Podcast
Writing Excuses
Hosted by Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler · EN
Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
49episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
20.06: History and Community
Feb 9, 202500:25:54Tap to summarizeHave you ever wondered how much you need to know about a specific character before you start your story? Do you need to have an entire outline of their childhood before you can start writing in depth about them? We don’t think so! But it is important to listen to these questions as they emerge. This can help you figure out how to incorporate facets of each character’s identity that have narrative weight, instead of crowding the story with small facts that might not be necessary. This can help you layer and backfill as you build out – and discover– your story. Homework: Identify something from your character's life before your story begins - write a scene in which that element of the character weighs on the scene but is never explicitly mentioned.P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. P.P.S. Are you tired of ads?! You can join our $5 tier on Patreon and receive ad-free episodes each week! Sign up for our newsletterCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dongwon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.Join Our Writing Community! PatreonInstagramThreadsBlueskyTikTokYouTubeFacebookOur Sponsors:* Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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19.47: Final Thoughts on Our Close Reading Series
Nov 24, 2024Tap to summarizeWe reminisce on when we were on a writing retreat on a cruise in 2023, planning this close reading series. We have loved how this series grounded our conversations, allowing us to dive into works that were complex in specific ways. We have loved wading into the waters of voice, world-building, character, tension, and structure while talking about these phenomenal works of science fiction and fantasy. Thank you, listeners, for reading along with us. It has been powerful to read the same books, and to feel connected to you all through the Patreon, Discord, Instagram, and emails. Thing of the Week: Forget Protagonists: Writing NPCs with Agency Homework: Get a group of friends together, and pick a book you love. Discuss and unpack what makes the book work. Then, tell us what it is by tagging us on Instagram, @writing_excuses. Special Offer: Do you want 20% off a signed special edition copy of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin? You can order The Orbit Gold Edition set at orbitgoldeditions.com, and use the code “excuses” for 20% off! Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.Join Our Writing Community! PatreonInstagramYouTubeFacebookTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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19.44: A Close Reading on Structure: Tradition and Innovation
Nov 3, 2024Tap to summarizeToday we’re zooming out to see where N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season fits into the canon of fantasy literature. How does Jemisin interact with magic, words, and the expectations of the genre? And what expectations do the readers bring themselves? How does Jemisin repurpose parts of the hero’s journey while creating something fundamentally different? Does this work start a new lineage for epic fantasy? We think so! We talk about what other works this book is in conversation with, and what it even means to be in conversation with something. Thing of the Week: Family Reservations by Liza Palmer Homework: Make a list of the books that you consider the antecedents to the book that you’re working on now. What other works are your book in conversation with? Are you following in and building upon their foundation, or are you disrupting and disputing their legacy?Do you want a signed special edition copy of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin? Preorder The Orbit Gold Edition set before November 19th to get 20% off! Visit orbitgoldeditions.com to order. Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.Join Our Writing Community! PatreonInstagramYouTubeFacebookTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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19.43: A Close Reading on Structure: Parallelism and Inversion
Oct 27, 2024Tap to summarizeThe structure of The Fifth Season features both mirroring and inversion. How do these structural shifts interact with the three POVs? On today’s episode, we talk about the parallelism of the perspectives and the linguistic references to seasons. This leads us to the question, how many things need to work in sync in order for readers to feel the cyclical nature of the plot (and life)? How does N.K. Jemisin use structural arcs, beats, and elements to create upheaval? And finally, how can you create overlapping emotional states and narrative rhyming in your own writing? (And what is narrative rhyming you may ask? Don’t worry, we define it for you!) Thing of the Week: Who Lost, I Found by Eden RoyceHomework: Take a look at one of your main character's arcs, and then try to rework another character's arc to match similar beats and structure to the first one.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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19.37: A Close Reading on Tension: Movement and Resolution
Sep 15, 2024Tap to summarizeToday, we’re using music as an entry-point for tension. Howard introduces us to the power of the half-step, and other musical metaphors that can help you to incorporate tension in a new way to your writing. And then DongWon updates the metaphor with an electronic dance music analogy. We also dive into questions you can ask as you weave tension into your work in progress, such as, “what does your character have to gain by withholding their secret?” Thing of the Week: Clueless (the movie!) Homework: Write a scene three times. Same scene, and make sure to write it from scratch three times. But listen to different music each time. Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.Join Our Writing Community! PatreonInstagramYouTubeFacebookTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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19.36: A Close Reading on Tension: Narrative vs. Contextual
Sep 8, 2024Tap to summarizeToday, we’re talking about the tension that is actually happening on the page, and the contextual tension is what the reader is bringing to the table. Ring Shout lives in a place of contextual tension and we are excited to dive into how you can use both types of tension in your own writing. Your readers will always bring their own context to your work; and if you think about this, you can use tension in both big and small ways in your work. Thing of the Week: Random Friday - Solar Fields (Album) Homework: Take a scene you’re working on, and put a piece of information at the start that is only meant for the reader. Then, revise the scene, believing that the reader has that information. Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.Join Our Writing Community! PatreonInstagramYouTubeFacebookTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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19.10: Introducing Our Close Readings Series
Mar 10, 2024Tap to summarizeYou’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, we wanted to ground our episodes in specific texts that you could read along– and analyze– with us!Below is the schedule for each book or short story we’ll be diving into. The date on the right in parenthesis is the air date of the first episode in our series that will begin talking about that text. We highly recommend you read the book by that date, as we will be talking about the entirety of the text for all 5 episodes (including spoilers!) First up: This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-MohtarYou can buy this (and all the other books!) through our bookshop link-- this is linked in our bio in addition to right here:https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19Close Reading Series: Texts & TimelineVoice: This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar (March 17) Worldbuilding: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (May 12) Character: “You Perfect, Broken Thing,” “The Cook,” and “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home” by CL Clark (July 7) Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (September 1) Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (October 13) Thing of the Week: SHINOBIGAMI: Modern Ninja Battle RPGHomework: Take a scene from a work that you love and five highlighters/crayons/colored pencils - use one color to underline/highlight places where the voice comes through, one for great worldbuilding, one for character moments, one for any moments of tension, and one for moments that move the plot forward. What colors do you end up with? Where do they overlap? What are the colors of the moments you love the most? What would the colors of one of your scenes be?Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.Join Our Writing Community! PatreonInstagramYouTubeFacebookTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →14.45: Economics
Nov 10, 2019Tap to summarizeYour Hosts: Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab Economists tend to see everything as economics, which is kind of how proponents of ANY discipline see their discipline, but it's not a bad way to look at worldbuilding through the lens of economics. In this episode we talk about how this works for us, and how it lets us roll our worldbuilding into our storytelling. Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson Liner Notes: Mahtab mentioned The Economics of Science Fiction on Medium.com Our Sponsors:* Check out HomeServe: https://www.homeserve.com* Check out MasterClass: https://masterclass.com/EXCUSES* Check out Talkiatry: https://Talkiatry.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →12.5: Literary Fiction
Jan 29, 2017Tap to summarizeYour Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley This week we talk about the genre of Literary Fiction. Our first hurdle is the word "literary" whose use in this context can imply that all other genres are somehow not literature. In that vein, then, we're talking about mainstream, or "non-genre" fiction which is crafted with close attention to the finer points of the prose. After framing our discussion, we dive into the nuts and bolts of writing in the Literary Fiction genre. Credits: This episode was recorded by Andrew Twiss, and mastered by Alex Jackson.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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