Writing Excuses
Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Visit website › Fiction · EN · 1014 episodes · latest 2026-11-08
What it is about
Publisher’s own description, taken unchanged from the podcast feed.
2008-2023 Writing Excuses LLC. 845972
Latest episodes
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People respond really well to symmetry in stories. This can range from having an object from the beginning reappear at the end to having the entire plot mirrored. But why does symmetry work so well, and how can writers…
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Very often, writers get to the two-third or three-quarter mark of work and get stuck, sometimes abandoning it to move on to something shinier. Why does this happen? Well, it’'s a place at which we move from raising…
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Today we're focusing on the mechanics of writing endings: what needs to be resolved, what can be left dangling, and how to give your reader a sense of what has changed. We talk about symmetry between beginnings and…
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Psychotherapist Maureen Murdock invented the Heroine's Journey in response to Joseph Campbell's monomyth Hero's Journey. He reportedly said, "Women don’t need to make the journey, they are the place that everyone is…
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What do you do when "take a break" isn't the answer? We’ve all ahd that feeling, "I’m just too tired to concentrate." This can be because you're worn out from work, or due to chronic fatigue or pain. This week, our…
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What if a character arc had a structure you could actually map? This week, our hosts break down the DREAM arc: denial, resistance, exploration, acceptance, and manifestation. We look at how characters move through these…
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Your life is probably weirder—and more useful to your writing—than you think. This week, our hosts explore how to turn lived experience into fiction, from borrowing sensory details and emotional reactions to reshaping…
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“Tools, not rules” gets flipped on its head this week. Our hosts revisit the Turkey City Lexicon, a snarky collection of writing “rules” that circulated widely among speculative fiction writers in 1988, and ask what…
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How do you keep writing when the world is on fire? This week, our hosts talk about protecting our narrative energy when the news, social media, or our own lives feel overwhelming. We explore boundaries, boredom,…
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A great twist shouldn’t just surprise us—it should make us rethink everything that came before. This week, our hosts explore reader expectations, misdirection, and hiding clues in plain sight. We look at twists from The…
Episode details from the publisher’s feed. Playback happens at the publisher.
Publisher details
- Oldest episode in feed
- 02/2008 · over 18 years
- Typical length
- 20 min
- Format
- Episodic Newest first, episodes stand alone
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