Writing Excuses

Latest Episodes:

Writing Excuses 10.35: Breaking In, With Charlie N. Holmberg Aug 30, 2015

Show notes

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 to you by David Farland's writing workshops at mystorydoctor.com, whose URL completely escaped Howard during the episode. Here are two coupon codes: August50 gets $50 off any course regularly priced $399 August100 gets $100 off any course regularly priced $749

Our Sponsors:
* Check out Talkiatry and use my code talkiatry.com/WX for a great deal: https://www.talkiatry.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Writing Excuses 10.34: Q&A on Pacing Aug 23, 2015

Show notes

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 you handle character progression during travel without making it choppy? It feels like new authors are required to deliver breakneck pacing. Is this true?

Writing Excuses 10.33: Combat, with Marie Brennan Aug 16, 2015

Show notes

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. We discuss some of our favorite fight scenes in movies and in books, why they work well, and how we can go about creating those sorts of things ourselves. That Scene We Couldn't Stop Gushing About: Here's a no-Netflix-membership-required version of the Daredevil fight scene. It's a teaser from Netflix, but it's unabridged. For context, Daredevil is looking for a kidnapped child, and has tracked the boy's captors to this hallway.

Writing Excuses 10.32: How Do I Control the Speed of the Story? Aug 09, 2015

Show notes

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

Writing Excuses 10.31: How Do I Control the Reader’s Sense of Progress? Aug 02, 2015

Show notes

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

Writing Excuses 10.30: Q&A on Middles, with Marie Brennan Jul 26, 2015

Show notes

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 the introduction of POVs during the middle of the story from being jarring? How do you keep subplots from turning into side quests? In longer stories, how important are "breather" chapters that ease the tension? Do you have methods for weaving plot and subplot threads together? Do you outline this, or keep it in your head? Fifty-Cent Word: Proprioception, which serves as an excellent metaphor for what expertise with a set of tools feels like. Thank you, Marie, for simplifying the whole "the tool should be an extension of your hand" thing.

Writing Excuses 10.29: Why Should My Characters Fail Spectacularly? Jul 19, 2015

Show notes

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.

Writing Excuses 10.28: Polytheism in Fiction, with Marie Brennan Jul 12, 2015

Show notes

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

Writing Excuses 10.27: Why Can’t I Just Jump to the Ending? Jul 05, 2015

Show notes

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, and how you can make it enjoyable not just for the reader, but for you.

Writing Excuses 10.26: Q&A on Scenes and Description Jun 28, 2015

Show notes

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

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected