Writing Excuses

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard with special guest J.Y. Yang - J.Y. Yang is a Hugo-nominated short story writer from Singapore who identifies as non-binary. They joined us to talk about this non-binary identification,

Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard - We begin by making a useful distinction between alpha and beta reader: the alpha reader is an industry professional, while the beta reader is a stand-in for the eventual audience of readers.

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with special guest Wendy Tolliver - Wendy skis, and snowboards, and  writes YA novels. She is also the parent of three, one of whom suffers from mental illness. She joined us to talk about how writers can do...

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard - This is the first of two episodes in which we'll talk about how we, your hosts, fix the problems we've identified with the characters in our work. - Credits: this episode was recorded by Dan Thompson and m...

Your Hosts: Brandon, Amal, Mary, and Maurice - This is the second of our pair of episodes in which we talk about how we, your hosts, fix the problems we've identified with the characters in our work. - Credits: This episode was recorded by Andrew Twi...

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard, with special space-guest Kjell Lindgren - Kjell Lindgren, flight surgeon, Expedition 44/45, joined us for an episode that perhaps should have been called "we ask the space-man all of the things.

Your Hosts: Howard, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Amal - Many of us write characters who know more than we know, and/or who think faster than we do. Writing those characters is tricky. In this episode we talk about our own tricks,

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard - As writers of speculative fiction we are frequently tasked with writing a species or race of alien people. In this episode we talk about some of the tricks we use to create non-human characters in...

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Amal, and Maurice - Narration is that stuff which tells your story, but isn't dialog. It's the voice of your narrator, and it might be multiple voices depending on how you're handling point of view.

Your Hosts: Howard, Mary Robinette, and Dan, with special guests Bart Smith and Ben Hewett - When we talk about space travel we're usually talking about rocket scientists and astronauts. In this episode we spoke with our guests Bart Smith and Ben Hewe...