Writing Excuses Transcripts

Writing Excuses 11.37: Casting Your Book, with Gama Martinez

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 21:09:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 11.37: Casting Your Book, with Gama Martinez

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/09/11/11-37-casting-your-book-with-gama-martinez/

Key points: If you don't think about casting before writing, you become subject to your unconscious biases, making lazy casting choices and using things that you have already seen or done before. Make a list of the roles you think will be in your book, and where they lie on various axes. Then flip some of the axes and see how that affects your plot. Cast all your people, then switch their roles. See what this does to your story. Who will be in the most pain? Who will experience this in a way that let's you tell a new story? Once you know what the story will be about, write job interviews with different kinds of characters. Go through magazines and cut out pictures of people. Think about your characters existing on multiple axes!
( What's my motivation? )

[Brandon] We are out of time. I want to thank our audience at Phoenix ComicCon.
[Whoo!]
[Brandon] Long-suffering audience, who at this point has done a lot of episodes with us. Mary, you have some… homework?
[Mary] I have homework. So in the liner notes, we're going to be giving you a link to a casting sheet. This is a grid that I said that I used. What I want you to do is I want you to go through… It'll come with instructions, I promise. I want you to go through and I want you to cast the next thing that you're working on or the thing that you have previously… That you already have in progress. Go through and fill it out. Look at the axes that your character exists on. Then flip it so that you make sure that your character has at least two axes in which they are not dominant. Then flip them so that they have two different things that they are not dominant in. When you look at this sheet, I'm also going to say that if you're doing secondary world fantasy, that this is a really good spot to start thinking about how your culture handles prejudice and which gender is dominant, and if it is in fact a binary culture, that you want to make sure… Feel free to tweak that worksheet. But this is the place that you need to start thinking about that, is before you start writing. So, that'll be… That's your homework. I want you to do that.
[Brandon] Gama, thank you so much for coming in and podcasting with us.
[Gama] Thank you for having me.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 11.24: Stakes!

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 11:16:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 11.24: Stakes!

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/06/12/11-24-stakes/

Key Points: Raise the stakes does not mean make it more world shattering. What are stakes? Things that keep your characters from walking away from conflicts. What keeps people fighting when they have conflicting goals? What is important enough to keep them in the game? Often, the difference between a hero and a villian is the magnitude and type of stakes they are fighting over. To raise the stakes, don't add more villians or explosions, make it more personal for the main character. The destruction of the galaxy? Who cares? Saving the life of a friend? We're with y'a! Make it personal, and make the audience care. Get into the character's head and show us why it matters, what motivates them. Be aware, we can empathize with a villian, or with thieves in a heist. Consider likability, competency, and proactivity! Build engagement with character sliders. Don't forget selflessness and sacrifice as ways to build empathy. The Cornwell trick? Establish two sets of stakes, put them in conflict, and let the main character sacrifice personal gain for greater good. Revenge stories and other selfish tales often use the B plot to get readers engaged. Or proactivity, especially with something that just won't quit getting in the way.

( Rare? Medium well? No, no, stake him... )

[Brandon] All right. Let's go ahead and do a writing prompt. Mary, you have a writing prompt for us.
[Mary] Yeah. So I've been doing this thing where I write a story in 15 minutes for charity. I start it based on three things. An object, a character, and a genre. So. Listener. Look to your left. That is your object.
[Chuckles]
[Mary] Look at the bookshelf. The first book you see, that is your genre. And your character is your best friend. Now write a story for 15 minutes.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 9.3: Character Perception vs. Narrative Perception with Nancy Fulda

Wed, 22 Jan 2014 11:20:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 9.3: Character Perception vs. Narrative Perception with Nancy Fulda

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2014/01/19/writing-excuses-9-3-character-perception-vs-narrative-perception-with-nancy-fulda/

Key points: Characters and the narrative do not always agree. For example, historical characters may have biases that modern readers and narrators disagree with. Be careful about sliding into didactic storytelling. One approach is to make sure the story is not about the bias. Sometimes it's just that characters have pieces of information that are wrong. You can use this to indicate what the characters don't know, but often you need to hang a flag on this. Author's notes, footnotes, and afterwords do not mean you don't need to be careful in the writing. Listen to feedback.
( Do you really believe that? )
[Brandon] Exactly. We are out of time. This is a very useful podcast. But I'm going to require... Howard! You're grimacing. Give us a writing prompt.
[Laughter]
[Howard] Okay. Take something that you believe to be false. That you completely understand to be false. Write a character who has the absolute opposite belief. Do it in such a way that you take actual umbrage at the idiocy of your character. Now find ways to hang flags on that so that you're not mad at yourself as an author.
[Brandon] All right.
[Nancy] Also, make it so that at the end of the book, you almost understand why your character believes that.
[Howard] So Nancy wants you to actually write a whole book with this prompt. It's on. She has thrown it down.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 7.21: Project in Depth -- Force Multiplication

Tue, 22 May 2012 14:12:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 7.21: Project in Depth -- Force Multiplication

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/05/20/writing-excuses-7-21-project-in-depth-force-multiplication/

Key Points: Why are you telling this story? How do you pick the characters? How do your characters solve problems? How do you choose the setting? How do you name things? How do you balance exploring characters and plot? How do you make it interesting? How does this hurt people? Who gets hurt? Why? How do they respond?
( Answers! )
[Brandon] All right. Your writing prompt this week is actually to do this with your own work. Have your friends sit down and interview you about something you're working on and about your process. Hopefully you will become more conscious of how you approach your writing. Which is one of our big goals as Writing Excuses podcasters, is to get you to think about that. All right? So, this has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 7.20: Cathartic Horror

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:50:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 7.20: Cathartic Horror

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/05/13/writing-excuses-7-20-cathartic-horror/

Key Points: Horror can help you get through hard times in your life because no matter what, your life is better than what happens in that book. Reading helps prepare us to better handle stress and problems in real life. Beware of the didactic, but be aware that horror stories are not about the horror, they are about how people react to the horror. Look for the human story behind the horror dressing. "The core story is what's happening to the people" -- Brandon. Look at what scares you the most, figure out why it is so scary, face the things that make you tick, and then you can write a really scary book. Create the sense that anything could be lost.
( In the shadows... )
[Brandon] We're out of time. This podcast has been wonderful. Thank you both. I think I'm going to make our writing prompt the fairytale that is unadaptable. [Laughter] About the woman who starts on fire by getting too close to the fire. Dan?
[Dan] The modern retelling of the old lady who gets lit on fire and dies. Okay.
[Brandon] Yeah. Modern retelling of the old lady who gets lit on fire. Go look up that Grimm fairytale. [Laughter] Thank you guys all for listening. Thank you, audience, for listening through two hours of Writing Excuses. [Applause] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 7.9: Micro-Casting

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:36:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 7.9: Micro-Casting

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/02/26/writing-excuses-7-9-microcasting/

Key points:

-- What do you do if you don't like any of your characters? Write a different book OR change the character so you do like them.
-- How do you keep your plot on track? Outline. Decide what you are going to accomplish.
-- Real names of places or pseudonyms? How well do you know the setting?
-- How do you fix plot holes? A big Band-Aid, trowel, and spackle. Figure out what's missing, and fill in the hole.
-- How do you know when to abandon a story? Finish it first. Are you retreading old ground? Is the book not up to your standard? Is it something you wouldn't want to read?
-- How do you make sure answers to mysteries are satisfying? Write backwards. Make sure the answer fulfills the promises you made. Make your red herrings interesting too.
-- What are amateurish language-level mistakes? Repeating the same adverb frequently. Overusing adverbs. Interrobang. Repetitive sentence structure. Excessive passive voice. Avoiding said.
-- What should a scene consist of? Setting, character, plot. A problem and resolution. One or more objectives. Something that cannot be accomplished in another scene. Watch for the can of scenic worms to be opened on a scene construction podcast someday!
-- What kind of bacon is best? Streaky bacon, fakin' bacon, samgyeopsal, smoked bacon underneath real maple syrup, rouladen, and tempeh.
-- Why is Schlock, a pile of poo, likable? Most of the time, he's expressing himself. That turns him into a person.
( And for more details, press here! )
[Brandon] All right. We're going to use one of these as our writing prompt. How about this one? Do blog post and D & D play-by-post game posts count for nanowrimo? So in other words, do blog posts count for nanowrimo? So, you are going to do a narrative blog post. We'll just use this guy's thing. As your writing prompt, I want you to write a blog post in character for one of your characters, if they had a blog. Okay?
[Dan] Okay.
[Brandon] All right. This is been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 7.8: The City As Character

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:20:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 7.8: The City As Character

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/02/19/writing-excuses-7-8-the-city-as-a-character/

Key points: Let your passion for a place feed the story. Look for special places, and put your characters and events in real places. Make the location feel lived in. Where are the bad parts? How do people get around? Especially if you are using a real place, get it right. Arson can help with narrative problem solving. Even nonexistent settings do better in a real neighborhood. Accuracy adds flavor, and so does passion.
( City on the edge of forever? )
[Dan] All right. Okay. Mary, I apologize for this, but...
[Mary] I knew you were going to do this.
[Dan] Can you give us a writing prompt?
[Mary] Yes. Take a city to which you have been, and set a chase scene from point A to point B.
[Dan] Very nice.
[Sarah] Oh, she's good.
[Dan] I know. It's because we do this to her all the time. Excellent. All right. You are out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 7.4: Brevity

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:59:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 7.4: Brevity

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/01/22/writing-excuses-7-4-brevity/

Key Points: In late, out early. Start where things are happening, close to the change point, at the inciting incident. Minimize backstory. Remove extra characters and locations. Cut filler language, combine wording and ideas. Remove repetition. Use the right nouns and the right details. Use analogies for richness. Combine scenes -- have characters do something while they're talking. Don't proliferate viewpoints. Brevity doesn't just mean shorter, it also means packing more interesting material into what you keep. Trim the fat.
( 20% lean meat? )
[Brandon] Let's do a writing prompt. Howard?
[Howard] Okay. You have a group of characters in a spaceship...
[Brandon] 10 seconds.
[Howard] On a very, very long trip. Tell us why it's important. Tell us what the problem is, and solve the problem. In 150 words.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excus...

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Writing Excuses 6.24: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:33:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 6.24: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/11/13/writing-excuses-6-24-from-the-ridiculous-to-the-sublime/

Key Points: It's exciting and interesting to take a ridiculous, over-the-top idea and humanize it, to bring out the characters and story in a realistic way. Put people in incredible situations! Give your story a real core of emotion. For example, when a superhuman character looks at someone they are saving and realizes that they can never go back to that life. "You can do almost anything ridiculous as long as you go back to the core of emotion."

To flesh out the completely ridiculous premise, try "How could this possible have happened?" and "What are the ramifications?" Use the 1000 why's. Why is it like this, and how did we get here? Also, look at how it affects the richest and poorest person in society. Also, try "given this, what does the character want? Why?" Finally, look for the conflict. Where are all the points of friction?
( Over-the-top and into fiction! )
[Andrew] Sure. How about a story about a character who discovers that there's a pill out there that gives you the powers of a god?
[Mary] And you can pick the god.
[Andrew] You can pick the god, but it comes in pill form.
( Much frivolity ensued... )
[Howard] All right. Fair listener, you are out of excuses. Go write.

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Writing Excuses 6.15: Writing Other Cultures

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:26:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 6.15: Writing Other Cultures

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/09/11/writing-excuses-6-15-writing-other-cultures/

Key points: approach it with integrity, authenticity, and research. Beware the homogenous culture -- remember the Klingon belly dancer! Ultimately, we are all human. Don't write to the stereotype or to the average. Do the research, wed it to an understanding of people, and build interesting characters who feel right. Give them something else to care about, something else at stake. A character whose identity is "The Other" has no identity.
( which word did I leave out? )
[Brandon] We are out of time. But... Lauren, here's something we do to guests, and I'm going to do it to you.
[Lauren] Oh, dear God.
[Brandon] Yes, I know. But we're going to ask you for a writing prompt. If you can think of one. You just have to come up with something that people could write a story about. Just ask them a question or some concept. Make them do.
[Lauren] Take some aspect of your neighborhood. Twist it around in the same kind of way that district 9 twisted a suburb of Soweto around.
[Brandon] Okay. That's a great one. Thank you for being on the podcast, and thank you all for listening. You're out of excuses, now go write.
[Applause]

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Writing Excuses 6.9: Microcasting 2 Electric Boogaloo

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:25:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 6.9: Microcasting 2 Electric Boogaloo

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/07/31/writing-excuses-6-9-microcasting-2-electric-boogaloo/

Key points:
(Q) How do you keep the whole story in your head when it's a 1000 pages long? (A) Outlines. You only keep a piece in your head. You fill in the rest as you go. "Practicing and gaining skill as a writer through practice..."
(Q) What steps do you use when creating a character? Are they part of the story and created by the story? (A) Yes! Starting with an idea, ask who can be hurt most? Then work backwards -- why, how does that affect things? Jot down ideas and discard the first three. Practice!
(Q) When do you put in the details? How many passes are spent on details? (A) Outliners often do really fast first drafts, with roughly half the details. Then about the third draft is a strong polishing draft with lots of details. Details affect pacing, and it's easier to see when you have a complete draft.
(Q) How do you patch plot holes? (A) Back up and lay the groundwork.
(Q) How do you come up with names? (A) look at the period. Avoid the same first letter and similar syllables. Think about the language and culture, where do their names come from? Use The Ever-Changing Book of Names.
(Q) Do you have one writing skill that you want to be much better at? (A) Subtlety. Multiple viewpoints, subplots, more complicated stories. Prose. Experimental narrative structures. Sitting down and writing every day.
(Q) What's your take on writing groups? (A) I love them. Not all groups are created equal. Be careful and don't be afraid to quit.
( the many words of our Q&A )
[Brandon] Okay. Let's go ahead and take us out there. We had two writing prompts. One was ridiculously silly...
[Howard] Intercontinental Ballistic Hairball.
[Brandon] I was going to say Dan has to save the world... Or someone has to save the world using a keyboard that is in the wrong format. Somehow the letters got completely arranged randomly, and go from there with rearranged random letters.
[Dan] Someone has to save the world from an Intercontinental Ballistic Hairball using the wrong computer layout.
[Brandon] Oh, boy.
[Dan] Either the wrong operating system.
[Mary] Oh, yeah.
[Brandon] I'm sorry. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 6.2: Internal Motivations

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:46:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 6.2: Internal Motivations

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/06/12/writing-excuses-6-2-internal-motivations/

Key points: Character motivation has two aspects: what does the character want? How is that expressed on the page? What the character wants includes their big overall goal, what they need to do to reach that goal, and what do they want to do it immediately right now. Beware caricature and wild shifting. Play immediate needs against overarching goals. Let motivations shift in response to what's happening. One way to express motivation: throw in a thought. Let the reader see what is happening filtered through the character. Be sparing, and establish character well before you need it. "When a character makes a significant action or decision, the reader wants to have all the pieces already so that they can know exactly why the character did that." [Dan] Brandon's advice: use the thought, young writer. But don't overdo it. The descriptive words a character uses can help. Also, consider all five senses. Let another character point out changes. Just make sure you set it up well before you need it.
( lots of motivation )
[Brandon] All right. Mary. I'm going to make you give us a writing prompt.
[Mary] So, writing prompt. Come up with a character motivation. Then, with an action that they need to take that is counter to the motivation.
[Brandon] Excellent. All right...
[probably cut due to time constraints... This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.]

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Writing Excuses 5.37: Parody and Satire with Jim Hines

Tue, 17 May 2011 22:57:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.37: Parody and Satire with Jim Hines

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/05/15/writing-excuses-season-5-37-parody-and-satire-with-jim-hines/

Key Points: Parody is a sendup of an existing literay work, while satire is making fun of society around you. Extrapolate, exaggerate, and add a half-step to the left -- that's satire. Look for what's missing, the gaps, the assumptions, then play there. Set up expectations, then twist them. Don't lose the characters!
( make me laugh! )
[Brandon] All right. Well. We're out of time. I'm going to make Jim give us a writing prompt. So, Jim, what's our writing prompt?
[Jim] Pseudo-medieval fantasy. Generic Europe. You've got your magic. How do you deal with baldness?
[Brandon] All right. You are out of excuses, now go write. Thanks for listening.
[Howard] Write me some magic Rogaine.

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Writing Excuses 5.35: Brainstorming an Urban Fantasy

Fri, 06 May 2011 16:05:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.35: Brainstorming an Urban Fantasy

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/05/01/writing-excuses-5-35-brainstorming-urban-fantasy/

Key points: Brainstorming isn't all serious. Sometimes it's jokes, roleplaying, and silliness. Focus on the key parts: setting, characters, plot, premises. Don't be afraid to go trope fishing, and pick ones you like -- but put your own spin on them. Main characters need a life and goals that go beyond the plot of the book. Don't forget that everyone is the hero of their own story -- so what do the other people want? Where will it end, what's the big problem? And don't forget to wear a banana slug in your hair.
( Are you going to write urban fantasy? )
[Brandon] Yes. It Happens at Sundance. That would be awesome. I do think... why don't we just say this? Your writing prompt this week is to take what we've done here...
[Dan [Come up with an ending.
[Brandon] You need to come up with a big problem. Come up with an ending. What's the big problem? What's the story really about? We know who it's happening to, you have your first two chapters, and you have where it's occurring. Now give us a real story.
[Howard] Alternative writing prompt. Go through the list of films shown at Sundance. Pick six. Determine why these six are all related to a fay plot.
[Brandon] Wow. That could work, too.
[Dan] Alternative alternative writing prompt. Were banana slug! Because the classics will never get old.
[Brandon] Wear them? Like across your body? Like clothing? Out of [garbled]
[Dan] Yes.
[Howard] We're done.
[Brandon] We're done. This has been Writing Excuses. Thanks, folks. Goodnight.

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Writing Excuses 5.26: Scared for the Characters

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:33:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.26: Scared for the Characters

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/02/27/writing-excuses-5-26-scared-for-the-characters/

Key Points: Make your readers care about the character, then put them through the wringer. Funny characters, characters with a bad life, or capable characters are interesting. When readers identify with a character, they don't want them to fail. Power imbalance can make horror. Horror where you don't expect it, in the midst of banality, can be terrifying.
( What's behind the curtain? )
[Howard] I have not done a writing prompt for you yet. Ok. Horror. You mentioned Lovecraft, which is at this point public domain. To an extent, right?
[Brandon] Yes. Ah. Let's just pretend it is. I know it is. My agent actually represents one of the Lovecraft estates, but even he says, "Yeah, we're not sure if this is even valid." So you can go ahead.
[Howard] Take a Lovecraftian beastie and shove him into the Shire.
[Brandon] Ok. Frodo vs. Cthulu.
[Sherri] There you go.
[Brandon] I like it. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 5.20: More Dialogue Exercises

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:01:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.20: More Dialogue Exercises

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/01/16/writing-excuses-5-20-more-dialog-exercises/

Key Points: Make sure characters have different personalities. A little banter goes a long way. Practice and good writing group comments can help. Think about how to evoke character and make it interesting. Beware narrative and description forced into dialogue. Keep the dialogue natural. Short, the way most people talk. Trust your readers to make connections, to put things together and figure out what is going on and why.
( exercises by the listeners )
[Brandon] I'm going to read those. We'll just skip the writing prompt. I'm just going to end this by reading some Saberhagen. All right?
[Dan] OK. Nice.
[Brandon] Hear me, for I am Ardneh. Ardneh who rides the elephant, who wields the lightning, who rends fortifications as the rushing passage of time consumes cheap cloth. You slay me in this avatar, but I live on in other human beings. I am Ardneh, and in the end, I will slay thee, and thou wilt not live on.
Hear me, Ekuman. Neither by day nor by night will I slay thee. Neither with the blade nor with the bow... neither by the edge of the hand nor with the fist... neither with the wet nor with the dry.

The next line is him dying.
[Dan] Sweet. Talk about promises to the reader.
[Brandon] Yeah. There we are. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 5.18: Offending Your Readers

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:58:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.18: Offending Your Readers

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/01/02/writing-excuses-5-18-offending-your-readers/

Key Points: Eschew the egregious offense of over-explaining. Don't talk down to readers. Be careful of racial and gender demographics, BUT don't make your characters stereotypes, either. Be inclusive, but mostly, make your characters people. Burn the strawmen, dynamite Potemkin villages, and don't stack the deck. Don't moralize or preach, trust your readers. Let them read the story, learn who the characters are and what's happening, and draw their own lessons from it. Theme and realizations are one thing, soapbox orations are another. Finally, beware broken promises, especially when it is a shortcut that defaults on what could have been. But we'll come back to broken promises another time. That's a promise.
( The best offenses are good defenses? )
[Brandon] I'm going to break it and say you have to... your writing prompt is to write... what was it, a vampire romance? No, a werewolf romance that does not appear it at first... that does not break any promises.
[Dan] Looks like it's going to be hard science fiction.
[Howard] Start with space opera... er, not space opera. Yeah. Start with hard science fiction, move into werewolf romance... in three paragraphs?
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, and you're stupid.
[Dan] You're out of excuses and nobody likes you.
[Brandon] Sorry, I couldn't help it. Don't be offended.
[Howard] You're out of excuses, and Brandon has no self-control.

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Writing Excuses 5.15: Steampunk with Scott Westerfeld

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:50:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.15: Steampunk with Scott Westerfeld

from http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/12/05/writing-excuses-5-15-steampunk-with-scott-westerfeld/

Key points: Steampunk is Victorian science fiction, extrapolated without restriction to current notions of possibility. It's also very tactile. Fashions and manners and brass and chrome and leather. Plus flamethrowers. Not just a literary genre. To write Steampunk, start with alternate history world building, and add other technologies -- crazy weird stuff. The familiar and the strange. Do your research, but don't bury the characters and the story under the world. "If it's not fun, you're doing it wrong." Cherie Priest.
( Under the steam robot clanking... )
[Howard] Final piece of advice for us, Scott? For writers who want to embrace the steamy punkiness of the Victorian era?
[Brandon] Or just any writing advice?
[Scott] Well, I'll quote Cherie Priest. "If it's not fun, you're doing it wrong."
[Brandon] Writing prompt is Tesla is President. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses 5.11: Micro-Casting Number Two

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:43:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.11: Micro-Casting Number Two

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/11/14/writing-excuses-5-11-micropocasting-2/

Key points:
-- How do you do bad things to your hero character without feeling bad about it?
I do feel their pain.
-- How far into writing a novel should you begin letting others read it for feedback?
When you are finished with the story. Beware of story hijacking.
-- Do the bad things you do to your characters always have to suit the story?
They need to be motivated and properly set up.
-- How do you design frightening monsters?
Take away the eyebrows. Let them do mundane, real things. Keep them in the shadows.
-- How far into the outlining process do you actually start writing?
When I am excited and want to start writing. When I have a good sense of where the story is going, where it needs to end, and more or less how it needs to get there. When it's done.
( And lots more words... )
[Brandon] All right. Well. Let's go ahead and go with our writing prompt. I'm going to say Howard, give it to us.
[Howard] You, in an extremely, extremely spur-of-the-moment sort of living-in-the-moment thing have decided that instead of fight club, it's zoo club. And you have just punched an elephant. Hard. What happens next?
[Dan] You get arrested.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses, you're out of excuses...
[Howard] Now go to jail.

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Writing Excuses 5.9: Character Arcs with John Brown

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:24:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.9: Character Arcs with John Brown

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/10/31/writing-excuses-5-9-character-arcs/

Key points: Character arcs are about character's change, growth, learning. Often either as a problem in the plot or to provide a key to unlock the problem in the plot. You can either plan where you want the character to go, or throw an issue at them and see what they learn. Watch for being bored with a character -- often a sign of a failing character arc. Make sure they have highs and lows, pits and dilemmas and tests, learning and decisions.
( Down in the pits )
[Dan] Oh, sweet. Well, all right then. Your characters are trapped on an emotionally-responsive roller coaster that mimics their own emotional arc. How do they use that knowledge to escape?
[Brandon] Oh, that's genius. Okay. Man, you just earned your check.
[Dan] Yay!
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
( Public Service Announcement )

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Writing Excuses 5.7: Avoiding Melodrama

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:20:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.7: Avoiding Melodrama

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/10/17/writing-excuses-5-7-avoiding-melodrama/

Key points: Melodrama grows out of one-sidedness. Make your characters real people. Avoid cliche. Set up your emotional scenes. Make characters likable. Variation and contrasts add spice.
( lots of melodrama, and a dramatic reading! )

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Writing Excuses Season Five Episode Four: Creating Suspense

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:02:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses Season Five Episode Four: Creating Suspense

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/09/26/writing-excuses-5-4-creating-suspense/

Key Points: Put a bomb under the table. If it goes off, that's action. If it doesn't go off, that's suspense. Mystery is when you can't see what's under the table. Mystery is about ideas that we don't understand, while suspense is about characters we don't understand. Both create tension. Think hard about killing a character just to create tension -- it may come across to readers as a cheap trick. Make sure that there are good reasons for them to die, or use some alternate significant loss. Consider ticking time bombs and other tricks for introducing a sense of progress, too.
( Watch for the bomb under the tablecloth! )
[Brandon] Excellent. All right. We have a very special writing prompt for you this week. Producer Jordo was sent a very touching piece of mail by someone in the Netherlands. It was just delightful. We're going to read just one line from this. You have to take this and make a story out of it.
[Howard] I have coated my left hand with magical ink.
[Brandon] There you go. You're totally out of excuses. This has been Writing Excuses, and I can't talk. Now go write!

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Writing Excuses 5.2: Character Quirks

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:58:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses 5.2: Character Quirks

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/09/12/we-5-2-character-quirks/

Key points: Character quirks make character different and memorable. Beware going to far with quirks. Incongruity helps - profession, religion, whatever - square pegs in round holes!
( Not Captain Quirk? )
[Brandon] All right. I'm going to force Howard to give us our writing prompt this week.
[Howard] Okay. I'm going to ponder this for just long enough to determine that the quirk for your writing prompt is a physical attribute that in some way influences this character's religion.
[Brandon] Okay. They have some sort of physical attribute that makes up their religion, influences their religion. That's a great one! This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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Writing Excuses Season Five Episode One: Third Person Limited

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:57:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses Season Five Episode One: Third Person Limited

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/09/07/we-5-1-third-person-limited/

Key points: third person limited let you have multiple viewpoints. Also, you can portray characters sympathetically because you can show the reader their thoughts and their view of the world. Third limited is less biased than first-person narration. Avoid having too many characters too early. Be careful about withholding information from the reader -- third person limited is expected to be honest. Watch for point of view errors! Keep it limited to what the main character knows and feels. Realize the strengths -- third person limited lets you show different perspectives. Think about which viewpoint to use -- who has the most pain, who has to make the biggest decision, who's got the most at stake, or who can show us what is happening best?
( vampires, werewolves, parasols, and bodice rippers? )
[Brandon] All right. We are out of time. I'm going to go ahead and give us our writing prompt this week. I want you to write a scene where Howard and Dan and me and then Producer Jordo do all walk through a room, and it's in our perspectives, and we are all going to think differently. You have to write this just knowing, having listened and knowing...
[Howard] You just ask people to write HowardTayler fan fiction
[Brandon] Yes, I did. I do it every time. It is accepted practice before I go to bed.
[Dan] Nice. Yeah. We do it anyhow.
[Howard] Jordo. Stop recording, quickly.
[Brandon] So, I want you to do this, and see how the four of us see the world differently. This has been Writing Excuses.
[Dan] What are the bets that my perspective is soaked in blood?
[Howard] My blood!

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Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 24: Random storytelling with James and Julie

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:23:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 24: Random storytelling with James and Julie

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/06/20/writing-excuses-4-24-random-storytelling/

Key points: Worldbuilding, but also characters and conflicts. Change and conflict go together. Empathy for a character comes from something bad that you understand and want to see alleviated. Who will the readers want to root for?
( random tails? )
[Brandon] OK. Well, excellent. We are out of time. I would like to thank our guest stars. Thank you very much.
[James] You're welcome.
[Julie] Any time.
[Brandon] This is been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now go write.

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