Writing Excuses

By Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Business Careers

What's Writing Excuses about?

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

4.7

10101,010 ratings

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Writing Excuses episodes:

04.14.2024
19.15: A Close Reading on Voice: Tying It All Together
As we conclude our first deep dive of our close reading series, we want to explore how the evolution of voice helped carry readers throughout "This Is How You Lose The Time War." We also talk about the relationship between...
04.07.2024
19.14: A Close Reading on Voice- Epistolary Storytelling Through Voice
What's epistolary writing? Well, it's writing through letters. But it's also a lot more than that. As we continue to dive into the concept of Voice, we want to explore the importance and power of the letters that Blue and...
03.31.2024
19.13: A Close Reading on Voice: Blue's Perspective - Confidence and Vulnerability
On our third episode diving into Voice through the novella “This Is How You Lose The Time War,” we begin to explore the different voices that make up the two main characters in the story. Last episode we dove into...
03.24.2024
19.12: A Close Reading on Voice - Red's Perspective - Muscular Prose
Today, we are doing a very close read of Red's opening narration and how Red’s voice communicates both character and world in an effective and efficient way. We read several sections aloud and dive into what each sensory detail is...
03.17.2024
19.11: A Close Reading on Voice- An Overview, and Why Time War
The book that became a New York Times Bestseller because of a tweet. Well, it won LOTS of awards when it came out, but it was rediscovered by a Twitter account with a large following. So-- let's get into it!...
03.10.2024
19.10: Introducing Our Close Readings Series
You’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...
03.03.2024
19.09: LIVE Recording - Rituals, Rites, and Traditions
Hosts Erin and DongWon are joined by Fonda Lee and Mahtab Narsimhan for a special episode about creating traditions in your fictional writing. In this episode, we'll explore some of the following: -How do you build traditions and rituals in...
02.25.2024
19.08: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Working with an Editor
An agent, an editor, and a writer walk into a Zoom room and record a podcast... but really... that's (part of) what this episode is! First off, a reminder that your agent, your editor, and you are all on the...
02.18.2024
19.07: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Intention
For our second episode in this three-part series on revising your NaNoWriMo novel—or any other larger project you have—we are diving into intentions with Tor editor Ali Fisher. We asked her how she helps writers figure out what their books...
02.11.2024
19.06: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Length
Ali Fisher, editor at Tor Books and member of the podcast Rude Tales of Magic, joins us for a three-part series on editing. First up: length! How do you edit your work—whether it's a book or a short story...
02.04.2024
19.05: LIVE Recording - Revisions with Mahtab Narsimhan
Some writers love revisions and some would rather scrub the toilet than revise their writing. On this episode, we are joined by author Mahtab Narsimhan, who many will recognize as a host from past seasons! Mahtab talks with our hosts...
01.28.2024
19.04: LIVE Recording - Pacing with Guest Fonda Lee
Pacing is one of the most subjective and difficult aspects of storytelling to get right. What is pacing? How do you know what the right pace is for a story, and what techniques can you use to speed up or...
01.21.2024
19.03: Behind The Scenes with our Producer and Recording Engineer
A few months ago, we were on a cruise ship in Alaska recording podcast episodes for 2024! This live recording features a Q&A; with cruise attendees, who were given the opportunity to ask questions to Marshall Carr, our audio...
01.14.2024
19.02: Q&A Episode with WX Core Cast
We have a LIVE podcast recording from September 2023, when we were hosting one of our writing retreats on a cruise ship in Alaska! (To learn about our next WX Retreats, check out: https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/ Or apply for our scholarships by...
01.07.2024
19.01: Interview with Abraham Verghese
In our first episode of 2024, we interviewed author and physician Abraham Verghese, who most recently published "The Covenant of Water." We talked with Verghese about how to convey technical information in fiction. Verghese explains how he shares...
12.31.2023
18.53: Funding the Writing Life
Rent isn't paid in words alone. How do all of us, in various stages of our careers, keep ourselves afloat as we go about the writing life? We're getting in the weeds with this one - tips, tricks, and tools. ...
12.24.2023
18.52: Writing Inside The Box
"Your short story should definitely be a novel." It's something writers are often told when they write short stories. What tips and tricks can you use to keep your idea within the length of the story you're trying to tell?...
12.17.2023
18.51: So You Wanna Play With Format?
Are you interested in experimenting with different writing forms? Do you want to try an unusual or different way of writing? Well this week, we have an episode dedicated to non-traditional formats for writing. In this episode, we think...
12.10.2023
18.50: The Unreliable Narrator
All unreliable narrators aren't unreliable in the same way. How do they differ and how does that change the way that we write them? Erin shares her unified theory (look at the graphic below!) of unreliable narrators. Homework: Take...
12.03.2023
18.49: Giving Your Story A Voice
What does it mean if your writing is voice-y? How do you give your character a natural voice? We approach this question from the high-level perspective of craft, and the granular level of word choice and sentence structure. Erin talks...
11.26.2023
18.48: NaNoWriMo Week 5 - Writing Endings
Welcome to the last week of National Novel Writing Month! It’s okay if you aren’t going to finish your book, and it’s also okay if you don’t have 50,000 words! You still did a thing—you created a story that didn’t...
11.19.2023
18.47: NaNoWriMo Week 4 - Climaxes, or OH MY GOD NO
It’s week four of NaNoWriMo! Or, National Novel Writing Month, which happens every year for the month of November. This week, we are talking about how to write climaxes, how to write resolutions, and what exactly the three-quarter mark is. ...
11.12.2023
18.46: NaNoWriMo Week 3 - Raising the Stakes
We are now three weeks into NaNoWriMo—where writers are attempting to write a novel in the month of November. For this episode, our writers talk about how to raise the stakes in your story. To make something feel more...
11.05.2023
18.45: NaNoWriMo Week 2 - Inciting Incident
Welcome to the first official week of National Novel Writing Month (or, almost the end of this week)! In this episode, we dive into how to write an inciting incident. What is an inciting incident? It is often the...
10.29.2023
18.44: NaNoWriMo Week 1- Getting Started
Welcome to National Novel Writing Month! For November, writers all over the world are trying to complete a novel, or write 50,000 words. In honor of NaNoWriMo, all of our November episodes are going to focus on writing a novel...
10.22.2023
18.43: Worldbuilding in Miniature
If you're writing short fiction, how much of your world do you even need to figure out? Should you have it all written out? Can you just wing it? This week on the podcast, we discuss how much of a...
10.15.2023
18.42: Creating Magic Outside of a System
How do you write about magic? How do you build a world with magic and spells and potions? We dive into the rules and laws behind magical worlds. We often think of magic as being with a system, but what...
10.08.2023
18.41: Deep Dive: Erin's Short Fiction Extravaganza
If you write short stories or enjoy speculative fiction, this episode is for you. Our host Erin Roberts has written short stories, interactive fiction, and has built worlds for tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). For the next 8 episodes, we’ll be...
10.01.2023
18.40: How To Make Money From Your Hobby (with special guest Sandra Tayler!)
Or, The Business of the End of Schlock Mercenary How did Howard start making money from his hobby of drawing and writing comics? How did he self-publish? We have a special guest on this episode! Sandra Tayler—Howard’s wife, the editor...
09.24.2023
18.39: How To Write An Ending
Deep Dive: Sergeant In Motion How do you write an ending to a book? How do you finish something you’ve been writing for over 20 years? Howard Tayler talks to us about writing the ending to his serialized webcomic and...
09.17.2023
18.38: How Do You Write A Series With Books That Stand Alone?
Deep Dive: A Function of Firepower How do you write the middle of a book? How do you write an ending to a story? For this week’s episode about writing, we focus on Book 19 of Schlock Mercenary, the penultimate...
09.10.2023
18.37: Mandatory Failure
We talk with Howard Tayler about the story structure of a story with a BIG disaster in the middle - one which we don't recover from until the next book. We also talk about the weight of world-building, how to...
09.03.2023
18.36: The Soggy Middle Pays the Rent (or, "Stand Alone With Series Potential")
How do you write the middle of a book? How do you end your book? How do you know what to write next? This week, our hosts —who all work as a writers and publishers (and are sometimes teachers and...
08.27.2023
18.35: How to Organize Your Writing, or Managing the Mega-Arc
Let’s talk about organization! This week, we’re talking about how and what to keep track of— characters, places, names, etc. How do you organize a book? How do you outline a novel? And don’t worry, we dive into the messy...
08.20.2023
18.34: Seventeen Years of Foreshadowing
18.34: 17 Years of Foreshadowing What can Normal Gossip teach us about foreshadowing and artful storytelling? Thinking about the 20 books that make up Howard Tayler’s Schlock Mercenary, our hosts discuss foreshadowing—our favorite examples, and our go-to tricks for structuring...
08.16.2023
18.33.5: State Of The Podcast
Bonus Episode! Our first ever half-numbered episode! We are making some changes here on the podcast, and we wanted to talk to you about them. We hired a producer (Emma Reynolds), we have new interactive offerings on Patreon (office...
08.13.2023
18.33: Deep Dive: The Schlock Mercenary Finale
The first episode in our eight-episode Deep Dive into Howard’s weekly webcomic strip, Schlock Mercenary. We grill Howard on how he taught himself to draw, why he decided to self-publish (hint: his wife, Sandra Tayler, helped him), and how he...
08.06.2023
18.32: The Kirsten Vangsness Expansion Pack
We have a special guest episode! Kirsten Vangsness, Criminal Minds star, joins us to talk about her experience as a writer, actor, and playwright. She taught us how she deals with imposter syndrome, and how she uses performance as a...
07.30.2023
18.31: Getting Personal: Mining Your Life for Themes
In our final episode diving into how and why Dan wrote “Dark One: Forgotten,” talk about how you can take something personal and mine it for fiction. We also tackle the complicated question—Why should you be the one to tell...
07.23.2023
18.30: Planting Supernatural Seeds
How do you slowly reveal the supernatural in an obviously supernatural story? How can you prepare your audience for a reveal without disclosing it too quickly? If someone is familiar with your writing, they know the genre and what to...
07.16.2023
18.29: Collaboration And Partnership
What are the best practices for collaboration? How do you write in an established intellectual property (IP)? How do you write a new story in an established world? We dive into working with an individual or a group. We hear...
07.09.2023
18.28: Writing Conversational Dialogue
How do you write dialogue that sounds natural? We have some things to keep in mind when you write conversations between characters. When people converse, they do so with more than just words. Body language, tone of voice, and societal...
07.02.2023
18.27: Framing Stories
Have you ever framed a story within a story? Are you looking for a way to add structure or tension to your story? In this episode, we contemplate the value that can be added to your writing by putting it...
06.25.2023
18.26: Broadening Your Writing Wheelhouse: Video Game Dialogue, RPG Adventures, & More
Let’s talk about the things you can write that are not typically what we talk about—formats that aren't novels and short stories. In this episode, we’re thinking about scripts, RPG adventures, video game dialogue, etc. What other forms are out...
06.18.2023
18.25: To Narrator or Not to Narrator
In our second episode on Dan Wells’ audio-only book, “Dark One: Forgotten,” we provide you with tools and advice to consider when deciding whether or not to have a narrator. We also talk about location-aware dialogue, or how you can...
06.11.2023
18.24: “Dark One: Forgotten” Deep Dive
The team grills Dan on his audio-only book “Dark One: Forgotten,” which he co-wrote with Brandon Sanderson. We find out how he wrote a book that became a six-part audio series, and why exactly that form is important. *Please listen...
06.04.2023
18.23: Our Advice on Giving Advice
“Show don’t tell” is probably the most famous advice given to writers. But. . . we don’t necessarily agree. In our final episode of our deep dive into publishing, we tackle advice: How do you give it? When do you...
05.28.2023
18.22: On Mentorship: Sending the Elevator Back Down
Mentorship, education, and how to support marginalized creators and professionals Homework: What's one thing that you can do to make someone else's path easier? Can you take a step towards doing this this week? Thing of the Week: After Five - newsletters from Suyi...
05.21.2023
18.21: The Empathy Gap: How to Understand What Your Publisher is Telling You
The relationship between a writer and a publisher is… one that isn’t talked about enough. So we made an episode about rejection letters, email etiquette, and empathy. As a writer, how do you talk with a publisher? Well, luckily we...
05.14.2023
18.20: So You Want To Work In Publishing?
Have you ever thought of being a publisher, but don't know if it's the right choice for you? In this episode, DongWon (an agent at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency) walks you through this world and gives you some tips for...

What's Writing Excuses about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Writing Excuses episodes:

19.15: A Close Reading on Voice: Tying It All Together

19.14: A Close Reading on Voice- Epistolary Storytelling Through Voice

19.13: A Close Reading on Voice: Blue's Perspective - Confidence and Vulnerability

19.12: A Close Reading on Voice - Red's Perspective - Muscular Prose

19.11: A Close Reading on Voice- An Overview, and Why Time War

19.10: Introducing Our Close Readings Series

19.09: LIVE Recording - Rituals, Rites, and Traditions

19.08: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Working with an Editor

19.07: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Intention

19.06: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Length

19.05: LIVE Recording - Revisions with Mahtab Narsimhan

19.04: LIVE Recording - Pacing with Guest Fonda Lee

19.03: Behind The Scenes with our Producer and Recording Engineer

19.02: Q&A Episode with WX Core Cast

19.01: Interview with Abraham Verghese

18.53: Funding the Writing Life

18.52: Writing Inside The Box

18.51: So You Wanna Play With Format?

18.50: The Unreliable Narrator

18.49: Giving Your Story A Voice

18.48: NaNoWriMo Week 5 - Writing Endings

18.47: NaNoWriMo Week 4 - Climaxes, or OH MY GOD NO

18.46: NaNoWriMo Week 3 - Raising the Stakes

18.45: NaNoWriMo Week 2 - Inciting Incident

18.44: NaNoWriMo Week 1- Getting Started

18.43: Worldbuilding in Miniature

18.42: Creating Magic Outside of a System

18.41: Deep Dive: Erin's Short Fiction Extravaganza

18.40: How To Make Money From Your Hobby (with special guest Sandra Tayler!)

18.39: How To Write An Ending

18.38: How Do You Write A Series With Books That Stand Alone?

18.37: Mandatory Failure

18.36: The Soggy Middle Pays the Rent (or, "Stand Alone With Series Potential")

18.35: How to Organize Your Writing, or Managing the Mega-Arc

18.34: Seventeen Years of Foreshadowing

18.33.5: State Of The Podcast

18.33: Deep Dive: The Schlock Mercenary Finale

18.32: The Kirsten Vangsness Expansion Pack

18.31: Getting Personal: Mining Your Life for Themes

18.30: Planting Supernatural Seeds

18.29: Collaboration And Partnership

18.28: Writing Conversational Dialogue

18.27: Framing Stories

18.26: Broadening Your Writing Wheelhouse: Video Game Dialogue, RPG Adventures, & More

18.25: To Narrator or Not to Narrator

18.24: “Dark One: Forgotten” Deep Dive

18.23: Our Advice on Giving Advice

18.22: On Mentorship: Sending the Elevator Back Down

18.21: The Empathy Gap: How to Understand What Your Publisher is Telling You

18.20: So You Want To Work In Publishing?

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