interview Howard Tayler, one of the founding…
- Writing Excuses
18.05: An Interview with Mary Robinette Kowal
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler In this episode Howard Tayler conducts our interview with Mary…
- Writing Excuses
18.04: An Interview With Dan Wells
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler In this episode Erin Roberts very enthusiastically launches our…
- Writing Excuses
18.03: An Interview With Erin Roberts
As we announced in the first episode of the year (and in this press release), DongWon Song and Erin Roberts are joining us as permanent cast members. Today…
- Writing Excuses
18.02: An Interview with DongWon Song
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler As we announced in last week's episode (and in this press release)…
- Writing Excuses
18.01: Twenty Twenty-Three, By Way of Introduction
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler We begin 2023 with some big changes, and in this episode we'll…
- Writing Excuses
17.52: The WXR 2022 Q&A
Your Hosts: Brandon, Dan, Mary Robinette, and Howard This Q&A session was recorded before a live audience aboard ship at WXR 2022, Here are some paraphrasings…
Writing Excuses17.51: Feel The Burn
Let's talk about burnout. It's been a long few years (with some of those years feeling like decades) so this may seem timely, but burnout can happen during…
- Writing Excuses
17.50: Consistency, Inconsistency, and the Crushing Weight of Expectations
Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Dongwon Song, and Dan Wells Thanks to some last-minute schedule changes, we almost didn't have an episode for today. Only three cast…
- Writing Excuses
17.49: Bodies Are Magical
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler Let's put a stake in the ground here: disabilities do not grant magical powers. And yet…
- Writing Excuses
17.48: Bodies, Why? (Part III)
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler Let's talk about pain. It hurts, yes, but we all experience it, so writing about it can be…
- Writing Excuses
17.47: The Linguistics of Disability
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler This is the "talking about how to talk about" talk. We begin by reviewing the…
- Writing Excuses
17.46: Monstrous Awakening
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler Okay, before we start, you have homework: Please take a few minutes to read this essay by…
- Writing Excuses
17.45: Bodies, Tech, and Character
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler Let's talk about technological body-modification! It's a common element in science…
- Writing Excuses
17.44: Bodies, Why? (Part II: Working Through Disability)
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Fran Wilde, C.L. Polk, and Howard Tayler Let's talk for a bit about writing while disabled. This can mean anything from scheduling…
- Writing Excuses
17.43: Bodies. Why? (Depicting Disability)
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette and Howard Tayler, with special guests Fran Wilde, C.L. Polk, and William Alexander Whether or not you're writing from your own…
- Writing Excuses
17.42: Eight Embodied Episodes About Disability
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette and Howard Tayler, with special guests Fran Wilde, C.L. Polk, and William Alexander For the next eight episodes we'll be talking…
- Writing Excuses
17.41: Picture Books are Books Too, with Special Guest Seth Fishman
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, and Howard Tayler, with special guest Seth Fishman Seth Fishman, author of seven picture books…
- Writing Excuses
17.40: Questions & Answers About Structure, with Special Guest Peng Shepherd
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, and Howard Tayler, with special guest Peng Shepherd Peng Shepherd joined us aboard Liberty of…
- Writing Excuses
17.39: Writing Bodies and Intimacy, with K.M. Szpara
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Dongwon Song, Piper J. Drake, & Howard Tayler, with special guest K. M. Szpara CONTENT WARNING: this episode is about adult…
- Writing Excuses
17.38: Oh No I Lost The Thread
Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, C.L. Polk, Marshall Carr, Jr., and Mary Robinette Kowal Oh no! You've put the project down for long enough that you've lost your…
- Writing Excuses
17.37: Science and Fiction—It’s Not Just Science Fiction
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Cady Coleman The fictional side of science and the scientific side of fiction are part of the discipline of…
- Writing Excuses
17.36: Space for Everyone
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Cady Coleman Chemist, USAF Colonel, and NASA Astronaut Cady Coleman joins us to talk about actual travel to…
- Writing Excuses
17.35: Nuances of Dialog
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maurice Broaddus, and Howard Tayler We wrap up our eight-episode dialog master class with a discussion of nuance…
- Writing Excuses
17.34: Developing Subtext
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maurice Broaddus, and Howard Tayler We begin this episode with a quick exploration of the terminology, and what we…
- Writing Excuses
17.33: Building Tension
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maurice Broaddus, and Howard Tayler Tension! In this episode we discuss the ways dialog can build and/or maintain…
- Writing Excuses
17.32: Everything is About Conflict
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maurice Broaddus, and Howard Tayler Everything is about conflict? Really? Well, yes. Maybe not in the action-movie…
- Writing Excuses
17.31: Everyone Has an Agenda
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maurice Broaddus, and Howard Tayler We've mentioned "area of intention" earlier in this dialog master…
- Writing Excuses
17.30: Know Your Characters
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maurice Broaddus, and Howard Tayler How well do you know your characters? Sure, you might know their age…
- Writing Excuses
17.29: The Job of Dialogue
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maurice Broaddus, and Howard Tayler We're back with Maurice Broaddus for the second in our eight-episode…
- Writing Excuses
17.28: Keys to Writing Dialog
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maurice Broaddus, and Howard Tayler Writer, teacher, and community organizer Maurice Broaddus joins us for an…
- Writing Excuses
17.27: Ensembles Behind the Scenes
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler In this, our final "ensemble masterclass" episode, we discuss the…
- Writing Excuses
17.26: Hanging Separately
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler Our episode title comes to us across two and a half centuries: "We must, indeed…
- Writing Excuses
17.25: Archetypes, Ensembles, and Expectations
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler We've talked about making every member of the ensemble meaningful. In this episode…
- Writing Excuses
17.24: Ensembles and Genre
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler This week we're talking about how our genre choice influences the structure of our…
- Writing Excuses
17.23: Are We Stronger Together?
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler Sometimes we have to look at our ensemble of characters and ask ourselves what kind of…
- Writing Excuses
17.22: Establishing the Ensemble
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler Every character in your ensemble needs to matter to the team, or they probably don't…
- Writing Excuses
17.21: Casting Your Story With Character Voice
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler Every member of your ensemble has a reason to be there, but they also have their own…
- Writing Excuses
17.20: Basics of Ensemble Characterization
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler What's the difference between an ensemble story, and a story the has a lot of…
- Writing Excuses
17.19: Working in a Collaborative Environment
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, and Megan Lloyd Megan Lloyd returns to the podcast to talk us through the process of creating something in a…
- Writing Excuses
17.18: How to be Funny, with Jody Lynn Nye
Your Hosts: Dan Wells and Brandon Sanderson, with special guest Jody Lynn Nye So, you've decided you want something to be funny. How do you go about making…
- Writing Excuses
17.17: Writing in the Public Domain
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, and Gama Martinez Did you know that there are some famous intellectual properties which have entered the public…
- Writing Excuses
17.16: Miscellaneous Structures
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler Thus far we've attempted to organize our discussion of sub-, micro-, and other…
- Writing Excuses
17.15: Storytelling in the Footnotes
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler You probably already know what footnotes are¹, but have you ever seen a story…
- Writing Excuses
17.14: Structuring for Disordered or Order-less Reading Order
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler Guest host Peng Shepherd leads our discussion of "order-less reading…
- Writing Excuses
17.13: Structuring Around a Thing
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler Our exploration of sub- and micro-structures continues with guest host Peng…
- Writing Excuses
17.12: Structuring a Story Within a Story
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler One common structure—both macro and micro—is the "story within a story,"…
- Writing Excuses
17.11: Structuring with Multiple Timelines
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler Guest host Peng Shepherd continues to lead our exploration of sub- and…
- Writing Excuses
17.10: Structuring with Multiple POVs
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler In our second micro-structure episode, Peng Shepherd leads us into an exploration…
- Writing Excuses
17.9: Let’s Talk About Structure
Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler We're beginning another eight-episode deep-dive series, and this time it's a…
- Writing Excuses
17.8: The Alchemy of Creativity
Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd How do you translate things from the spark of inspiration into a work that someone else…
- Writing Excuses
17.7: Dissecting Influence
Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd What are your influences? What pieces of art, music, literature, or other media have…