20.26: Gaming as a Writing Metaphor

20.26: Gaming as a Writing Metaphor

Author: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler June 29, 2025 Duration: 26:07
What separates the way we experience a game versus the way we experience a prose narrative? Erin Roberts has written for many games, and she loves games particularly because they give the person experiencing the narrative more choice and more direct agency over what happens. This changes the way that we experience story. When you’re writing a game, the main thing you have to figure out is the actions: what are the potential things that could happen—and therefore, what are the verbs? We dive into decision, audience buy in, and ultimately try to answer the question: what does gaming teach us about making and finding meaning? Homework: Take a project you’re working on and imagine that someone is making a game of it. What would that game be? What would be the actions that the characters would be doing? What would be the part of the world that the game would be focused on? Feel free to look at examples of this (like the games that were made based on Lord of the Rings.) P.S. Our 2025 writing retreat (on a cruise! In Mexico!) is over 50% sold out! Learn more and sign up here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook 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
19.47: Final Thoughts on Our Close Reading Series [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:37
We reminisce on when we were on a writing retreat on a cruise in 2023, planning this close reading series. We have loved how this series grounded our conversations, allowing us to dive into works that were complex in spe…
19.46: An Interview on Structure with N.K. Jemisin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:00
We had the pleasure of sitting down with N.K. Jemisin to talk about the structures and processes that helped create The Fifth Season. We talk about outlines, multiple plotlines, and planets as characters. Jemisin lets us…
19.45: A Close Reading on Structure: Tying It All Together [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:21
We’ve loved doing our close reading series throughout 2024, and The Fifth Season has been no different. Today, we’re reflecting on what we learned in our episodes focusing on N.K. Jemisin’s incredible work. We reflect on…
19.44: A Close Reading on Structure: Tradition and Innovation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:12
Today we’re zooming out to see where N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season fits into the canon of fantasy literature. How does Jemisin interact with magic, words, and the expectations of the genre? And what expectations do the…
19.43: A Close Reading on Structure: Parallelism and Inversion [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:27
The structure of The Fifth Season features both mirroring and inversion. How do these structural shifts interact with the three POVs? On today’s episode, we talk about the parallelism of the perspectives and the linguist…
19.42: A Close Reading on Structure: Whose Perspective is it Anyways? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:56
Structure and POV (point of view) are often intertwined. In N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, we see this in the myriad perspective shifts. In this episode, we talk about the importance of these shifts on the structure of…
19.41: A Close Reading on Structure: An Overview and Why Fifth Season [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:32
Just a reminder that we will be talking about a lot of spoilers, so if you haven’t read The Fifth Season, go and do so now! As we dive into N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, we wanted to tell you why we chose this work to…
19.40: An Interview on Tension with P. Djèlí Clark [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:25
We sat down with the author of Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark, in order to wrap up our close reading of tension. We talked with Clark about his influences, which ranged from Birth of a Nation to Beyonce’s “Formation.” We div…
19.39: A Close Reading on Tension: Tying It All Together [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:54
This episode, we’re talking about how important tension is in creating a world where your readers feel fully immersed. We talk about the importance of using tropes and techniques while also using variation in order to ma…