Archive Seasons 7-10 – Writing Excuses

Ellen Kushner joins us for the last episode of Season 10. Per the title, folks, it’s time to be done. What does “done” mean? How do you go about declaring a project “finished” when you know there are still things wrong with it? How do you clear your head, your work space, and your life for … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.52: Moving On, with Ellen Kushner →

Daniel José Older joins us for a Q&A on showing your work around. Here are the questions, which were submitted by attendees at the Out of Excuses workshop: What’s the best way to meet editors and agents at conventions? How do you write a good query letter? What do you mention as credentials in your … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.51: Q&A on Showing Your Work, with Daniel José Older →

Marco Palmieri and Michael Underwood took the stage with Howard and Dan at GenCon Indy 2015 to discuss hand-selling manuscripts. Marco Palmieri is a senior editor at Tor, and Michael Underwood is an author, and is also the North American Sales and Marketing manager for Angry Robot Books. We begin with a list of the things … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.50: How to Hand-Sell Your Manuscript to Agents and Editors, with Michael Underwood and Marco Palmieri →

We’re at the end of our Season Ten Master Class, and if you’ve been diligent about the homework, you may very well have a finished manuscript in your hands. What do you do with it? Daniel José Older joins us for a bit of reminiscence. We talk about some of our first submissions, and what … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.49: What Do I Do With This Thing Now? →

Spoiler Alert! We'll be discussing the latest John Cleaver book from Dan Wells with author, podcaster, and unrepentant bacon-lover Dan Wells! If you haven't read it, and you want to be surprised by it, stop listening and grab a copy now!

And now for your questions about revision. Or rather, questions from the WXR attendees, who were aboard the Independence of the Seas with us (the answers to these questions are secreted away in the audio file…): During revision, when do you think it’s acceptable to throw the whole thing out? How do you fit the … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.47: Q&A on Revision →

The microphones again find us aboard the Independence of the Seas*, to talk about how terribly ugly this manuscript is, and what we can do to make it pretty. In this episode we drill down on line-by-line, paragraph-by-paragraph revisions. This stage of the revision process is where our prose gets wordsmithed. This episode runs long, touching on: … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.46: How Do I Make This Pretty? →

Dan and Howard are joined by Kameron Hurley, James L. Sutter, and Michael Underwood for an anything-goes Q&A at the GenCon Indy Writing Symposium. We had reached the end of our two-hour block, but the audience hungered for the chance to ask their questions of these guests, so the Symposium gave us an extra half hour … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.45: Q&A at the GenCon Writing Symposium, with Kameron Hurley, James L. Sutter, and Michael Underwood →

November is “Revision” month here in the Writing Excuses Season 10 Master Class, so while many of you may be tempted by NaNoWriMo, there’s a different kind of work to be done… Delia Sherman joins us again, this time for a frank talk about the tools and techniques we use during our revisions.   This episode … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.44: How Do I Fix What is Broken? →

Delia Sherman joined us aboard the Independence of the Seas for our question-and-answer installment on endings. The questions came from the attendees at the Writing Excuses Workshop, which was, lest anyone forget, on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  The questions: Why do more short stories than novels end on tragic notes? How do you keep an ending from … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.43: Q&A on Endings, with Delia Sherman →

Nalo Hopkinson joins us again, at sea, for our second Master Class installment on endings. We cover some of the reasons why an ending might not be working, and then talk about the sorts of diagnoses that will help you solve the problem. You’ll likely need to dig deep in your toolbox. Our episodes covering the … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.42: How In The World Do I Tie All This Together? →

Brad Beaulieu and Jaym Gates join us from the GenCon Indy Writing Symposium to talk about good versus evil, and how your character might swing between the two. And it’s all about that swing. Moral grey areas are more interesting if we move through them. We talk about how we swing the pendulum, what difficulties we encounter, … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.41: Your Character’s Moral Pendulum →

Nalo Hopkinson joins us for this episode, which we recorded before a live audience of Out Of Excuses Workshop & Retreat attendees. October’s master class episodes focus on endings, and in this first installment we talk about what an ending really is. It’s obviously the last part of the book, but the gestalt of “ending” … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.40: What’s the Difference Between Ending and Stopping? →

Kevin J. Anderson joined us at Sasquan/WorldCon 73 to take questions about plot twists. Here are the questions that came in from our live audience: Genre Twists: good, bad, or ugly? Can you compare and contrast a good plot twist with a bad one? What is the biggest mistake professional authors make with regarding plot … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.39: Q&A on Plot Twists with Kevin J. Anderson →

Our second installment for the Master Class’s month of context covers the way dialog between characters may change meaning depending upon the context you create for them. This context may be the setting or genre, and it may also be the “beats” in which you describe what a person is doing while speaking. We talk … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.38: How Does Context Shape Dialog? →

This month’s wildcard episode comes to you from the 2015 GenCon Indy Writers’ Symposium, where Dan and Howard had the opportunity to interview Susan J. Morris and Marc Tassin. Susan is one of the finest moderators the symposium has ever seen, and Marc directs the event, building the schedule around good panelists and great moderators. … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.37: Being a Good Panelist and a Great Moderator, with Susan J. Morris and Marc Tassin →

We’ve talked about plot twists before. This episode covers the way in which the type of plot twist is dependent on, or signaled by, the context of the story. Getting plot twists right may mean surprising the reader, but it’s just as important to have the twist surprise the character. SPOILER ALERT: Avengers: Age of … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.36: How Does Context Shape Plot Twists? →

Charlie N. Holmberg, who was recently signed by Amazon’s 47 North imprint, joined us in front of a live audience it Sasquan (the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention) to talk about breaking in to the industry. Brandon and Dan broke in a decade ago, and Howard never actually bothered breaking in. This episode is brought … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.35: Breaking In, With Charlie N. Holmberg →

We wrap up this month’s discussion of pacing with a Q&A. Here are the questions we pulled out of the virtual hat (read: Twitter) for answering during the episode: What are some early indications of a pacing problem? How do you chart pacing so that it remains even? Can you control pacing using scene/sequel format? How do … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.34: Q&A on Pacing →

Marie Brennan joins us again, this time for a discussion about writing combat. She’s studied fencing, combat choreography, and is *this close* to having a black belt in shotokan karate, bringing a valuable perspective to the discussion. Also, she’s written an ebook called Writing Fight Scenes, so she knows how to talk about this stuff. … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.33: Combat, with Marie Brennan →

Words take time to read, but that's not the same amount of time that the words communicate...

Are we making progress? How do we communicate that to the reader?

Marie Brennan joins us again, this time to help us field your questions about middles. Here are the questions we collected from the various social media feeds: How do you maintain interest without having something explode every other chapter? In short fiction, how do you prevent try-fail cycles from bloating the story? How do you prevent … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.30: Q&A on Middles, with Marie Brennan →

Character failure is a big part of making the middle of a story work. We talk about why, and offer tips about how to make this work well for you.

Marie Brennan joins us for a discussion of polytheism (and really any belief system) in our fiction.

Lots of people struggle with the middles of their books. One way to look at the middle is that it’s the point where you’re no longer working on that new project that has you excited, but haven’t yet gotten to the cool ending that has you excited. We talk about why the middle is important, … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.27: Why Can’t I Just Jump to the Ending? →

How do you "show, don't tell" a character's thoughts? We answer this question, and more!

We talk about how we define and structure scenes in our writing, and we make reference to Scene/Sequel format, the MICE quotient, and pacing.

Media Specialist Kiley Snyder joins us to talk about hooking young readers.

Instead of saying "show, don't tell," we say "here's how to show."

Spoilers ahead! We dig into Of Noble Family, by Mary Robinette Kowal, focusing on language, culture, and the extensive research Mary did.

We answer questions about consistency, alternate histories, and the Great Spoke Plague of '77

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 the techniques that you’ll be using as you get better and better at what is probably the most critical skill unique to genre fiction writers.

What's the difference between intrigue, suspense, and mystery? We talk about this, and then drill down on intrigue.

This one's for all you folks who like to do some world building on-the-fly.

We've talked beginnings all month. Now we take your questions about them.

Let's get that first page written in a way that will bring the reader to all the rest of the pages.

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 books we write, and how we often forget to say anything about sleeping on inclines, altitude sickness, or packing toilet paper. The salient point: we need to remember that our … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.15: Worldbuilding Wilderness with Wes Chu →

How do you know which bits of your story have to come first?

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 actually happens. In this episode we talk about the middles of stories, and how formulaic structures will help you get them to do all of the things that you need … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.13: Where is My Story Going? →

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 your story before you begin writing? Is it necessary to use multiple structures (three-act, Hollywood formula, etc) in order to ensure that your story works? What tools … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.12: Story structure Q&A, with Special Guest Wesley Chu →

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 start listening to this episode. It’s a 33mb file in a public DropBox folder. Parallel Perspectives PDF for Writing Excuses listeners Got the file? Done reading? Okay, let’s go… This week … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.11: Project In Depth: “Parallel Perspectives” →

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 consult with numbered sticks. You ask a question, shake a random stick from the cup, and the corresponding poem holds your answer. In writing … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.10: Q&A with the I Ching →

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 the story starts for the reader. We’re going to talk about where the story starts for you. It’s the answer to questions like “where is my story coming … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.9: Where is My Story Coming From? →

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 have a character grow in power and/or expertise without needing to ridiculously overpower the villains? How do you give a flawed character a growth arc without … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.8: Q&A on Character →

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 small cast, you need to know why you’re putting these people in the book, whether they’re main characters, secondary characters, or spear-carriers, and what purpose each of them actually serves in … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.7: Who Are All These People? →

In which Max Gladstone introduces us to the concept of the Magical 1%

Does your draft have a boring main character? You're not alone! Also, the problem can be solved.

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. (They’ll also be the ones providing our questions for February, but we’ll cast our net wide for questions in March.) Ideas are hard! Is it ever acceptable for … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.4: Q&A on Ideas →

Cherie Priest joins us for a discussion of Lovecraftian horror.

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 has story-legs. (Note: When we say “two weeks ago” over and over, that’s just bad math. You haven’t missed an episode.) We talk about our various approaches to this, many … Continue reading Writing Excuses 10.2: I Have an Idea; What Do I Do Now? →