Writing Excuses

19.14: A Close Reading on Voice- Epistolary Storytelling Through Voice

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 ...

19.13: A Close Reading on Voice: Blue's Perspective - Confidence and Vulnerability

On our third episode diving into Voice through the novella “This Is How You Lose The Time War,” we begin to explore the different voices that make up the two main characters in the story. Last episode we dove into Red’s voice– if you haven’t already, we recommend you listen to that first! 

Today, we are doing a close read of Blue at the tea shop and how voice establishes character, growth, and vulnerability. How do the authors make Blue’s voice distinct from Red’s? Is...

19:12: A Close Reading on Voice - Red's Perspective - Muscular Prose

Today, we are doing a very close read of Red's opening narration and how Red’s voice communicates both character and world in an effective and efficient way. We read several sections aloud and dive into what each sensory detail is doing. Also Mary Robinette talks about what she thinks is the most effective way to draw your readers attention to something. 

Thing of the Week: 2024-03-24 08:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

March Q and A is tonight!

This month's Q&A is tonight at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Your hosts this month are DongWon Song and Howard Tayler!

For this month we are using our new way to run the Q&As (and it was tested by the hosts so we know it works!) 

If you are at the Interactive Q&A tier or above you can join DongWon and Howard in a Zoom room. They will open the room about fifteen minutes before the livestream starts for pre-questions and then at 8 PM they will start streaming and answer the...

19.11: A Close Reading on Voice- An Overview, and Why Time War

The book that became a New York Times Bestseller because of a tweet. Well, it won LOTS of awards when it came out, but it was rediscovered by a Twitter account with a large following. So-- let's get into it!

On our first episode diving into Voice using the short novel "This Is How You Lose The Time War", we talk about why Voice is essential and some working definitions of how we want to talk about it. We also explain why we chose this book and highlight some of the things it's done well...

If you didn't see this tweet when it first took the internet by storm, here's your second chance.

Go get a copy ASAP so you can join us in our episodes analyzing why it's

so

freaking

good

!!!

Our first episode talking about VOICE in "This is How You Lose the Time War" will air on March 17th! 

A reminder that we have ad-free episodes available via Patreon-- and you will also then get access to our Discord server! We'd love to grow that community, so please join us if you haven't already. 

You're out of excuses......

19.10: Introducing Our Close Readings Series

You’ve probably seen us posting about our Close Reading Series, and in his episode, we finally officially introduce it!

For most of the remainder of 2024, we’ll be diving into five core elements of writing by focusing on five different literary texts. We’ll spend five episodes on each one, and then we’re going to… drumroll please… interview the author(s)!

As you know, we’ve spent lots of time reading, writing, talking, and recording our thoughts about different eleme...

Here is our reading list for our Close Reading Series

Feel free to reference this! The date on the far right is the date of the first episode that will talk about the text! We recommend having it read by that date, as we will be talking about all parts of the book for all the episodes (that means spoilers!) 

19.09: LIVE Recording - Rituals, Rights, and Traditions

Hosts Erin and DongWon are joined by Fonda Lee and Mahtab Narsimhan for a special episode about creating traditions in your fictional writing. In this episode, we'll explore some of the following:

-How do you build traditions and rituals in your fictional world (choosing what becomes a tradition or ritual and what doesn’t)?

-How can you use rituals or traditions to advance a novel’s plot, give characters more depth, and create conflict?

-What are the pitfalls to avoid (d...

Introducing Our Close Reading Series

Hello Writers & Listeners,

We have exciting news. In 18 days, we'll be starting our close reading series-- it's sort of like a book club for writers!

We'll introduce the series in our episode on March 10th, and then we'll dive right into talking about our first book on March 17! The first one will be "This is How You Lose the Time War" by Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar.

We’ll be diving into 5 elements of writing by focusing on five different literary ...

19.08: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Working with an Editor

An agent, an editor, and a writer walk into a Zoom room and record a podcast... but really... that's (part of) what this episode is!

First off, a reminder that your agent, your editor, and you are all on the same team! They are all trying to make the same book (your book!) a better book. Whether you've published before or are just starting your first short story, we are so excited for you to dive into this episode.

For our final episode in our three-part series on revising your Na...

Q&A is Tonight

This month's Q&A is tonight at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Your hosts this month are DongWon Song and Howard Tayler!

For this month we are using our new way to run the Q&As. If you are at the Interactive Q&A tier or above you can join DongWon and Howard in a Zoom room. They will open the room about fifteen minutes before the livestream starts for pre-questions and then at 8 PM they will start streaming and answer the submitted questions. You will be able to use the Zoom chat to as...

19.07: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Intention

For our second episode in this three-part series on revising your NaNoWriMo novel—or any other larger project you have—we are diving into intentions with Tor editor Ali Fisher. We asked her how she helps writers figure out what their books are about, and how she helps set intentions for revisions.

Ali talks with us about how its important to be kind to yourself -- and your writing-- during the revision process. She also gives us advice for how you, as a writer, can lean into what yo...

Revision Template

Here is the Revision Template that Mahtab Narsimhan mentions in episode 19:05.

19.06: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Length

Ali Fisher, editor at Tor Books and member of the podcast Rude Tales of Magic, joins us for a three-part series on editing.

First up: length! How do you edit your work—whether it's a book or a short story or a novella? Maybe you wrote a draft during NaNoWriMo, maybe you didn't-- either way, we want to help you figure out how to make your writing the perfect length.

Homework: Find two scenes next to each other from your writing. Remove the scene break an...

19:05: LIVE Recording - Revisions with Mahtab Narsimhan

Some writers love revisions and some would rather scrub the toilet than revise their writing. On this episode, we are joined by author Mahtab Narsimhan, who many will recognize as a host from past seasons! Mahtab talks with our hosts about how she thinks about revisions. How do you revise your writing? What is the difference between revising and rewriting? Mahtab describes her favorite techniques and provides tips to make it more manageable.

Homework Assignment from Mahtab Narsi...