58 episodes

Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Daniel Wells discuss writing techniques in a fast-paced, 15-minute format.

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

    • Arts
    • 4.9 • 128 Ratings

Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Daniel Wells discuss writing techniques in a fast-paced, 15-minute format.

    18.12: The Long Shadow of Unanswered Questions

    18.12: The Long Shadow of Unanswered Questions

    Our continuing exploration of tension has taken us to a favorite technique: unanswered questions. Sure, this obviously applies to mysteries, but consider the question posed in romances: “will they get together?” In its simplest form, the unanswered question that forces a page-turn is "what happens on the next page?" In this episode we explore how to use unanswered questions to drive tension, and how to avoid some common pitfalls.



    Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

    • 21 min
    18.11: Turning Up the Contrast With Juxtaposition

    18.11: Turning Up the Contrast With Juxtaposition

    Our deconstruction and categorization of tension continues this week with an exploration of Juxtaposition, which is a contrast between two elements that supplies tension by allowing the reader to insert themselves.



    Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

    • 20 min
    18.10: Anticipation is More Than Just Making Us Wait

    18.10: Anticipation is More Than Just Making Us Wait

    Last week we talked about tension, and promised that we'd be breaking it down into more pieces. This week we're discussing one of those pieces: Anticipation. We sub-divided it as follows:



    * Surprise

    * Suspense

    * Humor

    * Promises



    We talk about how to create anticipatory tension well, where the pitfalls are, and how this fits into the creation of our stories.



    Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

    • 18 min
    18.09: Unpacking the Tension

    18.09: Unpacking the Tension

    For the next several episodes we'll be talking about tension. That may seem like a lot of time to spend on just one word, but as we unpack that word we see that there's plenty of material to work with, and there's a generous supply of tools in that material.



    For our purposes, we've categorized the tension subcategories as follows:



    * Anticipation

    * Juxtaposition

    * Unanswered Questions

    * Conflict

    * Microtension



    Your own taxonomy may differ, and that's fine, but having a taxonomy is important because when we name our tools we're better at using them.



    Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

    • 20 min
    18.08: Building a Mystery

    18.08: Building a Mystery

    After last week's deep dive into The Spare Man we're ready to talk more generally about mysteries, and the tools we use to write them. Obviously we can't cover all of that in just one episode, but don't worry. In upcoming episodes we'll explore more of these tools in detail.



    Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

    • 23 min
    18.07: Deep Dive into THE SPARE MAN

    18.07: Deep Dive into THE SPARE MAN

    Spoiler Alert! This week is our deep dive into Mary Robinette Kowal's The Spare Man. It's a sci-fi mystery novel often described as "The Thin Man in space."



    Deep dive episodes are necessarily full of spoilers because we ask all kinds of how and why questions specific to the writing of the work in question. If you haven't yet read The Spare Man, you might consider doing that before listening to this episode. We're not the boss of you, but we believe you'll get more out of this episode and the novel if you read the novel first.



    Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

    • 32 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
128 Ratings

128 Ratings

ArtMart21.com ,

Full of great advice. A MUST.

I took short production course few years back and I am working on my writing.
This podcast is full of fantastic tips and guidance to write better. Very profesional and in depth advice supported with examples. Very easy to follow and understand. I love the homework given at the end of each episode.
Thank you.

cheriet ,

Used to be helpful

Used to be helpful with great advice and discussions. Now it's more about pushing ideology of a certain kind. Agree or not, the moralistic smugness is thick and they don't entertain reasonable counterviews. Regardless, I wish they wouldn't even bother on that and just focus on the craft itself. Left- or right-leaning, I don't care. Everyone can skip reading or listening to things they don't find useful. I'm getting to that point with this podcast. The technical and artistic insights start disappearing shortly after Sanderson starts fading away. The last few seasons, the discussions/topics tend to be for their own self-gratification and fetishes.

NR.ZR ,

Love. Love. Love

Just amazing tips for writing and so much useful information about the process. One of the only writing podcasts that’s not marketing or interviews

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