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

17:18

20.46: Now Go Write- Break All The Rules (Part 2)

Writing Excuses ·

2025/11/16

In this episode, Erin returns with the final two “rules” from her section of our forthcoming book Now Go Write—and why it might be worth breaking them. With DongWon and Mary Robinette, Erin explores the classic advice to “show, don’t tell,” and the debate over whether magic needs a system. We unpack when these conventions can strengthen a story—and when they can get in your way.Homework: Choose one of the four rules Erin covered across both “Break All The Rules” episodes (20.45 & 20.46) and

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15:24

20.45: Now Go Write- Break All The Rules (Part 1)

Writing Excuses ·

2025/11/09

In this episode, Erin shares a sneak peek from her section of our forthcoming book, Now Go Write. (To learn more about our book, sign up for our newsletter!) Erin explores four classic writing “rules,” when it’s worth breaking them, and what that can reveal about your own craft. Today, our hosts dive into two of these rules—examining how they can both help and hinder your storytelling. Tune in next week for part two, when we tackle the remaining two rules that Erin wants us to break.Homework: Write

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27:32

20.44: Now Go Write- How to Handle Relationships

Writing Excuses ·

2025/11/02

We have an exciting announcement! Writing Excuses is publishing a book, Now Go Write, which will feature writing from all of our hosts! Sign up for our newsletter to learn when our book is coming out! So, for our next few episodes, we’ll have each host share one of the topics that they have written a chapter about for the book. Today, we’re starting with Mary Robinette, who will be covering the question of how to handle relationships. We explore how relationships can act like characters

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28:56

20.43: An Interview with Dr. Tara Lepore on Paleontology

Writing Excuses ·

2025/10/26

Erin and Howard sat down with paleontologist Dr. Tara Lepore for a fascinating dive into the science—and storytelling potential—of deep time. Dr. Lepore explains why paleontology is about far more than dinosaurs and how mammal teeth can reveal “birth certificates” millions of years old. We hope you come away with new ways to think about science as story—and how to weave the vastness of deep time into your own worlds.Thing of the Week: University of California Museum of Paleontology Homework: Find 3

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31:01

20.42: Erin Roberts’ Personal Writing Process

Writing Excuses ·

2025/10/19

Erin describes her own writing process as, “a bunch of random practices thrown into a bag and shaken up." Nevertheless, for today’s episode, Erin managed to organize her processes into four categories: getting work, getting in, getting done, getting right. Listen as Erin gives us tips and tricks for freelancing, deadlines, and saying no. Homework: Write down all the tips and tricks you’ve learned about your own personal writing process on a single page. Show

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26:24

20.41: DongWon Song’s Personal Writing Process

Writing Excuses ·

2025/10/12

We’re continuing our episodes focusing on our hosts’ personal writing practices. Like Mary Robinette’s. DongWon’s involves a bit of… chaos. DongWon’s day job as a literary agent is demanding and unpredictable, so they often have to fit in their writing process into their free time. They are also often collaborating with other authors and friends (often writing for games)—so how does all of this inform their unique writing process? Well, first DongWon thinks a lot about the time and space that

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22:22

20.40: Mary Robinette Kowal’s Personal Writing Process

Writing Excuses ·

2025/10/05

A lot of people ask published authors what their writing process is like, as if it is a key to being able to write. The only important process is the one that works for you. So, we’re going to let each of our hosts spend an episode explaining their own personal process. Our idea is that the best writing process is the one that works for you. Also, this is going to change over the course of your life and career. Today we’re learning about Mary Robinette’s writing process, which is built on having a

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22:11

20.39: Wrapping up our Conversation about Lenses

Writing Excuses ·

2025/09/28

Today our hosts tell you why you don’t need to listen to all of our episodes—or even most of them. Each of our five hosts weighs in on how you can combine the topics, subtopics, and lenses that each episode features in order to create a structured path forward for your own writing journey. We start with a broad overview of this season’s structure. Why did we use the simple categories that most of us learned in elementary school— Who, What, Where, When, & Why—to organize our year’s 52 episodes

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35:03

20.38: An Interview with Charlie Jane Anders

Writing Excuses ·

2025/09/21

We had the absolute joy of sitting down with Charlie Jane Anders, the author of the book we’ve focused on for our last four episodes (All the Birds in the Sky). We talked with Anders about POV, tone, and how she played around with humor —partly by occasionally using an omniscient POV! Anders also explained how to incorporate humor and whimsy, and what it feels like to take risks as an author in today’s literary landscape. Thing of the Week:Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane AndersHomework

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27:50

20.37: Deep Dive into “All the Birds in the Sky” -...

Writing Excuses ·

2025/09/14

This is our final episode before we have Charlie Jane Anders on the podcast to talk about her writing process next week! Today we’re talking about intention by analyzing thematics, the author’s intent, and the way Anders uses tone and tradition to express the core ideas of the book. We also dive into the friction created in the two opposing viewpoints of the world that Anders presents. On one side we have magic, community, and connection. And then you have rationality and science—that is, a more

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25:37

20.36: Deep Dive into “All the Birds in the Sky” -...

Writing Excuses ·

2025/09/07

If you still want to read All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, you can purchase it here!We are looking today at the lens of when. But we’re not going to look at time periods—instead, we’re going to examine flashbacks and foreshadowing. “All the Birds in the Sky” takes place in four distinct times. For instance, one of the characters foreshadows a grim future for the children we’ve just met. This big jump forward colors the way that we see the kids, through both stakes and tension. And

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21:17

20.35: Deep Dive into “All the Birds in the Sky” -...

Writing Excuses ·

2025/08/31

If you still want to read All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, you can purchase it here!Today we’re talking about places and place-moments. We’re looking at how Anders uses context, details, and relationships to create a deep, familiar, and authentic reading experience for us, even if we’ve never been to the locations in the story. In this episode we’re also analyzing how Anders creates lived-in locations by including non-essential sensory details that imply the rest of the

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29:15

20.34: Deep Dive into “All the Birds in the Sky” -...

Writing Excuses ·

2025/08/24

Last season we took different works to represent different concepts. But this season, we’re looking at a single work— All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. So, for the next five episodes, we’re going to look at how Anders’ novel is deploying all of the lenses we’ve talked about this season—who, where, why, and when. And for our fifth episode, we’ll have Anders on the podcast to talk about her novel! We recommend that you read this book before listening to these episodes, as they will

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27:39

20.33: Raising Children as a Metaphor for Writing

Writing Excuses ·

2025/08/17

Throughout this season, we have been doing a series of episodes that feature different metaphors for writing. Today, we’re talking about raising children and what it can teach us about our own writing practice. It’s common knowledge that parents want their children to grow up to be happy and successful. But the real joy in raising children, Dan and Howard tell us, is watching them express their individuality, and meet these goals (of success and happiness) in very different ways. We talk about the

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26:19

20.32: Revision and Character Consciousness Téa Obreht

Writing Excuses ·

2025/08/10

Téa Obreht is a short story writer and novelist. Her debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife, won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction, and was a 2011 National Book Award finalist and an international bestseller. In our conversation, we focused on revision and character consciousness. Téa talked to us about the difficulty of the idea-generation stage of writing, how to cultivate layered characters, and how she writes event-first. You can learn more about Téa Obreht here. Thing of the Week from Téa: Deadwood (TV

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26:04

20.31: Framing the Lens

Writing Excuses ·

2025/08/03

This year, we’ve been looking at writing through various different lenses. In two weeks, on August 24th, we’ll begin a 5-part deep dive into these lenses through a specific book: All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. There will be many spoilers in these episodes, so please read the book if you haven’t already! Now, we’re talking about choosing what your lens is focused on. How do you choose what’s in your story—and what’s not? In this episode, we talk about how to make this choice, and

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18:40

20.30: Using Why To Shape Tone

Writing Excuses ·

2025/07/27

Tone is one of those words people use in many different ways when talking about fiction. On today’s episode, our hosts break down what it means, how we use it, and how it can be a tool in the writer’s toolbox. We dive into the myriad emotional shades of tone, and how you can use this to deepen your story’s themes. Homework: Write a vignette in which one of your characters is pouring tea for a beloved partner. First, try for a joyful tone. Then, write it again but with a tone of terror. P.S. Our 2025

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22:08

20.29: Authorial Intent

Writing Excuses ·

2025/07/20

What the heck is authorial intent? Does it matter? And how do intentions end up on the page without cluttering or overwhelming the story? Today, our hosts dive into message versus content, and how to wrap your intention and narrative structure into your story’s execution.Homework: Take your work in progress, and in two sentences, describe to yourself why you are writing this (could be a scene, a chapter, or the whole book). Then, write one sentence explaining why that is the reason that you’re

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23:11

20.28: The Lens of Tradition

Writing Excuses ·

2025/07/13

Every story has been told. Okay, maybe not, but most stories have a tradition/ influence/ history/ genre/ style that they draw upon, even if only slightly. How do you know what traditions you're bringing to your work, and how can you use them to make your story both resonant and unique?We’re exploring the lens of “why” right now. Why do we write the stories that we write? And what did we read that influenced us to write our work— that is, what are our narrative traditions? Homework: Make a list

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22:32

20.27: The Lens of Why

Writing Excuses ·

2025/07/06

We are joined by author Mark Oshiro, who primarily writes YA and middle grade books and was a guest teacher aboard our 2024 cruise! (Our 2025 cruise is over 50% sold out! Learn more and sign up here.) We ask the question, “Why did you write this book?” while focusing specifically on theme and meaning. We discuss how authors ask questions through their work while readers bring their own answers and interpretations. The hosts and Mark emphasize the value of leaving space for readers to engage and find

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