19.10: Introducing Our Close Readings Series

19.10: Introducing Our Close Readings Series

Author: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler March 10, 2024 Duration: 23:30
Writing Excuses
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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 elements of the craft. But this year, we wanted to ground our episodes in specific texts that you could read along– and analyze– with us!

Below is the schedule for each book or short story we’ll be diving into. The date on the right in parenthesis is the air date of the first episode in our series that will begin talking about that text. We highly recommend you read the book by that date, as we will be talking about the entirety of the text for all 5 episodes (including spoilers!) 

First up: This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

You can buy this (and all the other books!) through our bookshop link-- this is linked in our bio in addition to right here:

https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19


Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Voice: This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar (March 17) 

Worldbuilding: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (May 12) 

Character: “You Perfect, Broken Thing,” “The Cook,” and “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home” by CL Clark (July 7) 

Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (September 1) 

Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (October 13) 


Thing of the Week: SHINOBIGAMI: Modern Ninja Battle RPG

Homework: Take a scene from a work that you love and five highlighters/crayons/colored pencils - use one color to underline/highlight places where the voice comes through, one for great worldbuilding, one for character moments, one for any moments of tension, and one for moments that move the plot forward. What colors do you end up with? Where do they overlap? What are the colors of the moments you love the most? What would the colors of one of your scenes be?

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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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

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Podcast Episodes
14.51: A Farewell to Worldbuilding [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:33
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard We've spent all year focusing on worldbuilding, and it's time to move on. Almost. In this episode we try to cover some points we may have missed, we talk about what we…
14.50: Write What You… No. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:21
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Margaret, and Howard We've all heard the adage "write what you know," and in this episode we set out to un-misinterpret it. The phrase is fraught, and perhaps the most perilous bit is…
14.49: Customs and Mores [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:28
Your Hosts: Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab In this episode we discuss how our customs and mores govern our own real-world interactions, and how our understanding of these interactions can be applied to our worldbuildin…
14.48: How to Practice Worldbuilding [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:48
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard The entire year has been about learning how to worldbuild, and we've learned a thing or two ourselves while preparing material for you. In this episode we talk about s…
14.47: Writing Characters With Physical Disabilities [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:55
Your Hosts: Piper, Dan, and Tempest, with special guest Nicola Griffith In this episode we discuss how to faithfully represent people with physical disabilities through the characters we create. Our guest, Nicola Griffit…
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Duration: 19:18
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Margaret, and Howard Among science fiction and fantasy plot devices, the "uncommon resource" trope is common enough to almost seem cliché. Fortunately (?), the economic principle of s…
14.45: Economics [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:17
Your Hosts: Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab Economists tend to see everything as economics, which is kind of how proponents of ANY discipline see their discipline, but it's not a bad way to look at worldbuilding through…
14.44: Realism vs. Rule-of-Cool [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:00
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard Where do you draw the line between what seems plausible, and what would be cool? If you pick "plausible," how do you stay cool? If you pick "cool," how do you avoid kn…
14.43: Sequencing Your Career Genome [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:26
Your Hosts: Howard, Mary Robinette, Dan, and DongWon Let's talk about career planning. It's a lot more than just launching a career by selling a book, and in this episode we talk about the kinds of things we want to be t…
14.42: Alternate History [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:49
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary Robinette, Margaret, and Howard Alternate histories (and historical fantasies) are a staple of genre fiction. In this episode we talk about the worldbuilding process, the tools we use, and the p…

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