Writing Excuses

While at CONduit, we recorded three episodes of Writing Excuses in front of an audience, and this is the first of those. In this episode we have Dan Willis join us as we take questions from the crowd. The four of us discuss voicing characters,

The Writing Excuses crew tackles writer's block again, this time approaching the "This Sucks And I'm A Horrible Writer" mindset. Dan relates his Neil Gaiman anecdote, Brandon explains why he'd written so many books before getting published,

Howard kicks this off with his own sure-fire cure for Writers' Block, "BIC HOK:" Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. The Writing Excuses team takes off from there, discussing the different kinds of Writers' Block, and how to overcome each of them.

This week the Writing Excuses team discusses magic again, this time focusing on the cost of magic. Whether or not your magic system has internally-consistent rules your readers can follow (per Sanderson's First Law and last week's 'cast) you need to co...

Does magic need rules? Sometimes yes and sometimes no; our intrepid podcasters talk about how to know which situation is which, and explore the pros and cons of each method. We'll also yak for a while about the differences between Superman and Gandalf,...

In part two of our chat with editor Stacy Whitman, we discuss more about how to interact with editors: how to approach them at cons, how to inquire about work you've already submitted, and how to butter them up by asking about their current projects.

This week, special guest Stacy Whitman joins us from Mirrorstone books (an imprint of Wizards of the Coast). Stacy works there as an editor, and helps us understand the submission process, including acting like a professional, doing your research,

So... you're ready for the big-time. You're a writer, and the writing is almost paying the bills. Hurray! - Now, how do you balance your life so that you can make the jump to writing full-time? How do you manage your time?

Pacing... it's all about keeping the tension up, keeping things snappy, and keeping the reader interested. This week the Writing Excuses crew delivers some tips, tricks, and tools you can use to get your story flowing in all the right ways. - Also,

This week we continue our discussion on Science Fiction with a discussion of various Sub-genres, why they're different, and what you can do to make sure you know your audience. - Sub-genres covered: Space Opera, Military, Hard SF, and Cyberpunk. -