Writing Excuses

How do you take a good character and make them evil? And why would you want to do this? Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard answer that second question first, and then walk you through the process of doing this.

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk endings, and how to troubleshoot common problems writers have with them.

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about using character foils in building a story.

Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman from the Interstitial Arts Foundation join Mary Robinette Kowal and Dan Wells to talk about the gaps between genres.

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard brainstorm some fantasy setting elements for you. Need a magic system on the cheap? How about a political power structure?

Howard brings NaNoWriMo home with a final pep-talk for you. Short version: you're still out of excuses. Don't stop writing.

Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard talk about plotting a good mystery, especially as part of a non-mystery-genre book.

This your third week of NaNoWriMo, and Dan's here to tell you your wordcount should be at around 38,000. He also tells us how NaNoWriMo helped him write faster and keep to a schedule, and that you (yes YOU) are awesome.

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary talk about making characters do dumb things for smart reasons.

Mary Robinette Kowal offers encouragement to the 2011 NaNoWriMo crowd.

Andrew P. Mayer joins Howard, Mary, and Dan to talk about taking silly ideas and making seriously awesome stuff out of them.

Brandon Sanderson offers a quick pep-talk for NaNoWriMo participants.

Jonathan Maberry joins Howard, Dan, and Mary to discuss pigeonholes -- specifically, not ending up in one.

Mur Lafferty joins Howard, Mary, and Dan to talk about ways in which writers can continue their education.

Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard each crank out the beginnings of a story from the same set of story seeds.

Lou Anders joins Dan, Howard, and Mary for a discussion of endings.

Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary talk about pitching -- a critical skill for new and established authors alike.

Lou Anders joins Mary, Dan, and Howard at Dragon*Con for a discussion of the Hollywood Formula.

Peter Ahlstrom, assistant to Brandon Sanderson, and Valerie Dowbenko, assistant to Pat Rothfuss, join Brandon and Dan to talk about what they do for "their authors."

Keffy Kehrli joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard at WorldCon 69 for a discussion of gender roles, gender identity, and transsexualism with the objective of being able to write these things believably and accurately.