Writing Excuses Transcripts

Writing Excuses 11.35: Elemental Humor Q&A with Victoria Schwab

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/08/28/11-35-elemental-humor-qa-with-victoria-schwab/

Q&A Summary:
Q: How do you add humor to a serious story without breaking the mood or how do you inject humor into a dramatic scene without breaking the building tension?
A: Humor can be a good pressure valve, to deflate just a bit. You can also have humor fall flat. If a joke relieves tension but makes the situation worse, you have relieved pressure and moved forward. Watch for gallows humor and similar emergency relief.
Q: My sense of humor consists only of dad jokes. How do I get real humor into my writing?
A: Really good puns are doing multiple things in a scene. Read better humor. Make sure the humor suits the context.
Q: How do you make sure your humor is really funny and not just funny to you?
A: Have other people read it.
Q: How does the culture of the world you write in influence the humor?
A: Pay attention to folktales, idioms, and humor. Watch for shared context jokes. Use jokes to tell the reader about the culture.
Q: When is humor necessary in horror? Can you write a horror book without humor?
A: Yes, you can. But you miss all the great jokes. And horror can be darker with a humor contrast.
Q: Where/what is the line between a book whose purpose is to be comedic and a book that could have funny parts in it?
A: Right through Terry Pratchett. What is your book driven by?
Q: How do you make dialogue sound natural but still funny?
A: You may not be able to. Funny and natural is usually character-based, while funny and wordplays are sometimes not very natural. See who can tell that joke naturally. Watch for natural cadence, and see where the joke fits. What function does this serve in the plot? Why would this character say this?
( Who's there? )

[Brandon] We are going to end with a writing prompt. Howard?
[Howard] I came up with this 3 1/2 minutes ago. Write a joke and have each of your characters tell that joke. Find a way for them to tell that joke in their style.
[Brandon] That is perfect. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 11.33: Crossover Fiction, with Victoria Schwab

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/08/14/11-33-crossover-fiction-with-victoria-schwab/

Key points: Crossover fiction is fiction that has a primary audience and a much larger appeal. E.g. young adult fiction being read by adults, or vice versa. Crossover authors often write multiple genres. Write for a specific person, perhaps in a border zone. Include things that will work for multiple audiences. Some breaks are larger than others, e.g. between middle grade and YA. Part of it is what the reader is interested in. What's different? How much context or explanation is needed. What do the readers resonate with, usually emotional? Levels of reading intelligence and levels of subject material are independent. You can use different pen names for different genres. Diversify for safety. Try lots of different things. Watch for pivot points where you can move into a different arena.

( Where's the bridge? )

[Howard] Is this a time travel writing prompt?
[Mary] I think it is now.
[Brandon] All right. I guess that's our writing prompt. You gotta write a story about a book that can't be read until you are dead.
[Wow… That's bleak… Garbled]
[Brandon] Someone just did… Wrote a book to not be read until they die. I'm trying to remember. There… It was something in the news item.
[Mary] Well, Mark Twain's memoirs. He… They couldn't be read until 100 years after.
[Brandon] So either it's a story that you're going to write that someone can't read until a certain date or you can write about somebody who's dealing with that, if that's too morbid for you.
[Mary] I thought you meant that they couldn't read it… That the reader could not read it until the reader was dead.
[Howard] See, that's what I was thinking. The reader cannot read this book until they have died.
[Dan] That's how I interpreted it.
[Brandon] Okay. All right. All right.
[Mary] So what do you want to do, audience?
[Brandon] Whatever you want. We've got like seven in there for you. Thank you, Phoenix ComicCon audience.
[Whoo! Applause]
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 11.31: Futurism, with Trina Marie Phillips

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/07/31/11-31-futurism-with-trina-marie-phillips/

Key Points: Futurism and science fiction are two sides of the same coin, but futurism needs to be rooted in believable fact. Futurism usually looks 10, 20, 50 or 100 years out. Realistic projections in useful ways. Lots of SF is not waiting for the technology to be developed, just for the strike point that makes it happen, often funding. To go beyond projecting a single tech, you have to look at ecosystems, and how society adopts to change. Also, think of leapfrogging. Most writers don't think far enough ahead. Technology is widely available. Part of futurism is using storytelling to show why companies should invest in projects, by showing them what the outcomes are likely to be.

( When tomorrow is today... )
[Brandon] Trina, would you be able to give us a writing prompt?
[Trina] How about we have everyone try to write… Pick a city, anywhere in the world, and write what you think it will look like in the year 2045.
[Brandon] Excellent.
[Mary] That's awesome.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 11.29: Elemental Thriller As Subgenre

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/07/17/11-29-elemental-thriller-as-a-subgenre/

Key Points: Thriller, adrenaline, pumped! To make a thriller, make sure your character is in danger, and stays in danger. Take away the people the protagonist can trust. Keep the pot boiling -- four things at once, not just one. Try-fail cycles with yes-but/no-and and plenty of unintended consequences. Timebomb after timebomb. But don't lose what makes the main genre work, just add to it. Make it personal. Why does it matter to this character?
( When you turn the page, the bomb goes off? )

[Brandon] So, I'm going to stop us here and give you some homework. I'm going to suggest that you practice your cliffhangers. A lot of people ask me, students asked me this, I get a ton of questions over twitter about "How do you decide how long a chapter should be?" Well, one of the number one things you can learn from thrillers is practicing how to end a chapter in a way that pulls someone to the next one. What I want to avoid are the cheap tricks. So I want you to look at chapters you've written or write new ones or something monumental, something really cool happens at the end and it is so cool that the person wants to turn the page and read what happens next rather than hinting that something cool is going to happen in the next page. Practice doing this a few times. Practice chopping your chapters in different places from what you've already written. See what kind of effects you can create through varying chapter length and varying where you end them. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 11.27: the Elemental Thriller

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/07/03/11-27-the-elemental-thriller/

Key Points: Thriller! In danger, being chased, someone is trying to kill you, if you don't stop the bomb from exploding, millions will die. Anxiety! If horror is fear of the unknown, thriller is fear of what is coming. Tension! Short chapters, with cliffhangers. Races and chases! Timebomb! Adrenaline. To write one -- use chapter breaks, in cusp points. Minimize resting places. Scene, scene, little sequel. Keep the momentum going! If your protagonist is doing the chasing, make sure there is a timebomb, that they don't have time to prep and plan. Pursuit thriller, where we are chasing, often has high stakes. Pursued thriller, where we are being chased, often has personal stakes.

( What happened then? )

[Brandon] All right. Let's go ahead and break and give you guys some homework. Mary is going to make you do something.
[Mary] All right. So we're going to talk about having you actually ramp up your current work and get a little bit more thriller action in there. There's a very useful plotting tool called "yes-but, no-and" which is the idea that every question… Every action that your character takes is essentially a question. The question is, "Does this succeed?" Your answers are "Yes, but things get worse," or "No, and things get worse." So what I want you to do is to look at what you've got going on and find something that you currently have them succeed at, and then you have a nice resting spot, and then they go on to another thing. Take out the nice resting spot and make that success a little less triumphant. So essentially what I'm asking you to do is have scene, scene. If you really need the sequel, if there's content in there, see if you can roll that into the next action scene. But what we want you to do is tighten it up so we've got a lot more breathlessness going forward.
[Brandon] All right. That's excellent. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 11.25: Elemental Mystery Is Everywhere

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/06/19/11-25-elemental-mystery-is-everywhere/

Key Points: Why do people turn the page in a mystery story? To see if they're right! How will it unfold? Curiosity! What's the answer? Mystery as a subgenre may not have a body or a big problem, but it is still a mystery whenever the character tries to figure something out. Something weird just happened, what is the hero's dark past? Mystery is the journey, the curiosity leading up to the reveal, but the reveal shows what subgenre is blended in. Curiosity keeps you reading, foreshadowing tells you what kind of reveal is coming. To create mysteries, think about the information the reader needs to know. What do the characters want to know? Why? Start with what a character needs or wants, and what it will take to achieve that. Now, what information do they need to search for to let them accomplish that? There's a mystery! Whodunits, why is it doing that, even what is this thing we keep running across -- all good mysteries. Make sure you have the right mystery. Which one does your character interact with most? When you have a body on the floor, the question is obvious. But sometimes you need to plant stuff, and hang a lantern on it to make sure the readers notice the question. Mystery as subplot usually is easy to see, trying to solve a crime, but elemental mystery as subgenre may be more subtle, using curiosity to answer a question.

( There's something happening here, What it is ain't exactly clear... (Buffalo Springfield) )

[Brandon] All right. Let's go ahead and give you guys some homework.
[Mary] All right. So what we're going to have you do is insert a mystery into whatever it is that you're currently working on. Short story, novel, whatever it is. All I'm going to ask you to do is look at what it is that your character needs. You've probably got the solution already in there. Take the solution out. Then build it in so that the character has to figure out the solution. So essentially, you have just created a mystery within your story.
[Brandon] Excellent. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go solve some mysteries.

Writing Excuses 11.23: The Element of Mystery

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/06/05/11-23-the-element-of-mystery/

Key Points: A mystery is a puzzle, and we read them for the thrill of solving a puzzle. Mysteries often start when the main character has a question, usually "Why is this dead body here?" Whodunit is one of the common forms of mystery, but there are others. Why are our robots acting screwy? Write a mystery because you are going to need that element in nearly everything you write! Puzzles and clues, oh my! Who did it? Where do the clues lead us? The body at the start creates an immediate question and stakes! Also, especially in the bookstore genre, a body is expected. For a murder to be compelling, there must be something at stake in solving it. Not necessarily a personal stake by the main character -- consider Sherlock Holmes and other PIs! Planning a mystery? Start with a question that has multiple answers, for uncertainty. The mystery plot is built on fascinating clues, revealed one step at a time. Plus a healthy dose of red herrings. Dan starts with the solution, then lists clues, and works backwards. Learn ways to plant clues, such as in the middle of a list, with a bit of character misdirection, or as part of something else.

( In the library, with a lead pipe... )

[Brandon] All right. I have to call the discussion here, although it's going very well. We will talk more about mystery in a couple of weeks. But for now, Howard has some homework for us.
[Howard] I do. For you seat-of-the-pantser's, this may be very difficult. For you outliners, this may be equally difficult. I want you to create a crime. Start with… Not in real life, please.
[Chuckles]
[Howard] Just stay at the keyboard. Create a crime scene. Create a crime that… Where you know who's done it, you know what's been done. Start leaving the clues, and work your way backwards through the criminal's path, through the victim's path, whatever, and lay clues. Then start removing the clues that people wouldn't notice, so that you are building… You're essentially building the framework for a mystery which you could then later wrap prose around.
[Brandon] Right. So outline backwards.
[Howard] Outline it backwards.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 11.21: Q&A on Elemental Horror, With Steve Diamond

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/05/22/11-21-qa-on-elemental-horror-with-steve-diamond/

Q&A Summary:
Q: If I want to make something ordinary, like peanut butter, terrifying without coming off as silly, how do I do that?
A: Start with the character's reaction. Then look at specific words you are using. When familiar things start acting in unfamiliar ways, it scares people.
Q: What is your personal line between good horror and gore-nographic?
A: Does it change the character? What is the purpose? What is the audience reaction? Remember, gore is not horror. Context.
Q: How do you avoid going too far?
A: Again, gore is not horror. Who are you writing for? Your first reader is you -- is it too much for you?
Q: In movies, horror is often communicated through subtle incidental things like lighting, sound, and music. How do those things transfer into the written word?
A: Details and mannerisms. Get into the character's head early and understand what makes them fearful. Word choice and rhythm. Establish the familiar, then change a small aspect of it.
Q: For someone who has written similar genres to horror, thrillers and suspense, what would be the best way for me to start edging into writing a horror story instead?
A: Write for your audience. Atmospheric details. Beta readers who love horror. Don't flinch. Lay out your plot, then find a way to force the character to make a horrible decision and deal with the consequences.
Q: How do you decide when to show the monster, and how does it change your story once you have?
A: When it fits your plot. After you prepare the reader to be scared, and when it will cause the most harm. When you show the monster, either make it different than we expect OR far worse than we expect.
( Questions, and more answers! )

[Brandon] All right. That's all the time we have. But Dan is actually going to give us some homework.
[Dan] All right. We gave this homework to one of our listeners. We're going to give it to all of you. We want you to plot out a story and build an outline that will force your character to make a horrible choice. Force them to do something they shouldn't do, to compromise themselves morally, to do whatever awful thing. Then build it so that that's the only choice they can make when the situation arrives.
[Brandon] All right. Well, thank you again, to Steve Diamond.
[Steve] Thank you.
[Brandon] Let's also mention Residue, his book, which you can get at fine bookstores everywhere, but mostly Audible and online is your best bet, right?
[Steve] That is the best bet.
[Brandon] And you guys are out of excuses, now go write.
[Chuckles fading into the distance]

Writing Excuses 11.19: Fashion for Writers, with Rebecca McKinney

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/05/08/11-19-fashion-for-writers-with-rebecca-mckinney/

Key Points: Mistakes writers make about clothing? Jokes are only funny if they are right, so get the words right! Know what you are talking about. Make sure that different people describe clothing different ways. Think about the economy of clothing in your books! How does clothing link to the economy, environment, technology, even labor. Describing clothing should move the story forward, by describing something important about the person. To learn about clothing, try books about sewing or costumes. Try Pinterest. To worldbuild clothing, think about materials, technology, and adoption. What is fancy? What do people do at home, and what is expensive?
( Get out your scissors, needle and thread... )

[Brandon] We are out of time.
[Rebecca] Sorry.
[Mary] No, this was great.
[Brandon] No, this has been fantastic. This has been a really useful episode. We really appreciate you coming on, Rebecca.
[Rebecca] Oh, stop, I'm blushing.
[Brandon] And, Rebecca, you're going to give us some homework.
[Rebecca] Yes. I think that you should describe the same outfit from two different points of view, and how does that person see them, and why?
[Brandon] Excellent. Thank you to our studio audience.
[Whoo! Applause.]
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now go write.

Writing Excuses 11.17: Elemental Adventure Q&A

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/04/24/11-17-elemental-adventure-qa/

Q&A Summary:
Q: In an adventure story, what is more liked by readers? If protagonists go through many different incidents and locations, or a fewer number of incidents and locations, but that are similar to each other and have a theme?
A: Do them both! It depends. Big globetrotting tale, more cool exotic locations are better. Smaller scale, more focused. Adventure stories need lots of exotic settings, using the element of adventure to enhance may not need that.
Q: What lessons can we take from your favorite adventure games for writing adventure fiction?
A: Multiple levels of terrain and that environment you can interact with are more interesting. Different characters, different strengths; so include different kinds of adventure, chase scenes, fight scenes, talking scenes. Make sure there is something personal at risk for the character.
Q: With all the superhero franchises around, what are some tips on writing adventure stories outside of fight scenes and world ending consequences?
A: Exotic locations don't have to include a fight scene. Great adventures don't even need villains. Use accelerated timebombs – escaping the burning building, getting out of the path of the avalanche, getting to the hospital. Two different people trying to get the same thing in an exotic location makes an adventure!
Q: Are there tropes that have been overdone need to be avoided in regards to adventure fiction?
A: Tropes are ingredients, not inherently bad. What you do with it and the ingredients you combine it with make the difference. If adventure is the only thing a scene is doing, that may be a problem. Advance the plot, reveal stuff about characters, mix in other ingredients. Make your adventure scenes complications that change the story or the characters, not just obstacles in the way.
Q: Do you have any suggestions for non-Western, nontraditional styles of adventure that could provide variety or a fresh take on things for readers?
A: Grab a bunch of books and read them. Consider the kung fu final fight where the bad guy faces a whole group of heroes.
Q: How do you make the journey exciting? Do you have to include all the details to it? If you skip a bunch of it, how do you get across to the reader the character moments that I have taken place during the parts that you skip of the journey?
A: Think about what you're trying to accomplish. Different stories focus more or less on the journey. Skip the boring parts, trust the reader to fill in between the high points. If you can find a way to make the journey not boring, put it in.

( A fight, a chase, an ambulance racing to the hospital... It's an adventure! )
[Brandon] I'm going to have to shut it down here. I'm sorry for all of you that put questions. There were 54 responses and we answered like seven of them, if that many. But we thank you very much for listening. We're going to point you at some homework for next time, for our next elemental genre. So I want you for your homework to make a list of set pieces, really cool places that people could visit. I then want you to go a step further, and I want you to say, "How does my main character entering this place, interacting this place, change who they are?" We don't want you to just go to cool places, we want those cool places to change your story and change your characters in interesting ways. That is what I think will make adventure fiction kind of go up a level for you. Now, as I said, we'll be moving on to horror next week. We want you to brace yourselves for that. Dan's going to make you afraid. But until then, this has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.