Writing Excuses

Mary invites Brandon, Dan, and Howard to brainstorm a story with her.

Mary Robinette Kowal schools Brandon, Dan, and Howard with her outlining system.

We've talked about where to start. Now Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about how to start -- what goes "in" when you're going "in late, out early."

Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal provide last-minute writing advice to you NaNoWriMo'ers out there...

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary review some of Emma Coats' "Pixar Rules" for storytelling

Howard Tayler gives NaNoWriMo participants a pep-talk on their way into the last week of the month.

What are the things that matter to your characters? What things matter to your readers? After we get the obligatory ambiguity out of the way, we settle into talking about the "stakes" and the escalation thereof.

Dan Wells and Robison Wells give you a pep talk for the second week of NaNoWriMo.

Brandon talks in depth about his novella "The Emperor's Soul"

Brandon and Mary take time out from World Fantasy to encourage everyone participating in NaNoWriMo.

It's microcasting time! This week we take a crack at the following listener questions: What percentage of a rough draft makes it into print? What are the pitfalls of jumping from novels to short fiction, and vice versa? Do you need to start with short fiction first? (This answer involves this link to Jim C. Hines.) Should a novice writer fix glaring story problems during a draft, or wait until after? Can a self-published author get picked up by a traditional publisher? How do you get over the fear of writing something unoriginal? (We break this question into two larger questions--we can do that, we use Author Math--and reference some previous episodes.) (We should also point out the irony that yes, Howard is usually the one who writes these up, but on the one day we say it's going to be Howard it's actually Dan.) Can I pay you to help me outline my story? (The answer to this particular question involves what I call "a massive yet slightly late announcement" about the 

Jim Zub talks writing comics with Brandon, Howard, and Mary at GenCon Indy

James L. Sutter, Pathfinder editor with Paizo, talks to us about tie-in fiction.

Janci Patterson joins us to talk about contemporary YA , her debut novel "Chasing the Skip," and writing from a pitch.

Dan Wells walks us through the seven-point story structure format he uses, and then we demonstrate by brainstorming this on a sample story.

Maurice Broaddus joins us to talk about "writing the other" -- writing other cultures, races, genders -- basically anybody who isn't much like you.

Killing characters for all the right reasons, and knowing what the wrong ones are.

Shanna Germain joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard for a frank discussion of love scenes.

Pantsing! What are we even talking about? We're talking about discovery writing, but apparently some folks think it's more fun to call it "seat-of-your-pants" writing. In this cast we cover this exhilarating process, and how it might best be applied. Mary uses the "yes-but, no-and" trick. Dan starts with an end in mind, and then ignores it in order to write today's chapter. Brandon, despite being a fairly rigid outliner, often finds himself discovery writing when under odd sorts of pressures. Howard likens discovery writing to improvisational music. Fundamentally, seat-of-your-pants writing is like seat-of-your-pants anything else: the more practice you have within that discipline, the more of the techniques you've mastered, the more likely you are to succeed in the endeavor.

Dan needs help writing a short story, so Brandon, Mary, and Howard endeavor to help him. Hopefully this will be educational for the rest of you.