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 book in Howard Tayler’s series. We discuss ways to make a book feel self-contained, rather than just something to keep the beginning and the ending further apart.  For reference, A Function of Firepower is the 19th Schlock Mercenary Book. We highly recommend you read this first, because this episode contains spoilers and in-depth conversations about the book.  Homework:  Writing prompt: try to work these three words into your WIP (work in progress): expeditious, sock, and dragonfly.  Thing of the Week:  Kickstarter for Schlock Mercenary Book 18: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/howardtayler (It's what Howard said, but "profile" is singular, not plural!)  Liner Notes:  Fermi paradox Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community!  Patreon Instagram YouTube Facebook Twitter Sign up for our newsletter:  https://writingexcuses.com

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

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How do you find the right size for your story? And speaking of size, what do novellas do differently than both short stories and novels? What even is the difference between a novel and a novella? How many characters do they usually have? How many subplots? How do you know if your story should take the form of a novella or a novel? We dive into all these questions (and…you guessed it… more!) in our conversation.  
 A note on the structure of Season 19: in between our close reading series (six episodes where we dive into an element of craft through a close reading of a specific text), we’ll be doing two wild card episodes! These episodes are random topics that our hosts have been wanting to tell you about, we just didn’t know where they fit. So we MADE a place for them to fit!  
 Thing of the Week:  Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (a collaborative, storytelling-based RPG) 
 Homework: Take a short story that you either love or have written and write a list of things that could be added to expand it to novella length. Now do the same for a novel, but make it a list of things that might need to be cut. 
 A Reminder!  That starting May 12th, we'll be focusing on Worldbuilding and reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. If you’re going to buy this book, we have this bookshop link available for you to do so! (If not, go support your local library!) https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19 
 Sign up for our newsletter:  https://writingexcuses.com Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar, Mary Robinette Kowal, and DongWon Song. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community!  Patreon Instagram YouTube Facebook Twitter

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19.17: Novellas- the Goldilocks of Publishing

Today we get to talk to the inimitable Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. Amal and Max are on the podcast to tell us about how they wrote a book together (hint: they didn’t write it together in the form of one voice.) They talk to us about the practice of writing letters, collaboration, and the revelation of friendship. They talk about the complexity, harmony, and cadence of two-author projects. We also talk about that voice in your head that criticizes your writing, and how to work with it and harness your authentic desire to tell a certain story.   
 Thing of the Week:  From Amal- Hollow Night  From Max- Talking Man by Terry Bisson  
 Homework: From Max and Amal: Take a passage of something you’ve written and rewrite it in three different ways: as if it were being sung, as if it were being shouted, and as if it were being whispered.  
 A Reminder!  That starting May 12th, we'll be focusing on Worldbuilding and reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. If you’re going to buy this book, we have this bookshop link available for you to do so! (If not, go support your local library!) https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19 
 Sign up for our newsletter:  https://writingexcuses.com Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar, Mary Robinette Kowal, and DongWon Song. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community!  Patreon Instagram YouTube Facebook Twitter 


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19.16: An Interview with Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

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 character arcs and language, learning and voice. Stay tuned for next week’s episode, where we interview Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar on what it was like to write “Time War” together!  
 Thing of the Week:  Princess Weekes 
 Homework: Write a short outline of your work noting where the voice changes and evolves to reflect the character growth and change rather than focusing on the plot beats 
 A Reminder That starting May 12th, we'll be focusing on Worldbuilding and reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. If you’re going to buy this book, we have this bookshop link available for you to do so! (If not, go support your local library!) https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19 Sign up for our newsletter:  https://writingexcuses.com Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community!  Patreon Instagram YouTube Facebook Twitter Threads

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

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 Red write to each other throughout "This Is How You Lose The Time War." If you haven't already listened to our episodes introducing this novella, we recommend you go back and start with Episode 11 (of this season, Season 19)! And if you’ve been reading along with us while listening to these episodes, please let us know on Instagram. Tag us in a post or comment @writing_excuses !  Thing of the Week: “clipping.” by Story 2  Homework: Write a short note from one of your characters to another about something that’s important to them. Now rewrite it as a text message (change the format). Then rewrite it as a letter that will be screened before it gets to them by an outsider (change the context). And finally, write it as the final message they will get to send during their life (change the stakes). You can buy this (and all the other books!) through our bookshop link-- this is linked in our bio in addition to right here: https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19 
 Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline Voice: This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar (March 17)  Worldbuilding: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (May 12)  Character: “You Perfect, Broken Thing,” “The Cook,” and “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home” by CL Clark (July 7)  Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (September 1)  Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (October 13)  
 Sign up for our newsletter:  https://writingexcuses.com Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community!  Patreon Instagram YouTube Facebook Twitter

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

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 Red’s voice– if you haven’t already, we recommend you listen to that first!  Today, we are doing a close read of Blue at the tea shop and how voice establishes character, growth, and vulnerability. How do the authors make Blue’s voice distinct from Red’s? Is it in the tone, the structure, or something else completely?  Thing of the Week: The Late Mrs. Willoughby By Claudia Gray Homework: Write a short note from one of your characters to another about something important to them. Now rewrite it as a text message (change the format), as a letter that will be screened before it gets to them by an outsider (change the context), and as a final message they will get to send (change the stakes). Sign up for our newsletter:  https://writingexcuses.com Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community!  Patreon Instagram YouTube Facebook Twitter

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

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