Writing Excuses

Brandon and Dan met during a creative writing class at Brigham Young University, and Brandon went on to get a Master's Degree in the field. Howard has no formal training in the field. This begs the question... do creative writing classes help? Are they worth the time? Short answer: Yes, but maybe not in the way you were expecting. We discuss not only the formal education aspects of creative writing, but also the value of informal education -- attending conventions and sitting in on panel discussions about the craft.  If you are looking to become a professional writer and are pondering your education options, this podcast is a must-hear. A must-listen-carefully, even. Writing Prompt: Fore! In this case, a golf metaphor. But not a pun. Please.

Let's get back to world-building, and dig into a tough one: government. In this case we're talking about government as part of the backdrop, rather than political intrigue as part of the plot. Are you going to create a monarchy, a democracy, or perhaps some crazy, experimental sort of rigidly constitutional representative republic? City-states? Confederations? Empires? What's it going to be, and (more importantly) why? Oh, and how do you do it right? Writing Prompt:  Create a government by starting with "Colon Cleansers," and then taking two steps back to create something unique.

Our producer Jordan Sanderson joins us for this week's installment, in which we likely make all kinds of enemies among the authorial community by exposing the many things they're doing wrong with their websites. The fact that you, fair listener, are here reading content on our website shows that you have fine taste in these things, and trust us to lead you right. And we will! We'll do you proper on blogging, domain names, hosting, connecting with fans and editors, and taking care regarding your rants. Writing Prompt: Write a story about the worst website ever. Liner Notes: It should be pointed out that John Ringo's website has come a long way since Howard last looked at it. Good work, John!  We also mentioned websites from George R.R. Martin, David Farland, John Scalzi, and of course Brandon Sanderson. Brandon also mentioned holaservers.com. Congratulations, Earl!

The Writing Excuses crew returns to world-building, this time to discuss the creation of non-human races. Why do genre-fiction writers use aliens and monsters, short folk, tusked folk, or any other variation on "people" who aren't human? Can new writers successfully recycle the classic Tolkien races and use dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, and trolls? If not, how can new races best be created? How can races be made "three-dimensional?" What are the common pitfalls? How much religion, culture, and physiology do you have time to create? Why are the rabidly violent fans of the Klingon race going to come after Howard with a cheap, plastic bat'leth? (Answer: Because they have no honor.) Writing Prompt: Create a believable Alien and write something from his/her perspective.

When do you know when you're ready to begin? What does that question even mean? Apparently Brandon gets asked it a lot, though, so he posed it for the group. How do you know when that story in your head is ready for you to start writing it? Or maybe, how do you know you're ready to start writing that story that's up in your head? Or perhaps, when do you know when in that story in your head you should begin writing it, assuming you're ready? Confused yet? If you're ready to begin listening, we're ready to begin making more sense. Writing Prompt: Write an ending, and start your book with it.

We get asked a lot about our writing habits. So your Writing Excuses hosts spend the whole 'cast discussing their schedules, their work environments, and the things they do to make themselves more productive while keeping themselves creative. Peace and quiet? Clothing? Distractions? Pants? We answer these questions and more. Will any of this work for you? You tell us! The comments are a great place to discuss. Howard mentioned PeopleWare, by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister. You can buy it here.

All three of your Writing Excuses hosts include a measure of violence in their written work. So Brandon, Dan, and Howard decide to clear the air a little bit. Why do we write about violence? What does it bring to a work of fiction, and what challenges does it pose? Is there a morally appropriate way to write about violence? How does it impact the theme of your work?  Is there a difference between writing about violence and writing comedic mayhem? Writing Prompt: Have some fun in the worst possible way. Write a scene that has an extremely violent sequence that glorifies the violence and then write a scene dealing with the consequences.

For the first time in eleven episodes, we have a "normal" one. No special guests, no special locations, and no new format tricks. This episode grows out of Howard's ignorance - remember back in Episode 10 when Howard called "can of worms" on "theme?" Well, we open the can for this entire episode. What is theme? Is it something the author must consciously include? Is it something the reader must successfully identify? How can writing to a particular theme help your work? How can it hurt? How can writers avoid thematic pitfalls?  We discuss examples from other writers, and from our own work (especially Brandon's.) This week's Writing Excuses is brought to you by Dave Farland's Novel-Writing Workshop. Writing Prompt: Write a short story that has no theme. No deeper meaning. Nothin'.

Dave Wolverton joins us for a third and final episode, and the Writing Excuses team pumps him for information before letting him escape. We find out why he uses two names (David Farland and Dave Wolverton), how to name characters, and why writers don't jump between genres much. Dave discusses the state of the genre-fiction publishing business, and prognosticates a bit on its future.  As a special treat, Dave explains how he broke into the industry, so be the first to listen to that bit and get a leg up on everybody else with this proven (and slightly bloody) strategy. Writing Prompt: Juan and Gregorio Watanabe are in medieval England--and they belong there.  Explain why.

Dave Farland, aka Dave Wolverton again joins the Writing Excuses team, and helps us discuss boredom. Specifically, we cover how to deal with it, how to go about writing those "boring parts" that come between the exciting bits that fuel your writing passion. We talk about skipping ahead, switching viewpoints, following the pain, and trying to do this in a first-person narrative. And for an episode that claims to be about the "boring parts" this one is fairly action-packed.  Finally. Writing Prompt: Kill the main badguy in every chapter.

This week (and for the following two weeks) the Writing Excuses crew is joined by author Dave Wolverton, who also writes under the name David Farland. This week's topic? ROMANCE. What can four adult males possibly have to say about the subject? The answer: We tell you absolutely everything we know in just sixteen minutes and fifty-one seconds. And there was time left over in there to stick in an advertisement. This week's Writing Excuses is brought to you by Rokit Fuel. That ad Howard recorded was powered in part by two bags of the stuff. They sent us samples, and we plowed through them like a tornado through a trailer park.  

With Brandon still mysteriously missing, Professor Bob Defendi returns to take Dan and Howard on a magical journey through the three-act format: every step, every element, every nuance of this very common and very helpful writing structure. The only way you could conceivably learn more is in a magic school bus, and frankly we don't think that's very likely. This week’s episode is brought to you by Bob's podcast audiobook Death by Cliché, by Robert J. Defendi. No matter how hilarious you think this is going to be, it's actually more hilarious than that. Writing Prompt: Plot out a three act structure for a current project or a new one.

Howard, Dan, and guest Bob Defendi open this episode with some high literary humor. Bob fills in for Brandon as we discuss formulas writers use in crafting stories. But how do we prevent those stories from feeling formulaic? Can the formulas themselves help? We discuss (at a high level) the three-act format, the hero's journey, the romance, the two-act format, try-fail cycles, and others. This week's episode is brought to you by the podcast audiobook Death by Cliché, by Robert J. Defendi. We didn't plug it very hard in the episode itself, but oh, MAN you need to listen to it. Howard hasn't laughed that hard in a long time.

Episode 6, recorded live at Dragon's Keep opens with monkey noises and greeting-card pith, and ends with... well, we'll just let you listen. Is it a storybook ending? What IS a storybook ending? What is a whiz-bang ending? Is the ending the ending, or is the ending followed by a denouement? How important is a good ending? Writing Prompt: Take whatever you're working on right now, look at the ending you have planned now and then come up with two other endings and write all three. This week Writing Excuses is brought to you by Geek at Play Studio.

So you've got a fantastic idea for a book or a short story, but where do you go from there? Who can give the incentive to write, the support to keep going when it gets hard, and the tough love to let you know when it sucks? The answer: a writing group. Writing groups can be difficult to put together and manage, but when everything clicks the rewards can be invaluable. This week we discuss all the ins and outs of how to find fellow writers, organize your group, interpret their advice, and overcome the common pitfalls that might get in the way. This week's Writing Excuses is brought to you by Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

Eric James Stone joins us for our final Mountain-Con episode. This Q&A covers writing part-time (and Dan disqualifies himself from answering this question in future episodes), setting deadlines for yourself, writing plot twists, and providing character description within that character's viewpoint.

No matter how grand your setting, how intense your conflicts, or how tight your plot, at some point you're going to need characters. Join us as we discuss what makes a character interesting, memorable, and unique. Once again, the team is joined by Brandon Mull of "Fablehaven" fame. Brandon Mull’s website This week Writing Excuses is brought to you by the Writing Excuses Season One Collection on CD.

Kids these days with their long hair and their love of reading. It's like, get off my lawn, am I right? But in other news, kids (meaning anything from chapter books to mature YA) read a TON, and somebody has to write those books, and it might as well be you. Learn how to write for children with the Writing Excuses team and special guest star Brandon Mull, author of the wildly successful Fablehaven series. Brandon Mull's website This week Writing Excuses is brought to you by the Writing Excuses Season One Collection on CD.

We talk among ourselves about some episodes of this podcast being "crunchy" and others being "fluffy." "Crunchy" episodes are the ones where we have hard advice about writing. "Fluffy" episodes are the ones where we talk a little more philosophically about the profession. This episode takes "fluffy" to a new, flufftastic level. Here are twenty minutes excerpted from almost sixty minutes we recorded in line at the Hero of Ages book release and signing event at the BYU Bookstore. It's almost like being there, complete with the people in line who have read more of Brandon's books than you have, and will spoil key points in them via t-shirts. We interview these people, and we also interview a few people who have dirty secrets about Brandon, but are unwilling to share them.

You didn't think we'd just keep going with the same old stuff forever, did you? Well, actually we are, but now we're calling it Season 2. This season begins with a series of episodes recorded at Mountain Con in Layton, UT, each of them rife with wisdom and wonder. This week Writing Excuses is brought to you by the Writing Excuses Season One Collection on CD.