Writing Excuses

We talk about expressing controversial opinions on the Internet. And just talking about it might be controversial...

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We explore a three-value model for troubleshooting characters: Competence, Proactivity, and Sympathy

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We talk about characters a lot, which is fitting since characters are what make things go in most of our favorite books. Brandon introduces a new model for examining characters in which three primary attributes – Competence, Proactivity, and Sympathy – are contrasted. We treat each one as if controlled by a fader or slider, like on a mixing console, and we look at what the relative positions of those sliders do to a character.

It’s only a model, obviously, and it’s not how we go about starting a character, but it has proven useful in troubleshooting characters who aren’t accomplishing the story purposes we want them to accomplish.

A Q&A covering editing, rule-breaking, writing the other, gift-giving, and more.

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Eric James Stone joins us to answer questions about editors, pitching, pantsing, and encouragement.

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Microcasting! It’s what we call our Q&A episodes, because they’re like multiple mini-casts. Eric James Stone joins us to help out. Here are the questions we field:

* Should a pantser rewrite their book once they know the whole story?

* What do you find most useful from an editor?

* Story creation is cool, but can Writing Excuses talk more about sentence-level work?

* What advice do you have for pitching to agents and editors?

* What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever gotten?

* How do you encourage a writer-friend who is down on their work?

Give episode 9.11 a listen for our answers.

What makes characters engaging, and how is that different from them being sympathetic?

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How do you put true stuff in your books when the truth is just too strange?

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Nancy Fulda is back this week to talk with us about the truth, and what do to when it’s stranger than fiction. Sometimes real people’s names are just too cool, and if you were to put them in a book nobody would believe it. Sometimes actual, historical events are so ridiculous there’s no way you can get away with putting them in a story that you expect people to take seriously. And sometimes real science is just not going to be believed by your readers.

So how do you get away with using these things, with writing your stories in true places? Sometimes all it takes is the hanging of the right lantern, but in many cases you must go to great lengths to re-educate the reader without breaking the fourth wall or otherwise knocking them out of the story.

What is handwavium? How does it work? What happens when it doesn't work?

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