Writing Excuses

You may still have questions about how to apply elemental adventure in your work. Hopefully your questions are similar to the ones we collected below, because these are the ones we answered: What do readers like more: protagonists going through lots of different incidents and locations, or through a few that are similar to each other? What lessons can we learn from adventure games? How can we make action scenes that adventurous, but that are not fight scenes? Are there tropes we should stay away from in adventure fiction? Do you have suggestions for non-western styles of adventure fiction? How do you safely skip the long, boring parts of a journey without missing out on necessary character development? Credits: This episode was recorded by Daniel Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson. 

Let's be adventurous. Let's move beyond simply being cooks, and strive to become chefs. In this episode we explore using the element of adventure as an ingredient in something that has far more than adventure going on in it. Why do we like adventure? What draws the reader forward? Credits: This episode was recorded by Daniel Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson. 

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. joined us at LTUE for a world building discussion centered around the way the environment informs the story. We talk about lead in Roman plumbing, water lilies in Las Vegas sewers, and coal power in the British Empire, and how these examples can help us more effectively use the environments in our stories. Liner Notes: We mentioned both Americapox, The Missing Plague, (a YouTube video) and the excellent book Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Our exploration of elemental genres continues with the sense of "I want to do that."

This is a Q&A about ideas that does NOT include the question "Where do you get your ideas?"

Nancy Fulda is back for our second episode on the Idea elemental genre. We cover some tools for exploring an idea, and then drill down a bit on how to use that exploration, or even multiple explorations as "seasoning" elements for a larger work. Credits: This episode was recorded by Daniel Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson

Recorded live at LTUE, Michaelbrent Collings guest-starred for a discussion about self publishing. The landscape continues to change, and Collings is fully engaged in it. He begins by stressing the importance of truly understanding the craft of writing—every professional writer needs this—and then talks turkey about Kindle Direct, Bookbub, formats and lengths, output, available resources, publicity activities, and what kinds of things new writers should commit to spending money on. Note: Writing Excuses Patrons at the "Hear it When Howard Does" level got this episode on March 9th, four days ahead of the rest of the world. You can help support the podcast, and get early access, plus other bonus goodies, by joining them at Patreon.com. Credits: This episode was recorded live by Daniel Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson

Nancy Fulda joins us to talk about the Elemental Genre of Idea, and how to write stories driven by a sense of fascination.

Gama Ray Martinez joins us at LTUE to field questions on the Element of Wonder, which were submitted by members of our audience. Here are the questions: How do you create wonder in non-genre stories, where there are no super-powers, spaceships, or spellcasters? How do you avoid making the wonder stale? Are there stages of wonder, similar to the stages of grief? Does wonder come from the style of the prose, the pacing, or from other things? How would you foreshadow wonder?  

If the Element of Wonder is the driving force behind "sense of wonder" science fiction and fantasy, then that same element can be used to give wondrous flavor to stories whose driving force lies among the other elemental genres. We talk about how to use wonder at smaller scales, how to create it with context, and how you might use it in support of the other themes of your story.

Gail Carriger joins us to talk about her Convention Survival Kit, which is full of things most of us wish we'd known to pack with us years ago.

We've introduced the concept of Elemental Genre already. It's time to start digging in to the elements themselves, beginning with the Element of Wonder. We started with this one because "sense of wonder" is a term that gets used to describe what makes some science fiction stories work. In this episode we expand upon the word "wonder" a bit, making the shorthand of "elemental wonder" more useful, not to mention more descriptive. We then go on to detail some methods writers might use to evoke wonder, leveraging that element for the greatest effect in their work.

Michelle Lyons McFarland, Monica Valentinelli, and Shanna Germain join Howard and Dan at GenCon, and talk about the craft of world building for role playing games.

Let's map Newton's Laws of Motion onto writing. Because a wordcount at rest tends to remain at rest...

Elemental Genre becomes particularly useful when you start blending the elements for sub-plots, character arcs, or even mash-ups.

What's the difference between a conference and a convention? How do we, as writers, get the most out of them?

The word "genre" has a lot of weight to it. Arguments about whether a particular work is, or is not, part of a given genre are long, and tedious. Season Eleven will not be engaging in those arguments. We're giving all that a wide miss by adding an adjective, and defining a new term: Elemental Genre. During 2016 we are going to explore what we write, why we write, and how we write in much the same way as previous seasons have, but our guidepost this year will be this concept of Elemental Genres. In January we'll stay high-level and firm up the framework. Starting in February we'll drill down on each of the Elemental Genres, and explore the writing process. Here's what the year will look like, month-by-month: January: Introduction February: Wonder March: Idea April: Adventure May: Horror June: Mystery July: Thriller August: Humor September: Relationship October: Drama November: Issue December: Ensemble We're really excited about this year's format, and we're confident tha

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 the next thing you need to do? Out of Excuses: Per Brandon's plug in the episode, registration is open for the 2016 Out of Excuses WritingWorkshop and Retreat!

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 query letter? You didn't cover self publishing at all this month. Self publishing is legit, right? Can you submit the same work to more than one agent or editor at a time? Can you re-submit a revised work to an agent who previously rejected the piece?

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 to avoid doing, including the classic mistakes like chasing editors into restrooms, but we quickly move on to where you get started, and what your task list is going to look like. We cover resources like Literary Marketplace, Locus, and Publishers Lunch, and the not-so-secret-anymore #MSWL hash-tag.