15.08: Q&A on a Ship

15.08: Q&A on a Ship

Author: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler February 24, 2020 Duration: 26:39
Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, DongWon, and Howard

At WXR 19 we recorded live, and took audience questions aboard the ship. Here they are! (You'll have to listen to the episode for the answers.)

* What have you learned in the past year that has improved your craft?
* When you're having trouble, how do you know if it's "I don't feel like writing" or "there's a problem with the manuscript?"
* How far ahead do you plan your careers?
* How do you tell when a fight/battle/showdown is going on for too long?
* How do you continue to learn and improve on your craft?
* How do you manage and prioritize your time when you're working on multiple projects?
* How do you feel about multiple first-person POVs in a single book?
* What are the most important elements to include on the last page of your book?
* What are some things we can do to strengthen our voice when writing in third person?
* How do you decide who to have as alpha and beta readers?
* In secondary world stories, how do you decide whether to call a horse a horse?
* How much leeway will an editor or agent give a story when it's not ready, but it shows promise?

Liner Notes: "Sometimes Writer's Block is Really Depression"
Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson Our Sponsors: * Check out HomeServe and use my code homeserve.com/excuses for a great deal: https://www.homeserve.com * Check out Talkiatry and use my code Talkiatry.com/WX for a great deal: https://www.talkiatry.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It’s a common piece of advice: if you want to be a writer, you should write. But what happens when you’re staring at the blank page, or when the business side of publishing feels like a maze? That’s where Writing Excuses comes in. Each week, hosts Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler gather not just to talk about writing, but to dissect it. They move quickly, respecting your time while packing episodes with actionable discussions on technique, from character voice to plot structure. But this podcast understands that a writing life isn’t just about craft-it’s also a career. So conversations naturally pivot to the practicalities of the business, navigating careers, and sustaining creativity in a demanding field. You’ll hear five distinct professional perspectives blending into a single, focused conversation designed to get you past excuses and back to your work. It’s like a regular, invigorating workshop session delivered directly to you, meant to equip you with tools for both your manuscript and your professional path.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 500

Writing Excuses
Podcast Episodes
16.18: Poetry and the Fantastic [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:57
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard For the last seven episodes we've explored language, meaning, and their overlap with that thing we mean when we use language to say "poetry." In this episode we step back…
16.17: The Time To Rhyme [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:22
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Rhyming is powerful. It can signal a form, or telegraph whimsy. It can be predictable, surprising, and sometimes both. It may also be seen as childish. When, then, is it…
16.16: Poetic Structure: Part II [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:57
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard How does a poem happen? Absent an external structure, what makes a thing a poem? The key word in that question may be "external," because ultimately the poem on the page…
16.15: Poetic Structure, Part I [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:15
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Rigorous structure in poetic form is commonly pointed at when we declare Poems have meters and rhymes, as the norm. Yet words without patterns can roar like a storm So wh…
16.14: Poetic Language [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:35
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard We might begin with description. Or we might begin by deconstructing the act of describing. Wait. No, not there. Let's jump in AFTER the deconstruction. Let's leap beyond…
16.13: Day Brain vs. Night Brain [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:31
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Patterns in the way we're speaking may betray which 'brain' we're using; often bound by what's familiar, sometimes loosed for free-er choosing. Writing like the day-brain…
16.12 : Singing Versus Speaking [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:17
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Can you hear your writing sing, being intoned instead of read? With the dialogs as tunes whose tags say "sung" instead of "said?" When the rhythm of your prose echoes the…
16.11: What is Poetry? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:16
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard This is how we begin our master class on poetry, with Amal El-Mohtar: With not one question, but two. * What is poetry? * What is prose? Yes, both questions are a trap. O…
16.10: Paying it Forward, with Kevin J. Anderson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:11
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard, with special guest Kevin J. Anderson Kevin J. Anderson joins us to talk about how others have helped us in our careers, and how we might continue that tradition and help…
16.9: Crossing The Revenue Streams [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:58
Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, and Howard How many different ways can our writing earn money for us? What additional work, besides "just" writing, do we need to do in order to get that money? In this episode we discuss…