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

27:34

19.21: Language as a Tool (A Close Reading on...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/05/26

What cultural and worldbuilding information is embedded within the smallest of word choices? Today, we dive into three specific sections from throughout Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire”: the word for empire, assimilation and naming, and learning the word for bomb. We unpack how Martine uses language to establish important principles of how the world works. Thing of the Week: The Gilded Age - Created and Written by Julian Fellowes Julian Fellows (on HBO Max) Homework:Write a scene that describes

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27:38

19.20: How to Make Worlds Feel Big Without...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/05/19

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 about empires and also—force? We talk about Martine’s incredible work establishing an empire across time, not (just) space. We read aloud some of Martine’s writing, and try to understand exactly how they work, and what they’re doing to build the novel’s world. A refresher on why Worldbuilding is essential and some working definitions of how we

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28:38

19.19: A Close Reading on Worldbuilding: An Overview...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/05/12

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 the break, we discuss why we chose this book Arkady Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire” and highlight what it does well. We dive into the elements that help make Martine’s worldbuilding so accessible and effective. Thing of the Week: “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman (think about what it teaches you about POV!)Homework: Pick your favorite fictional

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26:36

19.18: How to Build Fictional Economies

Writing Excuses ·

2024/05/05

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 that! What are some questions you can ask yourself about the worth of certain goods and services in the world you’re building? What would a post-scarcity world look like and ask of your characters and how would it shape their wants? We loved recording this episode, it brought up so many interesting questions for us, and we hope it does the same

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28:29

19.17: Novellas- the Goldilocks of Publishing

Writing Excuses ·

2024/04/28

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 difference between a novel and a novella? How many characters do they usually have? How many subplots? How do you know if your story should take the form of a novella or a novel? We dive into all these questions (and…you guessed it… more!) in our conversation. A note on the structure of Season 19: in between our close reading series (six episodes

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47:02

19.16: An Interview with Max Gladstone and Amal...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/04/21

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: they didn’t write it together in the form of one voice.) They talk to us about the practice of writing letters, collaboration, and the revelation of friendship. They talk about the complexity, harmony, and cadence of two-author projects. We also talk about that voice in your head that criticizes your writing, and how to work with it and

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25:18

19.15: A Close Reading on Voice: Tying It All Together

Writing Excuses ·

2024/04/14

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 You Lose The Time War." We also talk about the relationship between character arcs and language, learning and voice. Stay tuned for next week’s episode, where we interview Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar on what it was like to write “Time War” together! Thing of the Week: Princes WeekesHomework:Write a short outline of your work noting

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25:54

19.14: A Close Reading on Voice- Epistolary...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/04/07

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 explore the importance and power of the letters that Blue and Red write to each other throughout "This Is How You Lose The Time War." If you haven't already listened to our episodes introducing this novella, we recommend you go back and start with Episode 11 (of this season, Season 19)!And if you’ve been reading along

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23:33

19.13: A Close Reading on Voice: Blue's Perspective -...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/03/31

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 main characters in the story. Last episode we dove into Red’s voice– if you haven’t already, we recommend you listen to that first! Today, we are doing a close read of Blue at the tea shop and how voice establishes character, growth, and vulnerability. How do the authors make Blue’s voice distinct from Red’s? Is it in the tone, the structure,

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26:37

19:12: A Close Reading on Voice - Red's Perspective -...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/03/24

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. We read several sections aloud and dive into what each sensory detail is doing. Also Mary Robinette talks about what she thinks is the most effective way to draw your readers attention to something. Thing of the Week: Planet Crafter Homework: Take a sentence from your work in progress and rewrite it to adjust the age of the character to

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24:03

19.11: A Close Reading on Voice- An Overview, and Why...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/03/17

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 with a large following. So-- let's get into it!On our first episode diving into Voice using the short novel "This Is How You Lose The Time War", we talk about why Voice is essential and some working definitions of how we want to talk about it. We also explain why we chose this book and highlight some of the things it's done

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23:30

19.10: Introducing Our Close Readings Series

Writing Excuses ·

2024/03/10

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, we’ll be diving into five core elements of writing by focusing on five different literary texts. We’ll spend five episodes on each one, and then we’re going to… drumroll please… interview the author(s)!As you know, we’ve spent lots of time reading, writing, talking, and recording our thoughts about different elements of the craft. But this year,

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17:20

19.09: LIVE Recording - Rituals, Rights, and Traditions

Writing Excuses ·

2024/03/03

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, we'll explore some of the following: -How do you build traditions and rituals in your fictional world (choosing what becomes a tradition or ritual and what doesn’t)? -How can you use rituals or traditions to advance a novel’s plot, give characters more depth, and create conflict? -What are the pitfalls to avoid (depiction of closed

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29:04

19.08: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Working...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/02/25

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 your agent, your editor, and you are all on the same team! They are all trying to make the same book (your book!) a better book. Whether you've published before or are just starting your first short story, we are so excited for you to dive into this episode. For our final episode in our three-part series on revising your NaNoWriMo

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25:07

19.07: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Intention

Writing Excuses ·

2024/02/18

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 editor Ali Fisher. We asked her how she helps writers figure out what their books are about, and how she helps set intentions for revisions. Ali talks with us about how its important to be kind to yourself -- and your writing-- during the revision process. She also gives us advice for how you, as a writer, can lean into what you do well

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27:27

19.06: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Length

Writing Excuses ·

2024/02/11

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 your work—whether it's a book or a short story or a novella? Maybe you wrote a draft during NaNoWriMo, maybe you didn't-- either way, we want to help you figure out how to make your writing the perfect length. Homework: Find two scenes next to each other from your writing. Remove the scene break and write bridging text between the two

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20:08

19.05: LIVE Recording - Revisions with Mahtab Narsimhan

Writing Excuses ·

2024/02/04

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 many will recognize as a host from past seasons! Mahtab talks with our hosts about how she thinks about revisions. How do you revise your writing? What is the difference between revising and rewriting? Mahtab describes her favorite techniques and provides tips to make it more manageable. Homework Assignment from Mahtab Narsimhan:Take the first 3

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19:03

19.04: LIVE Recording - Pacing with Guest Fonda Lee

Writing Excuses ·

2024/01/28

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, and what techniques can you use to speed up or slow down your narrative?Homework Assignment from Fonda Lee: Take a page of a work-in-progress project and experiment with the pacing. Ideally, this should be a page with some dialogue or tension between characters. First, try to speed it up: cut description, be tight with dialogue, move the scene

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22:38

19.03: Behind The Scenes with our Producer and...

Writing Excuses ·

2024/01/21

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 given the opportunity to ask questions to Marshall Carr, our audio engineer, and Emma Reynolds, our producer. In this episode, we talked about the benefits of MFA programs, astrology, and how to continue learning without being overwhelmed. Homework from Emma Reynolds: What homework would you give yourself as a writer today? What homework

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21:35

19.02: Q&A Episode with WX Core Cast

Writing Excuses ·

2024/01/14

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 Retreats, check out: https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/ Or apply for our scholarships by January 31 at https://writingexcuses.com/scholarships/This episode features questions from our writers, and those who attended our 2023 WXR Cruise to Alaska! We answered questions about success, what happens after you’re a NYTimes bestseller, and how you

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