Writing Excuses 5.30: Writing Action
Dan and Howard are joined by Larry Correia and Robison Wells (Rob is the younger of the Wells brothers), and with the enthusiastic support of a live audience at LTUE they discuss writing action....
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.31: Writing Romance
Sarah Eden and Robison Wells join Dan and Howard at LTUE to talk about writing romance. Sarah writes in the romance genre, but we’re not focusing on the genre — we’re talking about writing romance...
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.32: Urban Fantasy
We begin our discussion of Urban Fantasy with a discussion of definitions, which quickly devolves into an argument over what we are actually supposed to be talking about. Moving right along, we explore...
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.33: Alpha Readers
It’s time to talk about alpha readers, and we start with a caveat from Howard: “I don’t want to read your book.” Let’s face it, we here at Writing Excuses might be great alpha readers, but we’re not...
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.34: Story Bibles
Let’s talk about bibles. Specifically, story bibles. What are they, why do we use them, why might we NOT use them, and what tools are working for us? Howard again plugs wikidpad, which he converted...
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.35: Brainstorming Urban Fantasy
Okay, let’s have some fun. Not that we weren’t having fun for the previous 150+ episodes, mind you. But this is extra-fun. Brandon, Dan, and Howard take the urban fantasy writing prompt about big-box...
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.36: Non-Traditional Settings with Saladin Ahmed
Saladin Ahmed, Nebula- and Campbell-award nominee joins Brandon and Howard at Penguicon 9.0 in Troy, Michigan for a discussion of setting — specifically, setting an epic fantasy in something besides...
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.37: Parody and Satire with Jim Hines
Jim Hines joins Brandon and Howard at Penguicon for a discussion of parody, satire, and why things are funny. We start by defining parody and satire, and then Jim tells us why he wrote his...
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.38: Dialog with John Scalzi
John Scalzi joins Brandon and Howard at Penguicon for a discussion of writing dialog. John’s advice begins thusly: “start reading outside Science Fiction and Fantasy.” It’s good advice regardless, but...
View ArticleWriting Excuses 5.39: Filking and Writing Music with Tom Smith
Filk. It sounds like a bad word. Okay, what it actually sounds like, provided you’ve fallen in among actual filkers, is AWESOME. It’s music named after a typo, and sung around subjects near and dear to...
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