Writing Excuses

How do you take criticism? How do you react, if you even do react? Does criticism cause you to change the way you work? Criticism can come from your peers in a writing group, from editors sending you rejection letters, and from those one-star Amazon reviewers who are out there looking for something to hate. In this episode we provide anecdotes from other authors including Patrick Rothfuss and Kevin J. Anderson, and share our own experiences about criticism we've gotten and how we've responded to it. This episode of Writing Excuses is brought to you by XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery, by Tracy and Curtis Hickman, and illustrated by Howard Tayler. Pre-orders for XDM open on Wednesday, July 1st. Writing Prompt: Write a story about a critic who is the hero.

Howard here... I've learned that it's a really bad idea to run out for a bio-break between podcasts. When I returned to the packed panel room I could tell that everyone's attitude towards me was subtly different. It wasn't until we started recording that I realized Brandon had turned our Q&A panel into a "Stump Howard" panel. Our good friend Eric James Stone joined us for the fun. As silly themes go, this one works well. So well, in fact, that we went six minutes into overtime. The questions were all good, and yes, according to the rules (of which I was not apprised, I should add in my defense) I got stumped one time. It was the question about making aliens seem alien. Go figure. Writing Prompt: Start with a device that vaporises water, ala Batman Begins, and turn it into a believable superweapon which is not being used to destroy the world.

This episode was recorded live at CONduit in Salt Lake City with special guest Aprilynne Pike. Our topic: How do we "keep it real" when writing speculative fiction? What does that even mean? (Okay, it means making the stuff that exists in real life seem real.) Short answer: Research. We talk about how we go about researching the "real" elements of our various works, all the while trying hard not to go "squee" with our very first #1 New York Times Bestelling guest. We also discuss many of the shortcuts and tricks we fall back on. This week's episode of Writing Excuses is brought to you by editor Stacy L. Whitman and her World-Building in Middle Grade and Young Adult Speculative Fiction Seminar. The seminar will be held at the Provo Library in Provo, Utah from 1:00pm to 5:00pm on Saturday, June 27th, 2009. The deadline for registration is June 19th.

Don't you just hate it when things unfold out of order? Why do writers do that? We explain why they do it, and how they do it, and then we discuss how to avoid some common mistakes. Non-linear storytelling is inherently risky, after all. Maybe not as risky as jumping ahead two episodes in a non-serial podcast schedule, but it's still life on the edge. Writing Prompt: Write a story about a flashback that is completely false... This week's episode of Writing Excuses is brought to you by  Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, now available in hardback from TOR. (If you're waiting for Episodes 2 and 3, we'll flash back to them in due time...)

Welcome to Season 3 of Writing Excuses! With eighteen hours and fourteen months of podcasting history behind us, it seems appropriate for us to talk about history, and how to write it. We talk about the iceberg principle -- 90% of the history stuff you write never gets seen by the reader, it's just there to support the 10% that they do see, the "tip of the iceberg" -- and why for some writers it's just not the right ratio. We also discuss Worldbuilder's Disease -- none of the writing you're doing is prose for the novel -- and how to avoid it while still knuckling down and doing the work. And then (after a shiny commercial break) we knuckle down and talk about writing history, making it interesting, finding conflict, and avoiding oversimplified causality ("monocausationalism.") Writing Prompt: Write an encyclopedia article about a war that has 5 distinct causes. Identify and justify each of them.

And here we are, at the final episode of Writing Excuses, Season 2. As promised, this episode is going to be super-useful to new writers, but it's going to be extra-super-useful to one new writer in particular, Brandon's nameless friend who listened to 9 hours of Writing Excuses podcasts and is now too overwhelmed to write. Have you ever wondered why we only 'cast for 15 minutes (give or take, usually give, but still...) each week? It's because you're not supposed to be sitting there at the computer listening to hours upon hours of advice. You're supposed to be writing. For this next fourteen minutes and forty-seven seconds we explain how to make that happen. Writing Prompt: Write a story about Brandon's friend Nameless

This the third in our series of retrospective episodes. The most important thing Dan learned this year? Being a full-time author is a lot different than he thought it would be. How different? What was Dan expecting? Was he really imagining silk pajamas and a notebook computer on the beach? We talk about the types of non-writing work that we've found ourselves doing, and why those things are so important to us and to our careers. We discuss how our publishers' schedules impact our own, and why writers are often expected to drop whatever they're doing in order to handle something for their publisher. During our discussion we mention a new local novelist Aprilynne Pike, whose debut book Wings is available now, and made #6 on the NYT Bestsellers List for Children's Chapter Books. Episode 32 has been brought to you by "A Snack." But hurry! We don't pause for long! Writing Prompt: Write the first page of a story, stop, write a first page of a different story and then go back and fini

Here's the second part of our three-part "what we learned this year" series. This time around Brandon tells us the most important thing he learned this year. Summed up? Gimmicks cannot compensate for bad writing. So... what's a gimmick? We begin with hooks and pitches, but gimmicks can include things like photo-realistic cover art, internet grass-roots campaigns, and factoids like "the author is only 17 years old." Story elements like cool magic systems, uniquely alien aliens, and diamond-hard science can all be gimmicks. They're good to have, certainly, and they can work to sell the book, but real staying power (read: earning out your advance, and getting royalty checks for years to come) comes from good writing, page after page. Brandon confesses to some gimmick use himself, but fortunately we (and many of his readers) believe that his writing is strong enough that we don't begrudge him the gimmick one bit. This week's episode of Writing Excuses is brought to you again

This is the first of a three-part series in which Brandon, Dan, and Howard tell each other (and you, of course) about the most important thing each of them has learned in the past year. We start with Howard, who seems to believe that of all the many things he's learned about writing in the previous twelve months, the list-topper should be the fact that he is a satirist. So really the episode is about satire, and how that form differs from other humorous sub-genres. And then we talk about why knowing this is important, and how others can go about learning these sorts of things about their own work. This week Writing Excuses is brought to you by "Bringing Writing Excuses To You By!" Writing Prompt: An artist finds a way to improve or perfect the form he or she is working within, and by so doing  unlocks magic.

Let's talk about failure... but let's talk about it so that we can avoid it.  How do you know if your ending has flopped?  What kind of approaches to ending a story should you be avoiding? How can you recognize these approaches in time to avoid them? The best approach? Identify the promises you've made to your readers, and then fulfil them with your ending. Okay, now you don't have to listen. Writing Prompt: Start your book with an ending where everyone dies. This weeks Writing Excuses is brought to you by Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, Book 3 of the Mistborn series now in paperback.

Last week we talked about reading critically, reading as writers. This week we decided to apply that critical reading skill to Watchmen, the Hugo award-winning graphic novel by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. We start (once we get past the donuts in our mouths) by breaking it down into character, setting, and plot, and then we further dissect each of those elements based on what we thought of them. This episode is chock full of spoilers. If you're planning on reading Watchmen for the first time (or seeing the movie), you probably ought to do that before  you let us ruin it for you. Writing Prompt: Write an alternate history for 2009 taking stylistic cues from Watchmen.

As a writer you obviously know how to read. But being a writer changes how you read, and what you read, and even why you read. Do you read more, or less as a writer? How do you read so that your reading doesn't interfere with writing? How do you channel your reading into bettering your writing? And what's the difference between a critical reader and a book critic? Writing Prompt: Write a story about a critic, but a critic who criticizes something abnormal like Cement Mixers.

Nancy Fulda, assistant editor at Baen's Universe and  editor-in-chief and founder of Anthology Builder, joins us again while Dan Wells is out celebrating his birthday. We discuss the rise of digital SF magazines, and touch on concepts like user-generated content, the Superconducting Copy Machine, and disruptive technology. We talk about print-on-demand vs. self-publishing, we laugh as Nancy puts her foot in her mouth, and then we argue over whether free online content can generate income for authors, as opposed to webcartoonists. This week's episode is 20 minutes long, because you're not in as much of a hurry as we originally suspected, and Nancy made us at least a little smarter. This week's Writing Excuses is brought to you by I Am Not A Serial Killer by our very own absent-two-weeks-running Dan Wells. The book is only available in the UK, but you can get now from http://www.bookdepository.co.uk which has free shipping to anywhere in the world. Writing Prompt: Write a story that convincin

This... THIS is why speculative fiction writers should never be trusted with actual technology.

Nancy Fulda fills in for Dan for this week's episode (he was sick, she was in town, huzzah!) but she's more than just "filling in." She's FEATURED. Nancy is the assistant editor for Jim Baen's Universe, and as such is probably the one who rejected your story. Nancy is also the editor-in-chief and founder of  Anthology Builder, where you can create collections of short stories you want to read, and have them printed and bound for you. She tells us the sorts of things that will get you rejected, maybe after a page, maybe after a paragraph, and perhaps even before the very first line has been read. This week's episode is brought to you by Schlock Mercenary: The Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance. Pre-orders are open now! Disclosure: Nancy is, in fact, Howard's sister-in-law. That might be why her stuff is getting so dang much relevant linkage in this entry. Writing Prompt: Write about a passionate egg.

Tracy Hickman joins us again at "Life, The Universe, and Everything," and in this episode we let Brandon ask him random questions while Dan and Howard chime in with comments that hopefully don't detract from the discussion. During the interview Tracy mentions his latest project, XDM: Extreme Dungeon Mastery, but he doesn't mention the very latest news about it. That news is that Tracy and Curtis Hickman (the authors) have contracted with Howard Tayler to illustrate and publish it. So that bit about Tracy doing it in his basement? It's no longer accurate. This week's Writing Excuses is brought to you by I Am Not A Serial Killer by our very own Dan Wells. The book is only available in the UK, but you can get now from http://www.bookdepository.co.uk which has free shipping to anywhere in the world. Writing Prompt: Give us Winnie the Pooh's big death scene. On a destroyer in the South Pacific.

We took Writing Excuses on the road last month for "Life, The Universe, and Everything," the symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy at Brigham Young University. The Guests of Honor were Tracy and Laura Hickman, and poor Tracy agreed to join us for a podcast or two, recorded in front of a live audience. After the initial introductions we dig into clichés, starting with characters - specifically, how to avoid these kinds of problems in our characters. What's the difference between a cliché and an archetype? Tracy saves us time and again with great answers that beg a dozen or more podcasts. It's a good thing Tracy and Laura have their own podcast. This episode has "clipping" problems. We need to buy some good audio gear for Jordan so he can fix problems like this. Or maybe some audio gear that will let him prevent problems like this.  But don't discuss that in the comments. Discuss clichés, please. Writing Prompt: Howard gets attacked by monkeys.

"Branding,"  not "Brandon," just so we're clear. Brand-ING. We open with the definition of "branding," talking about what it is, and (just as importantly) what it is not. With that out of the way we forge ahead and talk about author brands, brand messaging, and why any of this really matters. We throw down a few examples, and use them to help the listener arrive at a decent author-branding strategy. Writing Prompt: Pick your favorite author and in 50 words or less write down what you think their brand is, then compare it on the forums with what others write.

 Rob Wells joins the Writing Excuses crew for a second 'cast, this time dealing with fight scenes. We talk about good blocking versus a bad blow-by-blow, and cover a few of the factors that may dictate the right style of description for that wicked-cool fight you've pictured in your head. This episode is fast-paced and, well... punchy. No, really, it is. Seriously, that seemed like the right word there, pun notwithstanding. Writing Prompt: Write a fight between two people who have never been in a fight before.

Howard takes the moderatorial lead on this episode in which he, Brandon, and Dan are joined by Rob Wells for a discussion of marketing. What is marketing? What's the difference between marketing and PR?  What's the difference between a marketing manager and a publicist? How can knowing this help a creator position his or her work? We'll answer these questions and more... Writing Prompt: Come up with 25 words that distill everything you want to say about your next work.