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Writing Excuses

Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

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Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
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5 Listeners

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Top 10 Writing Excuses Episodes

Best episodes ranked by Goodpods Users most listened

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05/22/22 • 21 min

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler Every member of your ensemble has a reason to be there, but they also have their own voice. Zoraida Cordova joins us for a discussion of how we make our ensemble characters distinct from one another. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.
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05/22/22 • 21 min

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08/15/21 • 18 min

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5.0

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Few pieces of writing advice get repeated as much as that old saw "show, don't tell." We're here to show tell you that it's not only not universally applicable, much of the time it's wrong1. Tell, don't show, especially in the early pages of the book when so very, very much information needs to be delivered2 quickly. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson 1 Fun fact: this advice comes to us from silent film, when it made great artistic sense to put things on screen rather than on title cards. 2 If you need new terminology, Dan uses "demonstration vs. description."
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08/15/21 • 18 min

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12/19/21 • 21 min

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5.0

Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd Our next 8-episode intensive is all about promises and expectations. Our guest hosts are Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd. They're joining us to talk about how the promises we make to our audiences, and the expectations they bring with them, are a structural format. In this episode we introduce the topic, and talk about some apex examples of success and failure in this area. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson Liner Notes: Here's the story of The Tropicana Packaging Redesign Failure
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12/19/21 • 21 min

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05/29/22 • 17 min

Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Zoraida Cordova, Kaela Rivera, and Howard Tayler Every character in your ensemble needs to matter to the team, or they probably don't belong in the ensemble. Zoraida Cordova leads us into this discussion of how we build our ensembles, how we introduce the characters, and how we ensure that all of them are important to the group. Liner Notes: The article about Superman's very first line of dialog is here. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.
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05/29/22 • 17 min

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11/21/21 • 19 min

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Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler Writers are illusionists, and worldbuilding requires no small mastery of that particular magic. In this episode we'll explore the creation of believable illusions through the techniques of similarity, specificity, and selective depth. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson
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11/21/21 • 19 min

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07/11/21 • 18 min

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Let's have a frank, and possibly painful discussion about the ways in which the first page can go wrong. It may seem like hackneyed writing advice, but rules like "don't start with the main character waking up" are rules for a reason. In this episode we'll talk about those reasons, and why it's so unlikely for books which break them to succeed with readers. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson
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07/11/21 • 18 min

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07/04/21 • 18 min

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Our controversial episode title comes to us via John Schwarzwelder, and it points up nicely the importance of today's topic, which is first lines, first pages, and how we set about convincing people (who may or may not want to read a book) to read OUR book. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson
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07/04/21 • 18 min

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16.29: Building Trust

Writing Excuses

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07/18/21 • 17 min

Your Hosts: DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler How do we build trust with our readers? What does that even mean? In this episode we discuss ways in which we let our readers know what they can expect from the book they're holding, and how we set about getting the to trust us do deliver on those expectations. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson
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07/18/21 • 17 min

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06/13/21 • 21 min

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Cassandra Khaw, Dan Wells, James L. Sutter, and Howard Tayler Worldbuilding is one of our favorite topics, and it's a domain in which game design and novel writing share a lot of territory. In this episode we talk about how much we love it, and how much we enjoy letting other people love it enough to do the heavy lifting for us. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson
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06/13/21 • 21 min

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06/20/21 • 27 min

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Cassandra Khaw, Dan Wells, James L. Sutter, and Howard Tayler So, after all this talk about designing games and writing for games, it's time to address the big question: how does one go about getting a game-design/game-writing job? It's a competitive field, and there are no easy answers, but we do have some hard answers for you. And some homework... Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson
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06/20/21 • 27 min

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FAQ

How many episodes does Writing Excuses have?

Writing Excuses currently has 780 episodes available.

What topics does Writing Excuses cover?

The podcast is about Podcasts, Books, Arts, Business and Careers.

What is the most popular episode on Writing Excuses?

The episode title '17.21: Casting Your Story With Character Voice' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Writing Excuses?

The average episode length on Writing Excuses is 19 minutes.

How often are episodes of Writing Excuses released?

Episodes of Writing Excuses are typically released every 6 days, 23 hours.

When was the first episode of Writing Excuses?

The first episode of Writing Excuses was released on Feb 11, 2008.

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5.0

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3 Ratings