Writing Excuses

Your Hosts: Piper, DongWon, Amal, and Maurice We like food, and we like to talk about food. Our hosts this week talk about how this influences their fiction, (not to mention how incredibly complex [and interesting, and delicious] the subject is.) Credits: this episode was recorded by Howard Tayler, and mastered by Alex Jackson Our Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Margaret, and Howard So, you're going to go someplace and learn something you can't learn in any other way. Maybe it's location research for setting. Maybe you're off to interview an expert. Whatever you're planning, you need to be planning it well. In this episode we discuss the field research we've done, how we went about it, and how we might do it differently. Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson EPISODE ORDER NOTE: As of this writing, episode 14.28's web-sized audio file isn't ready. We'll run it next week, and eventually swap the dates to get 14.29 and 14.28 in the right order.Our Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Your Hosts: Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab How do you write about warfare in your stories when you've never fought in a war? How do you describe brilliant tactics when you're completely untrained in military movements? How can you portray the emotions of someone on a battlefield without having been on a battlefield yourself? In this episode we tackle these questions and more. (Hint: the answers include "research") Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex JacksonOur Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard In this episode we stories with the "Person-vs-Setting" structure. These are stories where nature fills the role of antagonist, and may also be what governs the pacing, and the delivery of key emotional beats. Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex JacksonOur Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, and Dan, with special guest Rob Kimbro Rob Kimbro joins us this week to talk about Aristotle's elements of tragedy, and how they might be applied to our writing. The six elements are (in Aristotle's order of descending importance): plot, character, idea, dialog, music, and spectacle. We discuss this tool in terms of critiquing existing work, and in finding direction in the things we create. Credits: this episode was recorded by Howard Tayler, and mastered by Alex JacksonOur Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Your Hosts: Howard, Mary Robinette, Dan, and DongWon Guest-host Dongwon Song joined us at WXR 2018 as an instructor, and gave great advice regarding the business side of working as an author. In this episode he takes us through a conversation about choosing an agent. Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex JacksonOur Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The hosts of this podcast delve into the art of political intrigue in writing, discussing its effectiveness in both short and long stories. They highlight the importance of creating motivations and visceral sensations in order to make political intrigue compelling. They also explore the concept of metaphorical chess and limited information in storytelling and provide examples from books and TV shows to emphasize the role of secrets and informational advantage in political plots.

Answering questions about the power structures you live within can help you with the worldbuilding of politics in the fiction you write.Our Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard Sherlock Holmes has his Watson for a reason. Readers need a character to whom some things must be explained. In this episode we talk about how we create these gateway characters without delivering "maid and butler" dialog, or talking down to the reader. Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex JacksonOur Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Your Hosts: Dan, Tempest, and DongWon The single most asked question we get on the subject of writing cultures other than our own is some variation on "can we even DO this anymore?" Short answer: YES, YOU CAN. Our objective with this episode is to encourage you to put in the work, do the research, and write outside of your culture or personal experience. At risk of sounding cliché, it's not easy, but it's worth it.Our Sponsors:* Check out Aeropress and use my code WX for a great deal: https://aeropress.com* Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/WX* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/WXSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy