Writing Excuses

The combination of dialogue, blocking, and description, can be considered from a couple of directions. The first is the idea that we're really talking about making every element do double or triple duty. Dialogue, blocking, and description work together for exposition, answering questions the reader is asking.

The second is the "pyramid of abstraction." The bottom of the pyramid, the scene setting, is the concrete foundation. The layers atop it can be more and more abstract, like tagless dialog without concrete descriptions, if that original foundation is firm enough.

In this 'cast we take both approaches, and offer some tips, tricks, and examples so that you can learn to do this well.

What's a reluctant character? Well, it's somebody who needs to be dragged along into the adventure, somebody who isn't the sort of self-motivated, go-getter that we so often populate our books with. These characters feel a lot like real people -- our world is full of folks like this. The trick lies in making these characters interesting to read.

We offer some examples from things we've read, some general structural tricks, and some of the tools we've used in our own work, including examples from Glamour in Glass, The Way of Kings, and The Hollow City.

We recorded this episode in front of our live audience at the first-ever Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat. Here are the questions (you'll have to listen for the answers):

* To Dan: How did you go about selling your first trilogy in Germany before selling it in the US

* To Howard: did you consider doing a separate storyline on Sunday strips? Why or why not?

* Have you transitioned between outlining and discovery writing?

* To Brandon: Why is John Scalzi your evil nemesis?

* To Dan and Howard (and Mary): When you had full-time work, what did you do to "reset" when you came home from work, especially since your job used the same parts of your brain that writing does?

A Humble Suggestion for the Name of John Scalzi's Next Band: Neil Gaiman's Eagle Balls

We haven't talked much about contracts in the past. Why not? Well, we're not lawyers and we're not agents, so our experience with contracts has been as parties to them. But there are things we can still offer without delving into the baffling legalese.

So we offer them: we talk about how we approach contracts, how we value ourselves when entering into a contract negotiation, and what sorts of resources we have. We talk about some terminology, some of the clauses to review, and the incentives in front of the publisher and the author.

Note! Any advice you hear from us must be qualified based on your situation -- your publisher, your agent, your market -- and especially based on when you're listening to this 'cast. If it's not 2013 right now, the odds are pretty good we're wrong.

Audio Note: Yes, there's a long lead-in there. Jordo will fix it eventually, I'm sure.

Profanym of the Week: "Schick a Brit."

What determines our chapter breaks? How do we handle POV shifts, scene-sequel balance, and other considerations when we're carving our stories into chapters?

Dan starts with a discussion of the POV considerations in Fragments and in Ruins (from the Partials series,) and Brandon contrasts that with some of the epic fantasy methods. We argue the respective merits and pitfalls of rapid switching and large blocks, and then we talk about how the chapters take shape during our outlines and initial drafts.

Episode Trivia: This was the first episode we recorded at the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat, and was the first time in a year that the four of us had been together to record. So rusty!

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This week's episode covers the perjoratively-named sub-genre, space opera. These are adventure stories in which the setting is futuristic, but in which the science is secondary. The lines are blurry, as they are with any definition of genre, but we're pretty sure that Howard writes space opera.

A possible definition? Space Opera is when the author uses science to justify the cool stuff he or she has come up with.

We talk about the decisions that go into writing a space opera, how Howard has gone about it, and what you might focus on in order to write a compelling, adventurous romp.

Pithy Howardism: "If I pee far, it's because I stand on the shoulders of giants."

Eric Patten joins us for a cast on Middle Grade fiction. His series, The Hunter Chronicles (Return to Exile and The Legend Thief have both been released) is delightful.

As Dan points out, there's no faster way to start an argument among publishers, editors, and authors than to ask them to define "middle grade." That said, Brandon's definition is pretty helpful. Paraphrasing:

Middle Grade books are those which a school librarian gives to a child, rather than the child buying it for him or herself.

Nevertheless, we argue a bit about the fuzzy line between YA and Middle Grade, and we recount where we were getting our books at that age.

Eric talks to us about how he writes Middle Grade, and how it differs from writing YA, specifically with regard to the process of change. We cover some of the escapist elements, and how they differ between the age groups. We also talk about simplifying things without "dumbing them down." Eric's Return to Exile comes in at 115,000 words, which is more than twice what most Middle Grade books weigh in at.

Production Trivia: While this was not the last one recorded, this episode is the last one to air from our 2012 mega-session. Back in May of 2012 we recorded forty-plus episodes in the course of five days. Our hope is to never, never do that again...

Episode What Now? (Yes, yes... the number that Mary says at the beginning of this episode is not the one that this episode actually uses. Producer Jordo and byline-writer Howard disagreed on the episode order, and Howard neglected to tell Jordo that he'd made a snap decision while wielding admin access...)

Mary's story "Kiss Me Twice," is a murder mystery featuring an artificial intelligence using Mae West as an avatar. It appeared on the ballot for the 2012 Hugo Awards in the Best Novella category (our early discussion to the contrary, we totally did NOT air this episode in time for 2012 Hugo voting. Yes, we recorded this episode a full year prior to airing it.)

Mary walks us through the process of creating the story, and then cutting it down from novel-length to the novella-length at which it currently appears, as well as a bunch of the work that went into creating a compelling, character-driven mystery with an A.I. as a critical character. We also get a fun "what-if" argument as the cast talks about what we liked best about the story, and how we'd change it if it got bigger.

Public Service Announcement: Voting is now open for the 2013 Hugos. The ballot can be seen here. If you purchase, or have already purchased, a membership to LoneStarCon 3, you are eligible to vote on the 2013 Hugos, and will have access to the entire Hugo Voting Packet -- a collection of all nominated works. Voting closes on July 31st. (Obligatory disclaimer: Brandon and Howard are on the ballot in the Novella and Graphic Story categories, respectively, and Writing Excuses Season 7 is on the ballot in the Best Related Work category.)

Microcasting! It's what we've taken to calling a Q&A. Eric Patten joins us for this one. Here are the questions:

* What's your first step in the rewriting process?

* How do you write Artificial Intelligences as characters?

* Tactful promotion: how do you get nominated for a Hugo or Nebula?

* How do you decide whether or not to take an offer from a publisher?

* Do you use a writing notebook? How, and for what?

* What methods do you use to test the "coolness" and/or viability of a story idea?

* What genre or style do you read that is outside of the one(s) in which you write?

E.J. "Eric" Patten joins us for a discussion of pre-writing. His first book, Return to Exile, came out in 2011, and The Legend Thief released in March of 2013.

What is pre-writing? Eric walks us through his process for developing a story, beginning with the high-concept world-building inspired by the phrase "Cthulhu for kids." He talks about the importance of getting the characters right, and how this process precedes plot development. Each of us handles this a little differently, and we talk about how that goes.