Writing Excuses Transcripts

Writing Excuses 11.6: The Element of Wonder

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/02/07/11-06-the-element-of-wonder/

Key Points: Sensawonda? Oh, sense of wonder! A 15 story tall ship! A giant promenade in the middle of the ocean? An aft balcony, with a new sunrise and location every morning! New, strange, and amazing. That's so cool. How do you get there? A spaceship the size of a moon. "That's no moon." Context, the POV reaction, the reader reaction. Direct the reader's attention with the character's attention. Basking in the moment of awe. Give the character, and the reader, time. Foreshadow (aka context) and then reveal. Pacing. Don't rush, let the character's attention linger on it, walk through the fine details, enjoy it. The sense of wonder isn't always big, sometimes it's something tiny. Also, there's a sense of engagement, of wish fulfillment, with the sense of wonder. It's not just wonderful, we get to do something with it!

( Fireworks, sunsets, glory! )

[Brandon] We are out of time with this one. So we want to give you some homework.
[Dan] All right. Your homework today is that you are going to apply a sense of wonder to something for us. But we want you to do it with something that is relatively small and ordinary. Something maybe just by your desk, something in your house as you look around. Spot an object, and then describe it in such a way that the reader will get a sense of wonder.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 7.2: World Building Flora and Fauna

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/01/08/writing-excuses-7-2-world-building-flora-and-fauna/

Key Points: Use descriptive names. Realistic evolutionary biology versus that's cool. You don't have to explain everything. Consider water, wood, other finite resources. Consider food. And what about lifecycles? And don't forget weather! Work animals build civilization. Another resource is extinct animals.
( the hip bone connected to the... )
[Dan] No, I don't. I'm hiding it very well. What I want you to do is take...
[Snoring]
[Dan] Thank you, Howard. Take an animal that is... Because I was just talking about this... A horrible pack animal. Take a pig. Then devise a culture where someone has actually trained pigs to plow fields, and to move all this stuff, and how does that work when your only pack animal is a wild boar... Or a domesticated boar?
( leg bone, leg bone connected to the... )