PODCAST

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.

fiction careers

All Episodes

26:35

20.14: Third Person Limited

Writing Excuses ·

2025/04/06

Third person limited is one of the most popular storytelling lenses. Yet it is often understood differently by various authors and readers. So today we’re diving into the complexities, intricacies, and beautiful constraints of third person limited—don’t worry, we’ll be tackling third person omniscient in our next episode! With third person limited POV, you get to use some of the tools of first person, while being able to back away from the character a little. We’re going to address the various

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26:22

20.13: First Person

Writing Excuses ·

2025/03/30

We’re now going to have a few episodes focusing on the lens of proximity—specifically, how close you are to a character. Today, we’re talking about first person. First person seems like it would be one of the most natural forms of storytelling, because it's the one we use when talking about our own actions. But how do we use first person effectively? How close we are to the character and how much we get to know of their motivation and reaction can be controlled through interiority and

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29:02

20.12: Fashion as a Writing Metaphor

Writing Excuses ·

2025/03/21

Today, we’re returning to different personal metaphors for how we all think about writing and storytelling. In this episode, we’re talking about how DongWon uses fashion as a helpful metaphor to think about storytelling. For both fashion and writing, whether you know it or not, you are already engaging with it every single day of your life. You are writing emails, you are communicating with the people around you, you’re dressing yourself, you’re wearing certain things and not others, and you’re

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21:57

20.11: Kit Lit. Q&A Aboard the WX Cruise, with Mark...

Writing Excuses ·

2025/03/16

This episode was recorded live at our 2024 Writing Excuses Cruise. (Did you know that we host a writing retreat on a cruise every year!?! You can learn more at https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/.) While on a boat in Mexico, we were joined by author Mark Oshiro and literary agent Kate McKean. In addition to our hosts, they answered questions that were asked by our cruise attendees. Our answers included things such as how much space a character should take up and how to find the balance between

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33:52

20.10: Interview with Chuck Tingle: Breaking the Rules

Writing Excuses ·

2025/03/09

Today we have the pleasure of talking with author (and longtime listener!) Chuck Tingle. We invited him on the podcast to talk about breaking the rules—both in terms of how to publish and what to publish. Chuck told us about the business and creative rules that he has upended—he doesn’t do readings, he is anonymous (during our interview he wore a pink bag over his head), and he thinks you should tell and show. Chuck then shares some of his favorite failures, what he learned from them, and how

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19:30

20.09: Lens 4 - Reaction

Writing Excuses ·

2025/03/02

What do emotional beats and action scenes have in common? Well, they both need to land with your audience in order for your story not to fall flat. On today’s episode, we’re talking about the importance of reaction. Everything from portraying your characters’ reactions to letting readers sit with—and witness— these reactions. The actions that a character takes—or doesn’t take— as a part of their reaction let the audience know what they are thinking and feeling. And this lets the audience react

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22:36

20.08: Identity 3 - Stakes & Fears

Writing Excuses ·

2025/02/23

This week, we’re continuing our conversation about the lens of who. On last week’s episode we talked about a character’s motivation and goals. Now, we’re starting to think about tension in the form of a character’s stakes and fears. The fears that a character has and the stakes that they face create the story that exists around them. These tensions also help move them through the story. So, how can you use stakes and fears to start– and build– your story? The answer may surprise you. Hint: you may

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21:11

20.07: Lens 3 - Identity 2 - Motivation & Goals

Writing Excuses ·

2025/02/16

Do you know what your characters want? And is there a deeper desire underneath that one? A character's motivations can help make them "relatable," drive the story's momentum, and create obstacles. Additionally, characters/ desires can serve different parts of themselves, which can help make them complex and multifaceted. But what is a good character motivation and how do you share it with your readers? Homework: Write a scene from a secondary POVs character. Pick a concrete goal for

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25:54

20.06: Lens 2 - Identity 1 - History & Community

Writing Excuses ·

2025/02/09

Have you ever wondered how much you need to know about a specific character before you start your story? Do you need to have an entire outline of their childhood before you can start writing in depth about them? We don’t think so! But it is important to listen to these questions as they emerge. This can help you figure out how to incorporate facets of each character’s identity that have narrative weight, instead of crowding the story with small facts that might not be necessary. This can help you

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25:10

20.05: Lens 1 - Who

Writing Excuses ·

2025/02/02

Today we are introducing the “lens of who” – which means talking about characters. We try to break big character ideas down into their elements. For instance, what do terms like "relatability" or "depth" of character really mean? One of the main take-aways from this episode is that your characters each have different sets of experiences, which *should* mean they could each describe the same exact thing differently. And you should know how to write this. Homework: Interview two

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33:24

20.04: Metaphor 1 - Puppetry

Writing Excuses ·

2025/01/26

For our 20th season, we are focusing on this belief: that the lived experience that we all have affects the way we think about writing. We’ve all heard Mary Robinette talk about puppetry for seventeen (or so) seasons. Today, she dives into puppetry as a metaphor that helps her understand writing– specifically character, voice, and genre. And she invites you to start thinking about metaphors you can use and make in your own life to help you think about writing in a new way. Homework: Watch a puppet

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21:55

20.03: Polishing Your Writing Lens

Writing Excuses ·

2025/01/19

One of the most important tools that a writer brings to their work is their own personal lens. This is shaped by your hobbies, your job, your history, and your experiences. In this season, we're going to be looking at personal lenses as well as the narrative lens through which stories are told. We'll look at how the questions of Who, Where, When, and Why shape a story. Also, we're going to do a Deep Dive later in the year with the novel All The Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, in

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24:54

20.02: Q&A Aboard the Writing Excuses Cruise, with...

Writing Excuses ·

2025/01/12

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23:18

20.01: Welcome to 2025!

Writing Excuses ·

2025/01/05

For our 20th season, we are focusing on your toolbox. We’re going to be thinking about tools in terms of the lenses that we use to approach a story. We’re going to focus on the four lenses of: who, where, when, and why (don’t worry– what and how will be looked at in a later season, since they’re more about execution and less about lenses.) Our hosts talk about the lenses they’re adopting as they look towards 2025. At the end of this season, we’re going to take all these lenses and apply them to one

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29:41

19.52: End of Year Reflections: Navigating Speedbumps

Writing Excuses ·

2024/12/29

Today, we’re reflecting on 2024. Individually, all of us went through a lot throughout the year—we encountered myriad speed bumps that slowed us down in different ways.. How do you balance your workload with your own personal life and its needs? How can you help make navigating these speedbumps easier by knowing your own limits and needs? We give you specific questions you can ask yourself in order to locate your problem points and figure out how to rearrange your life (and your stories about your

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24:19

19.51: And That Was That

Writing Excuses ·

2024/12/22

As the end of Season 19 approaches, we want to help you integrate what you’ve learned over the year. For December, we’ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents—we’re here to help you finish the year strong.Today, we’re thinking about endings—specifically, what endings have in common with beginnings. When you’re coming to your conclusion, you can revisit the start of

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31:20

19.50.5: An Interview with DIY MFA Founder Gabriela...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/12/18

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Gabriela Pereira, founder and instigator of DIY MFA, which is the do-it-yourself alternative to a Master of Arts in Writing. Pereira has some incredible advice for how to put together a writing curriculum for yourself. Using the pillars of writing, reading, and community, she explains how she first came up with the idea for DIY MFA. We also talk about how to build a well-rounded craft, how to know what you don’t know, and what exactly it means to “write with

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20:56

19.50: All Systems Go

Writing Excuses ·

2024/12/15

As the end of Season 19 approaches, we want to help you integrate what you’ve learned over the year. For December, we’ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents—we’re here to help you finish the year strong.How do you have multiple plot threads moving at the same time? Today, we’re talking about complex plot structures—focusing on space opera and epic fantasy. Some of

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22:14

19.49: Getting to Know You

Writing Excuses ·

2024/12/08

As we wrap up our Close Reading Series, we’re shifting our focus towards helping you integrate what you’ve learned. For December, we’ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents—we’re here to help you finish the year strong.What can we learn from romances? Today we’re talking about using elements of romance in your story (even if you have no romance in your current

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20:56

19.48: Beginning With A Thrill

Writing Excuses ·

2024/12/01

As we wrap up our Close Reading Series, we’re shifting our focus towards helping you integrate what you’ve learned. For December, we’ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents—we’re here to help you finish the year strong.Today, we’re focusing on beginnings. The titular phrase “beginning with a thrill,” doesn’t have to mean a burst of action or violence, but more so

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