November 2009 – Writing Excuses: Recent Episodes
Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler
Sorry! Brandon, Dan, and I recorded episodes 27 and 28 last night, but Jordo is out of town and hasn’t had a chance to prep the files for posting. We should have Episode 3.27 posted tomorrow.
Dan, Howard, and Jordo descended into the basement at Dragon’s Keep where members of the local NaNoWriMo chapter were attempting to bolster their word-counts for the day. We talked to them about National Novel Writing Month, and about the things that were getting them stuck. Good times! Writing Prompt: Kill one of your characters with … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 26: NaNoWriMo →
Dan and Howard are again joined by Jake Black, who writes comics (and some other things) for a living. Jake tells us how he got into the business, and we talk about how this might be applied to other folks. But you can’t do it exactly the way he did it because they’ve bricked that … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 25: The Business of Writing Comics →
Jake Black fills in for Brandon “#1 New York Times Bestselling Author” Sanderson this week, and that’s perfect because Jake writes comics and Brandon doesn’t. So mostly this is Dan holding Jake’s and my feet to the fire. We’ll talk about the business of writing comics next week. This week it’s more nuts-and-bolts, and we … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 24: Writing Comics with Jake Black →
Question: Can you write a good book without a plot twist? Better question: is it a good book if your readers predicted what was coming? Best question: is a podcast about predictable prose itself predictable? No, seriously… the best question is “how can we use predictable, formulaic plotting effectively?” We actually answer that one. Writing … Continue reading Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 23: How to Write Without Twists →