Writing Excuses

This bonus episode is what happens when there are two things we want to plug, and we decide to try and blend them in a single PSA. Here's the Amazon link for the paperback release of John Brown's first novel, Servant of a Dark God. There is no Amazon link for going out and voting, but what if there were? There. There's your writing prompt: "Election services offered online via an Amazon link." Since NaNoWriMo is already a day old, we hope you don't still need a writing prompt. You're out of excuses. Now go write.

John Brown joins us this week for a discussion of plot threads specific to characters. These can be the main plot thread, interesting sub-plots, or just things that shape characters. Sometimes they're things we do deliberately, and sometimes we discovery-write our way into these arcs. We talk about how we do this, and how we know when it is (and isn't!) working well. We ran a little long, but there were four of us, and we put LOTS of nuts-and-bolts stuff in this 'cast. Writing Prompt: Your cast of characters is trapped on an emotionally-responsive roller-coaster that mimics their own emotional arcs. How do they use this knowledge? This Tuesday: John's first novel, Servant of a Dark God, is out in paperback! ALSO This Tuesday: The polls are open for you, you citizens of the United States! Go vote! Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: The Amulet of Samarkand: The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1, by Jonathan Stroud, read by Simon Jones. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible.

What are the excuses you make when you're not writing? Brandon, Dan, and Howard examine these, and offer advice for getting the writing done anyway.

Melodrama. What is it? What do people mean when they say something is too melodramatic? Usually they do NOT mean "it's too much like a classical melodrama," but it helps if we start with that definition: a melodrama is a story in which each character only expresses one emotion, and/or only has one trait. When we refer to melodrama, we're usually complaining about over-acting. So... how do we avoid it? How do we create characters in conflict without overdoing the conflict or the characterization. In many ways it comes back to something we say over and over (and over and over) again: make your characters into real people. But we're not going to leave it at that. We're not just going to repeat what we've been telling you for three years now. No, we've got good tools you can use for writing powerful, emotional moments without your readers whining about melodrama. Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: The Tomb: Repairman Jack #1, by F. Paul Wilson Writing Prompt: Write a story in which

Brandon, Dan, and Howard discuss Flash Fiction in less time than it took you to read this excerpt.

Fast-paced Q&A with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Brandon, Dan, and Howard discuss "Write what you DON'T know."

Brandon, Dan, and Howard accept their 2010 Parsec Award a bit late, and offer an apology for missing the ceremony.

Suspense! What is it? What isn't it? What is the relationship between suspense and mystery, and for that matter horror, humor, and adventure? This 'cast is chock full of pithy quotes, useful advice, and anecdotal examples.

Bree Despain joins Brandon, Dan, and Howard for a discussion of writing in the 1st-person

Special guest Bree Despain of the Dark Divine trilogy joins us for a 'cast on character quirks. A character quirk, avoiding the tautological definition, is something that makes your character memorable. We talk about good quirks, bad quirks, and how to tell the difference. We also laugh a lot because it was late and we were punchy. We also discuss ways in which stereotype-breaking quirks can be employed without delivering humor, and reasons why we might do this. Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: The Dark Divine by Bree Despain Regarding That "No Spoilers" Shouting-Match: If you haven't seen Avatar: The Last Airbender (animated) in its entirety yet, it's possible Bree gave something away in the last two minutes of the 'cast. Writing Prompt: A physical attribute that in some way influences the character's religion This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible websit

We've talked about point of view before, but only in general terms: this time we delve into third-person limited in detail, explaining how to use it and when to use it and why. We apologize for the lateness of the post, and the lameness of this episode description: this is what happens when all three of us go to conventions on the same weekend. Expect a cooler update soon. [ONE WEEK LATER] So... yeah, that original post pretty much sums it up. Why should you employ third-person limited, as opposed to first-person, or third-person omniscient, or third-person cinematic? What are the pitfalls, and how can you avoid them? Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: Soulless by Gail Carriger. Vampires, werewolves, and parasols in a steamy, punky, bodice-rippy, alternate-history London. Writing Prompt: Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Producer Jordo all walk through a room, and each of us sees the room differently. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for

The last of our three recorded-live episodes is also the last episode of Writing Excuses Season 4. We took questions from the audience, and answered them with ABSOLUTE APLOMB. Questions asked include: How did we, as beginning writers, manage to write while holding down day-jobs and/or going to school? What is the process for getting published? How do you portray the various dynamics of an ensemble cast? How do you keep tension up when death isn't a problem for your characters? How do you make the transition from writing fan-fiction to writing original fiction? How important is it for an author to stay in touch with the fans online and at events? What do you do when your cast of characters has grown too large for you to manage it? What was the biggest stumbling-block for our creativity, and how did we overcome it? You want the answers? Have a listen! Writing Prompt: You walk out of a bookstore into torrential rain, and Howard attacks you with the POWER OF THUNDER.

Recorded live at Dragons & Fairy Tales, this episode is for anybody who has a novel or two (or more) sitting in the bottom of their trunk. What are the best ways to re-use old material you've set aside? We talk about rewriting entire novels, repurposing plots or characters, and moving stories from one place to another. Sometimes we do this because an idea is just too good to let sit, but the execution on that idea (at least the first time around) wasn't good enough. And sometimes we shouldn't do it at all. Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: Feed by Mira Grant - it's 1/3 zombie novel, 2/3 political thriller. Writing Prompt: "Interspeciated workplace." Go! Prompt #2: You just got a "Cease & Desist" from a webcartoonist... Audience Noises: Delivered on cue, thanks to cleverly positioned signs... This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible website, here a

Recorded live at Dragons & Fairy Tales in Eagle Mountain, Utah, this episode features the work of several brave souls who submitted their first paragraphs to us for critique. We are not American Idol -- we're not out to rip these to shreds. We offer constructive criticism, highlight the good we find, and point out where improvements could be employed. Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett, which Howard loves because of the risks the author took. Writing Prompt: You're writing in your journal for the first time in ten years, and the last ten years included the invasion of Earth. That Thunder You Can Barely Hear: It was really, really loud. And funny. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible website, here are the terms of the free membership. Read the fine print, please! Audible® Free Trial Details Get your first 14 days of the AudibleListener® G

A practical, example-filled look at tuning up rough dialog.

How to build a future setting for your novel by extrapolating from the present, working backwards from the story you want to tell, and getting those to meet in the middle.

Brandon, Dan, and Howard demonstrate line-editing on an ancient manuscript.

Brandon, Dan, and Howard start at the ending and work their way backwards for your enjoyment.

What do you do when, halfway through the book you're writing, you realize it needs to be completely rebuilt? More importantly, how do you figure this out in the first place? This podcast came about as a result of a question from a listener, but the question was specific to "what if you find out it's too derivative?" As it turns out, that's just one of the many problems you can discover midway through a novel. We spend the first half of the cast discussing how each of us identify the showstopping problems that require us to overhaul our works. We then talk about the process of fixing things that might, at first glance, appear to be completely unfixable. Sometimes we shift pieces of paper around, sometimes we push blocks of text around in our word processors, and sometimes we have to do something really significant, like adding an entirely new character or point-of-view. One of the best features of this particular 'cast is the bit in the second half where Howard and Dan grill Brandon