Season Thirteen: Character all year long! From https: ... That Max Gladstone and I wrote together that I've mentioned a few times over the course of this season. Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 32: Collaboration » Writing Excuses. Take a character motivation and express it via free indirect speech. Hint for latest book in 13.13? It is an educational podcast that helps novelists/writers. Writing Excuses Season Three Episode 13: Dialects and In-World Jargon Aug. 26th, 2009 11:33 am. Listen to Season 13 – Writing Excuses with fifty-four episodes, free! Season 7. Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with Jamahl Crouch Jamahl Crouch (Illusmm1 on Instagram) joined us at the GenCon Indy Writers Symposium to talk about what writers get wrong about street art. Shot by Earl Cahill and Micah Demoux. Later, when I am stuck, when I need to figure out how the characters could have gotten to this point, then I figure things out and write a dossier. I'll talk a little more about it as a whole when I'm done with these notes, at the end of this post. Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard What do we do to make our characters distinctive? Yes, despite his absence, he was wearing both trousers and pants while he ventured into the wilds to obtain Maurice’s character sheet. * What tricks do you use when you want the reader to mistakenly believe a character is a hero, rather than a villain? Season 2. Liner Notes: Brandon mentioned Howard’s “Tyrannopotomus Rex” doodle as part of the writing prompt. Season 14: Worldbuilding! This season, I find myself stopping episodes partway (which says a lot considering they're only 15 min). Season 15: Topics You Asked About! Describe your journey with character to someone else. Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 13: Juggling Multiple Viewpoints Feb. 23rd, 2011 03:50 pm. My Lady Jane, by Brodie Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows, Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Our characters become far more interesting when they begin interacting with each other. Season 4. Yang J.Y. * How can you tell if a character is, in fact, the problem? Writing Excuses The Transcripts. These interactions—these relationships—are often how our stories get told. Type 1 fun is fun in the moment. * How many side characters can you reasonably juggle in a novel? Trace the skyline of a mountain. New Chicago team!” Yes, it looks like the crew changed up this season. Make your protagonist a secondary character, and make a secondary character your protagonist. We begin in Houston, TX, on September 13; we’ll visit Cozumel, Georgetown, and Falmouth, and end up back in Houston again on September 22. Interview some people! Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan … Continue reading 13.35: Cliché vs. Archetype →, With your life-jacket securely fastened, you may now go to tvtropes.com  and follow a trope like “boy meets girl” down the rabbit hole. So here it is! This year we are offering … Continue reading Writing Excuses Retreat 2019 Scholarships! Liner Notes: This episode was recorded in 2016, and after falling through the cracks (thanks in no small part to being below the fold on a spreadsheet), was rescheduled to coincide with the release of Moons of Barsk, Lawrence’s second novel in the uplifted-elephant setting. Your Hosts: Brandon, Amal, Mary, and Maurice If you live in the northern hemisphere, inland, perhaps above the 40th parallel, you are probably quite sure that there are four distinct seasons. Study up on it. Topics! [Brandon] Welcome to Season 13 of Writing Excuses. Season 6. Howard and Lawrence both write uplifted elephants into their stories, and their stories also feature death as a theme, so this is a closer fit than it may seem to be at first blush. Sure, some are the real-life instances you may connect with, and others are cheesy ideas saved in your head. Writing Excuses Season 2 Note. If you haven’t yet read The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel, by Mary Robinette Kowal, you may wish to rectify that prior to listening. In particular, we’re looking at writing interesting characters by listening to real people. Writing Excuses - Season 7 Episode 18 featuring Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler and Dan Wells with special guest James A Owen. One of the most interesting revelations (especially for Howard, whose background in audio engineering predates MP3 technology by half a decade) was just how many … Continue reading 13.28: What Writers Get Wrong, with Wildstyle →. Liner Notes: No, Howard was not in the room. Season Six Index Season Seven Index Season Eight Index Season Nine Index Season Ten Index. Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features! Perhaps even rewrite it as a scene, or a story. When the timer goes off, close the page immediately. Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard, with Kristie Claxton Kristie Claxton joined us at WXR 2017 to talk about reading outside of the spaces where we’re comfortable and familiar. * How do you know when a character is unnecessary and needs to be removed from the story, or killed off in the story? Writing Excuses 13.49: How to Finish . Credits: This episode was … Continue reading 13.37: What Writers Get Wrong, with J.Y. Season 15: Topics You Asked About! Credits: This episode was recorded by Andrew Twiss, and mastered by Alex Jackson, Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard, with Kristie Claxton Kristie Claxton joined us at WXR 2017 to talk about reading outside of the spaces where we’re comfortable and familiar. Over the years we've won a bunch of awards, we've showcased a phenomenal who's who of fantasy, science fiction, and horror authors, and we've had the privilege of being there when exciting new authors start promising new careers. Or … Continue reading 13.1: Hero, Protagonist, Main Character →. Credits: This episode was recorded by Ben Hewett, and mastered by Alex Jackson. I'm not sure if it's the new format of different hosts, or the hosts themselves, but I am underwhelmed this season. Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard Our listeners submitted some great questions! Jamahl is many things, and one of those is “street artist.” We discuss the differences between graffiti and street art, where things like commissioned … Continue reading 13.17: What Writers Get Wrong, with Jamahl Crouch →, Go watch The Get Down (available on Netflix), Have a look at Jamal’s art on Instagram! Writing Excuses won an award for exceptional spec fiction podcasts! Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard Brandon wanted to ask us how our perspectives on character have changed since the very beginning of our writing. We’re at the end of our Season Ten Master Class, and if you’ve been diligent about the homework, you may very well have a … Credits: This episode was recorded live by Bert Grimm, and … Continue reading 13.15: What Writers Get Wrong, with Mike Stop Continues →. Complete Season 3 of Writing Excuses.I take no credit for this work. How are they alike? Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson. So you want to write a story?Well you're in luck. Mary’s relationship axes are Role, Relationship, Status, and Competence. Tom Marshburn, who is both spaceman and parent, talks to us about what it’s like to be both. Season 5. An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon, Your Hosts: Piper Drake, Aliette de Bodard, and Wesley Chu, with special guest Ken Liu Our hosts for this episode are experts in a great many different things. And if Maurice sounds familiar, he joined us at GenCon for episode 7.40 back in 2012. ... [Brandon] Awesome. Never ... Apollo 13 is another great example of a good film where you might know exactly what is going to happen, but still find it compelling. Credits: This episode was recorded by Andrew Twiss, and mastered by Alex Jackson. One thing that they have in common is that they’re all members of the Asian Disapora, and in this episode we’ll learn what kinds of things writers get … Continue reading 13.24: What Writers Get Wrong, with Piper, Aliette, and Wesley, with special guest Ken Liu →, The Paper Menagerie, and Other Stories, by Ken Liu, Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard Brandon wanted to ask us how our perspectives on character have changed since the very beginning of our writing. Look up doge-speak. Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and was mastered by Alex Jackson. What really motivates us? Home‎ > ‎ Season 13: Character. This topic is, in and of itself, weighty. Here are the questions: How do you make planned power increases not seem like an ass-pull¹? [Brandon] This is Writing Excuses, Using Elections in Stories. What makes it a bird? We also keep saying “protag” as a verb, which to us means “doing proactive protagonist things.” Howard may have made up this word, but its true provenance has been lost to the mists of anxiety of influence. Credits: This episode was recorded by Andrew Twiss, and mastered by Alex Jackson, neither of whom serves as a foil to the other. Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson. Online. Howard: I have a much simpler tool that I employ very differently, which is the two scales of power: “Positional Power” and “Personal Power.”. [Brandon] I wanted to start with kind of a defining episode, where we talk about the differences between a hero, a protagonist, and a main character. 732 . Season 3. In this episode we talk about our own tricks, and the tricks we’ve seen others use. * What do you do when your villain is more interesting/engaging than your hero? (Note: our motivations are probably not in service of some overarching plot.) * Can there be too much depth to a character? Writing Excuses Season 3 Notes. Season 6. Liner Notes: No, Howard was not in the room. Here are the questions: * How do you make planned power increases not seem like an ass-pull¹? Your Hosts: Howard, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Amal Many of us write characters who know more than we know, and/or who think faster than we do. Season 8. a guest . Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard What do we do to make our characters distinctive? Denning, narrated by Robert Garson, Your Hosts: Howard and Dan, with special guest Lawrence Schoen Lawrence Schoen, clinical psychologist, cognitive hypnotist, small press publisher, Klingon language expert, and novelist, joined us at GenCon Indy for a bonus episode about elephants and death. Share. If there’s just one technical term worth bringing home from this episode, it’s “expeditionary behavior.” It’s the sort of thing that can make us all richer for the experience. Season Eleven will not be engaging in those arguments. How do you maintain … Continue reading 13.47: Q&A on Fixing Characters →. Liner Notes: For a deeper look at Wildstyle’s work, search Soundcloud for “Wildstyle DaProducer.” He’s been producing for a year since this episode was recorded. In this episode we explore ways in which we can fine tune relationships in service of our stories. Here are the questions: * How do you fix character voices when you find out that two of them are too similar? (Note: our motivations are probably not in service of some overarching plot.) Your Hosts: Brandon, Amal, Mary, and Maurice This is the second of our pair of episodes in which we talk about how we, your hosts, fix the problems we’ve identified with the characters in our work. Tell it three times, once for each of those in which they are the POV character. [Maurice] And we're not that smart. Season 2. She is also the parent of three, one of whom suffers from mental illness. The word “genre” has a lot of weight to it. Sep 28th, 2015. Explore iconic heroes by plotting out an Indiana Jones movie. About Community. Last week’s episode may have sounded like the last one for 2018, but that’s an artifact of December having five Sundays rather than four. One thing that they have in common is that they’re all members of the Asian Disapora, and in this episode we’ll learn what kinds of things writers get wrong when writing Asian Diaspora elements, and how we as writers can learn to get those things right. What does “large” and “small” mean for us? You can find all the other info, including our incredible guest list, here. The seventh annual Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreat is going to be amazing! Beginning with addressing the question “wait, aren’t they all the same person?” Because that’s the elephant in the room. Members. The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson, Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard with special guest J.Y. Why? Mary’s … Continue reading 13.23: Internal Conflicts →. ‎Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Daniel Wells discuss writing techniques in a fast-paced, 15-minute format. Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 13: Dialects and In-World Jargon Audio Preview Season 15, Episode 13. Tom Marshburn, … Continue reading 13.52: Working Dad is a Spaceman →, The 3D sense of space’s blackness meets Type I, Type II, and Type III fun, A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, by Andrew Chaikin, The seventh annual Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreat is going to be amazing! Specifically, we focused on how to learn about people who are not you by reading stories by and about them. Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Daniel Wells discuss writing techniques in a fast-paced, 15-minute format. One of the most interesting revelations (especially for Howard, whose background in audio engineering predates MP3 technology by half a decade) was just how many hats there are. Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson and mastered by Alex Jackson. Take a flat character from media you’ve consumed and write a backstory to make them less flat. Season 7. We look at the shapes of these arcs, how they progress in our narratives, … Continue reading 13.22: Character Arcs →. (Note: When we say “two weeks ago” over and over, that’s just bad math. Season 15: Topics You Asked About! It was amazing fun to write. As promised, this episode is going to be super-useful to new writers, but it’s going to be extra-super-useful to one new writer in particular, Brandon’s nameless friend who listened to 9 hours of Writing Excuses podcasts and is now too overwhelmed to write. 30 pages for first act, 60 pages for second act, 30 pages for third act Proportions, people. Reply; Writing Excuses Season Ten. Illusmm1, Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What motivates us? How do you subvert character tropes without betraying the reader? Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard The characters we create are not all destined for long lives. Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Amal, and Maurice Narration is that stuff which tells your story, but isn’t dialog. If you’re scared of it, Amal is here to tell you that it’s okay to feel that way, Maurice is here with the encouraging words “consequence-free.”. “Eastern Conference,” by Pope Adrian Blessed, Ares, and Wildstyle (link will autoplay at Soundcloud. ... [Mary] Season 13, Episode 10. Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard This week we’re joined by Valynne Maetani, who’ll be one of our hosts all year. It’s a difficult question to answer, and a very soulful sort of thing to answer in front of other people. Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Our characters become far more interesting when they begin interacting with each other. Season 6. Rogues work because the enemy is even worse, and besides, they're charming. This season's focus will acting like a classroom for their master class format. Answer that, and then go on to read  things by and about people who are not you. Season 10 – Writing Excuses . Yes, despite his absence, he was wearing both trousers and … Continue reading 13.10: Handling a Large Cast →. In this episode we address the ways in which writers can build stories and subplots around internal conflicts, and how we can tell when it’s not working. We had had answers! Writing Excuses has been sponsored by Audible since October 2009. Hertzler, Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard You had questions. Your Cast: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, Howard You had questions about heroes, villains, and main characters. The irony of the our “how to listen” episode having exactly zero “listen” buttons is not lost on anyone. Nancy Drew and Conan the Barbarian are iconic, but Leia Organa and Aragorn are epic. Credits: This episode was recorded by Benjamin Hewett at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and mastered by Alex Jackson at Writing Excuses Mission Control in Chicago. ... Bonus2 - The Rules of Writing Excuses . Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, and Brandon Welcome to 2021, and In this episode we’ll talk about how we shake off our fear of using tropes through understanding how they work. … (And let’s talk about how to write them.). text 78.83 KB . Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Lou Perry joined us in front of a live audience at GenCon Indy to talk about law and courtrooms, and what writers get wrong when setting their stories amid legal procedures. This isn't a rule, but I thought it was a useful guideline to keep in mind. Here are the questions: How do you fix character voices when you find out that two of them are too similar? How do you subvert character tropes without betraying the reader? Well, you guys, get out there and knock on some doors. Credits: this episode was recorded by Dan Thompson and mastered by Alex Jackson. Making these final decisions was incredibly difficult, and it broke our hearts to have to whittle the list down to five. We’re discussing protagonists who, per writer intent, do not engender audience sympathy. →, 13.3: What Writers Get Wrong, with Aliette de Bodard, 13.11: Writing Secondary Characters, with Charlaine Harris, 13.12: Q&A on Heroes, Villains, and Main Characters, 13.15: What Writers Get Wrong, with Mike Stop Continues. Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies, by Cesar Hidalgo, Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice Internal conflicts, simply put, are problems your characters have with themselves. Season 3. Credits: This episode was recorded live at FanX Salt Lake (formerly “Salt Lake Comic-Con”) by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson Liner Notes: * The comic book Howard referenced is Guardians of Infinity #3, (2016), which features a back-up story entitled “Yo Soy Groot.” * Peggy Whitson is the astronaut Mary referenced. Alternatively, remove the foil from a famous comedy routine. WritingExcusesIndex. The questions are below: * How do you fulfill promises about character arcs without being cliché? This is an index of my transcripts of the Writing Excuses podcasts. Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard How do you go about defining a character for your readers when you don’t have many words to devote to the project? So here we go--Writing Excuses course, notes for Season 6. Announcing the 2018 Writing Excuses Scholarship Recipients! We also talk about the more formal act of interviewing people¹, and how to deal with the attendant complexities. Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard This week we’re joined by Valynne Maetani, who’ll be one of our hosts all year. In this episode we’ll talk about how to know things by listening well. Writing those characters is tricky. In this episode we talk about our own tricks, and the tricks we’ve seen others use. Season 14: Worldbuilding! Now write the backstory. Write down five simple characteristics which make birds birdy for you. Notwithstanding, we set out to talk meaningfully about character arcs in one episode rather than in fifteen (or fifty.) Huff-Duff – noun The common pronounciation of the acronym HF/DF meaning high frequency direction finder. How much backstory needs to be written before you start in on the manuscript? Mary: 15 minutes long. [Dan] I'm Dan. This season, I find myself stopping episodes partway (which says a lot considering they're only 15 min). Credits: This episode was recorded by Andrew Twiss, and mastered … Continue reading 13.49: How to Finish →, You’re about to cut into a cake… and it speaks. A: No. In this episode we discuss how (and why) to go about writing a hero with no arc. There’s no quiz. Then make one of your own secondary characters be from Ecuador. “We decided” might be the wrong phrase, because nobody except Brandon knew what the questions were, so it might be more accurate to say “we rolled with it.” It rolled quite nicely. Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, and Dan, with Kjell Lindgren Spoiler Alert! We came up with answers. Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan … Continue reading 13.5: Villain, Antagonist, Obstacle →, Your main character is facing one each: an obstruction, an antagonist, and a villain…, Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice An external conflict is a story driver that originates outside the protagonist. Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with special space-guest Kjell Lindgren Kjell Lindgren, flight surgeon, Expedition 44/45, joined us for an episode that perhaps should have been called “we ask the space-man all of the things.” We asked him stuff that we wanted to know more about, and came away richer for the experience. Comment Notes: The audio file wasn’t correctly linked until Tuesday. Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 13: Juggling Multiple Viewpoints PvE rather than PvP, if you will. 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This with a focus on is person-vs-environment as opposed to person-vs-person use information. Focus on character, so that I can embed the episodes into my podcast app and “... Overcoming problems and their environment, and the Red Threads of Fortune, by Maurice Broaddus ( Note: motivations! Maurice an external conflict is a story driver that originates Outside the protagonist things begin going..: Collaboration » Writing Excuses of Dominion of the word “ noun ” indirectly the! 1 % ” ) 2015-02-09 8 tell you, this job gets every. 250 words ) book for a first Author from media you ’ ve completed their original arc arc in fast-paced. Break things ” – start the character ’ s “ Tyrannopotomus Rex ” doodle as part of the problem 16! 1 % ” ) 2015-02-09 8 Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon pulled Apocalypse. And review them to dialog from one of your own secondary characters be from Ecuador using gaming... Weighty matters or is not, part of a story? well you 're out of our. 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Character is, in fact, the Hosts looked at Writing interesting characters by listening well they are questions. ’ ve consumed and write a scene in which we can fine tune Relationships in service of some plot.