Writing Excuses

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, and Howard Tayler, with special guest Seth Fishman - Seth Fishman, author of seven picture books (as well as lots of longer-form stuff), joins us to talk about writing picture books,

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette and Howard Tayler, with special guests Fran Wilde, C.L. Polk, and William Alexander - For the next eight episodes we'll be talking about bodies, and how they don't all work the same way,

How do you write about magic? How do you build a world with magic and spells and potions? We dive into the rules and laws behind magical worlds. We often think of magic as being with a system, but what if it's not? What opportunities and challenges do intrusive magic/emergent fantasy and fabulism create for writers and stories?

Our writers and publishers talk about cultural differences across magical systems, and how you can build a fantasy world that is believable...

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette and Howard Tayler, with special guests Fran Wilde, C.L. Polk, and William Alexander - Whether or not you're writing from your own experience, depicting disability in fiction is fraught.

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Fran Wilde, C.L. Polk, and Howard Tayler - Let's talk for a bit about writing while disabled. This can mean anything from scheduling your craft around doctor's appointments, to learning to operate on a limited budget as def...

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler  - Let's talk about technological body-modification! It's a common element in science fiction, but it's also an increasingly important part of the world we're living in right now.

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler  - Okay, before we start, you have homework: Please take a few minutes to read this essay by Fran Wilde entitled "You Wake Up Monstrous." -

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler  - This is the "talking about how to talk about" talk. We begin by reviewing the difference between the medical model and the social model of disability. -

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler  - Let's talk about pain. It hurts, yes, but we all experience it, so writing about it can be a great point of connection between the writer and the reader. - Also,

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler  - Let's put a stake in the ground here: disabilities do not grant magical powers. And yet that exact trope can be found in multiple genres, across multiple mediums.