Writing Excuses

Today we’re taking a break from our Close Reading Series to discuss writing workshops and retreats! We dive into how to find and prepare to attend a workshop or a retreat and what to think about for organizing your own. Thing of the Week: Solo RPGs! (Strider Mode, Star Trek Adventures, Mythic Game Master) Homework: Go find 3 writing retreats you are interested in attending. 1 retreat-focused, 1 workshop-focused and 1 combination. Then think about what your expectations would be for each one.Close Reading Series: Texts & TimelineNext up is Tension! Starting September 1, we’ll be diving into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Please note, this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be intense for some readers! Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Sandra Tayler, and Sarah Sward. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.Join Our Writing Community! Pat

We sat down with CL Clark to talk about character—specifically, how they build different POV characters in the compressed space of a short story. We dive into plot processing (a tool CL Clark has learned from Mary Robinette!), how to specify the stakes of your world, and how to build distinct characters. Thing of the Week: Reasons Not To Worry: How to be Stoic in Chaotic Times by Brigid DelaneyHomework: “4 Scenes About Power” — Write four scenes: (1) a scene in which your protagonist does something to someone else, (2) a scene in which someone does something for someone else, (3) a scene in which your protagonist has something done to them, and (4) a scene in which your protagonist does something with someone else. Liner Notes: Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin Close Reading Series: Texts & TimelineNext up is Tension! Starting September 1, we’ll be diving into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Please note, this novella uses tools from the horror

Today, we’re taking a higher view on the techniques we’ve been talking about over the last four episodes and focusing on how you can use our takeaways in your own writing. We’ll go over our final thoughts on C.L. Clark’s short stories (until next week’s episode, when we interview them!). We’ll also try to summarize the lessons we've learned from Clark and our favorite bits of their writing. Thing of the Week: Rude Tales of Magic (podcast) Homework: Write a character study in which two characters meet twice. Something momentous has happened in between the meetings. Imply it by the way those characters have changed.Liner Notes: Axis of Power (available on Patreon) - Ability, Role, Relationship, StatusDREAM from Elizabeth Boyle - Denial, Resistance, Exploration, Acceptance, ManifestationClose Reading Series: Texts & TimelineNext up is Tension! Starting September 1, we’ll be diving into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Please note, this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be

We have a theory that we want to work through on today’s episode: agency is the ability to take action, whereas choices are more about the interior life of the character. We use Mary Robinette’s talking cat, try-fail cycles, and C.L. Clark’s Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home in order to examine this theory and its underpinnings. Thing of the Week: Marginalia by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny Magazine) Homework: Create a scene in which your character has very little agency, but still must make a choice. Do your best to make that choice still feel critical.Liner Notes: Fluent pet buttons - Elsie the talking cat“We Are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist” by Vida CruzSign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Arkady Martine. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.Join Our Writing Community! P

Our episode today focuses on C.L. Clark’s short story “You Perfect Broken Thing” for how the character's stakes shape the barriers facing her. We use this story to examine how to tell the difference between barriers versus stakes. We also examine how to do this in a compressed space– whether that’s a short story, a single scene, or a compressed timeline. Thing of the Week: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley JacksonHomework: Write a short scene in which your character has to deal with a mundane obstacle, then rewrite it as if that small obstacle has life-or-death stakes. How did you shift it to make the stakes clearer?Liner Notes: Sandra Tayler's new book, Structuring Life To Support Creativity. Preorder your copy today at sandratayler.com! And help fund Mary Robinette Kowal’s Silent Spaces, a collection of short stories on Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mary-robinette/silent-spaces?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=silent%20spaces%20(Or go to kickstarter.com

Today, we’re focusing on C.L. Clark’s  “The Cook,” as we explore external and internal expression. We chose this story because it's a remarkably physical and touchable story with myriad sensory details. While the audience gets very little information about what Clark’s characters are thinking, you can still understand their internal landscapes by what they seee and notice. How do these external indicators help us understand the internal worlds of the characters? We mention two infographics during the episode– “Intersections of Self (Trauma Points)" and “Axes of Power."  These are available on Patreon (they’re posted publicly, so anyone can view them!) Feel free to use them in your own writing, and let us know if you find them helpful! Thing of the Week: “Bodies” (on Netflix) Homework: Pick a major character in your story and write two short summaries of the character arc, one using your original motivation and goal, and a second with a different motivation but the same goal.Liner Notes: Sandra Tay

Today we introduce our next close reading series—we’re focusing on character through the lens of three of C.L. Clark’s short stories:  “You Perfect, Broken Thing,” “The Cook,” and “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home”. They are all hyperlinked above and available online for free through Uncanny Magazine. We are so excited to shift our focus to short stories! We love the compressed form, and C.L. Clark’s stories exemplify the freedom that exists within the genre itself. They masterfully combine light world-building with deep character development. We’re excited to dive into each story over the next five episodes, ending with an interview with C.L. Clark! We recommend reading these short stories ahead of time, but this episode is fine to listen to as a primer for why you should read them!  Thing of the Week: Monster of the Week (a tabletop role-playing game) AND Sandra Tayler's new book, Structuring Life To Support Creativity. Preorder your copy today

Today we are joined by the incredible falconer Krista Hong Edwards. Krista was kind enough to take our hosts out with her falcons, and we had the most amazing time! Krista sat down with us to talk about falcons, literature, and much more. Check out our liner notes (below) for all of the texts we reference! Thing of the Week: Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey: A Novel Book by Kathleen RooneyHomework: Look up your local falconry club and see if you can attend their next event!Liner Notes: See more of Krista, her falcons, and her mission on Instagram at @kristafeather and @feathersforthoughtMy Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George “The Goshawk” by T.H. White“H is for Hawk” by Helen McDonald“Untethered Sky” by Fonda LeeTo find Krista’s Articles: Hawkchawk Magazine & Pursuit Falconry Close Reading Series: Texts & TimelineNext up is Character! Starting July 7, we’ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark. These are all available for free through Uncanny Magazine. Character: “You Perfect, Broke

Learning is great, but how do you translate it into doing without getting overwhelmed? What is the difference between learning in the classroom and executing when you're on your own?Marshall, our incredible recording engineer, just finished an MFA program. Congrats, Marshall!! On today’s episode, we gril Marshall in order to understand his takeaways from the program. Specifically, we are interested in how he takes everything he learned in the classroom and turns it into actionable things he’s doing on the page. We talk community, motivation, and how to consistently make time for your writing. Thing of the Week: The Fall of the House of Usher, TV show created by Mike FlanaganHomework: Take a turn being the teacher– how would you teach a group of people about a concept you’re struggling with in your own work, and what homework would you give them to better understand it?  Close Reading Series: Texts & TimelineNext up is Character! Starting July 7, we’ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark.

We've spent the last month talking about "A Memory Called Empire, and now, we are so excited to welcome the author, Arkady Martine, to the show! On today's episode, we talk with Arkady about the origins of her novel, and dive into how she navigated the dense and intricate world-building. Arkady gives us advice on what not to do, where to look for your first ideas, and what her writing process looks like. Thing of the Week: “The Shamshine Blind” By Paz PardoHomework:Using the character and the story you are currently working on, look at the nearest building you can see out your window, and describe it from their point of view. What does that say about the world that you are in and the world that they are in? Close Reading Series: Texts & TimelineNext up is Character! Starting July 7, we’ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark. These are all available for free through Uncanny Magazine. Character: “You Perfect, Broken Thing,” “The Cook,” and “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of

Today, the gang talks about their final thoughts on Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire.” We conclude with some lessons we’ve learned through analyzing her work, and we share our favorite bits! Thing of the Week: Pasión de las PasionesHomework: Find a piece of world building that you love and come up with another way to use it in your work in progress. Close Reading Series: Texts & TimelineNext up is Character! Starting July 7, we’ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark. These are all available for free through Uncanny Magazine. Character: “You Perfect, Broken Thing,” “The Cook,” and “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home” by CL Clark (starting July 7) And a sneak peak on the rest of the year… Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (starting September 1) Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (starting October 13) Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon

The imago technology lies at the heart of this novel thematically and narratively. How does this technology create a world, delineate Mahit's culture from Teixcalaan, and ask enormous questions about identity and empire?Thing of the Week: “Rotten” (Documentary Series available on Netflix)Homework: Come up with three technological or magical approaches that would raise questions about what it means to be you, to be an individual. Take one of these, and then write a scene wherein two characters argue about it. For those of you just joining us, here's what our close reading series has covered, and what lays ahead! Close Reading Series: Texts & TimelineVoice: This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar (March 17) Worldbuilding: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (May 12) Character: “You Perfect, Broken Thing,” “The Cook,” and “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home” by CL Clark (July 7) Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí

What cultural and worldbuilding information is embedded within the smallest of word choices? Today, we dive into three specific sections from throughout Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire”:  the word for empire, assimilation and naming, and learning the word for bomb. We unpack how Martine uses language to establish important principles of how the world works. Thing of the Week: The Gilded Age - Created and Written by Julian Fellowes  Julian Fellows (on HBO Max) Homework:Write a scene that describes a fictional piece of literature— whether that's a poem, a song, or a story— that means something to the people in the story you’re telling. Here’s a link to buy your copy of “A Memory Called Empire” if you haven’t already:https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., a

How do you use language and scale to focus your writing? Today, we think about scale and movement across vast spaces. What do characters’ movements tell us about empires and also—force? We talk about Martine’s incredible work establishing an empire across time, not (just) space. We read aloud some of Martine’s writing, and try to understand exactly how they work, and what they’re doing to build the novel’s world. A refresher on why Worldbuilding is essential and some working definitions of how we want to talk about it. After the break, we discuss why we chose this book and highlight what it does well. As always in our close reading series, we distill each text’s elements into approachable steps for you to take in your own writing. Thing of the Week: Softboiled eggs in an instant pot: 1.5 cups of fridge-cold water. Add 2-6 eggs onto the little trey. Pressure cook for low on one minute, and then release the pressure after 90 seconds. Remove the eggs (use tongs!), and put them in a bowl of fridge-cold water for

Why is worldbuilding is essential in your writing? Today, we answer this question and dive into some working definitions of how we want to talk about it. After the break, we discuss why we chose this book Arkady Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire” and highlight what it does well. We dive into the elements that help make Martine’s worldbuilding so accessible and effective. Thing of the Week: “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman (think about what it teaches you about POV!)Homework: Pick your favorite fictional worlds and for each write down three defining attributes that establish culture, legal systems, and physical spaces.Here’s a link to buy your copy of “A Memory Called Empire” if you haven’t already:https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Sometimes we know the action and themes of your story, but you don’t know how to build an economy that supports those. Well today, we explain just how to do that! What are some questions you can ask yourself about the worth of certain goods and services in the world you’re building? What would a post-scarcity world look like and ask of your characters and how would it shape their wants? We loved recording this episode, it brought up so many interesting questions for us, and we hope it does the same for you! Thing of the Week: Bury Your Gays by Chuck TingleHomework: Come up with three catch phrases that someone who grew up in your economy would know. For example the difference between “There ain't no such thing as a free lunch” vs. “See it, fix it.”A Reminder! That starting next week (May 12th!), we'll be focusing on Worldbuilding and reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. If you’re going to buy this book, we have this bookshop link available for you to do so! (If not, go support your local

How do you find the right size for your story? And speaking of size, what do novellas do differently than both short stories and novels? What even is the difference between a novel and a novella? How many characters do they usually have? How many subplots? How do you know if your story should take the form of a novella or a novel? We dive into all these questions (and…you guessed it… more!) in our conversation. A note on the structure of Season 19: in between our close reading series (six episodes where we dive into an element of craft through a close reading of a specific text), we’ll be doing two wild card episodes! These episodes are random topics that our hosts have been wanting to tell you about, we just didn’t know where they fit. So we MADE a place for them to fit! Thing of the Week: Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (a collaborative, storytelling-based RPG)Homework:Take a short story that you either love or have written and write a list of things that could be added to expand it to novella length. N

Today we get to talk to the inimitable Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. Amal and Max are on the podcast to tell us about how they wrote a book together (hint: they didn’t write it together in the form of one voice.) They talk to us about the practice of writing letters, collaboration, and the revelation of friendship. They talk about the complexity, harmony, and cadence of two-author projects. We also talk about that voice in your head that criticizes your writing, and how to work with it and harness your authentic desire to tell a certain story.  Thing of the Week: From Amal- Hollow Night From Max- Talking Man by Terry Bisson Homework:From Max and Amal: Take a passage of something you’ve written and rewrite it in three different ways: as if it were being sung, as if it were being shouted, and as if it were being whispered. A Reminder! That starting May 12th, we'll be focusing on Worldbuilding and reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. If you’re going to buy this book, we have this bookshop li

As we conclude our first deep dive of our close reading series, we want to explore how the evolution of voice helped carry readers throughout "This Is How You Lose The Time War." We also talk about the relationship between character arcs and language, learning and voice. Stay tuned for next week’s episode, where we interview Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar on what it was like to write “Time War” together! Thing of the Week: Princess WeekesHomework:Write a short outline of your work noting where the voice changes and evolves to reflect the character growth and change rather than focusing on the plot beatsA ReminderThat starting May 12th, we'll be focusing on Worldbuilding and reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. If you’re going to buy this book, we have this bookshop link available for you to do so! (If not, go support your local library!) https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19Sign up for our newsletter: https://writingexcuses.comCredits: Your hosts for this episode were

What's epistolary writing? Well, it's writing through letters. But it's also a lot more than that. As we continue to dive into the concept of Voice, we want to explore the importance and power of the letters that Blue and Red write to each other throughout "This Is How You Lose The Time War." If you haven't already listened to our episodes introducing this novella, we recommend you go back and start with Episode 11 (of this season, Season 19)!And if you’ve been reading along with us while listening to these episodes, please let us know on Instagram. Tag us in a post or comment @writing_excuses ! Thing of the Week: “clipping.” by Story 2 Homework: Write a short note from one of your characters to another about something that’s important to them. Now rewrite it as a text message (change the format). Then rewrite it as a letter that will be screened before it gets to them by an outsider (change the context). And finally, write it as the final message they will get to send during their lif