Writing Excuses

Lou Anders joins Dan, Howard, and Mary for a discussion of endings. We begin by talking about how important it is to "stick your landing" at the end of the book, and then recap the Hollywood Formula t...

17 Okt 201118min

Pitching your work... authors often have difficulty with it. Even authors who have no trouble spinning a fantastic story may find themselves at a loss telling people ABOUT that story in a way that mak...

10 Okt 201118min

Lou Anders, Hugo-winning editorial director from Pyr books, joins Mary, Dan, and Howard at Dragon*Con for a discussion of the Hollywood Formula. Lou shared this with Mary originally, and she used it t...

2 Okt 201120min

Peter Ahlstrom, assistant to Brandon Sanderson, and Valerie Dowbenko, assistant to Pat Rothfuss, join Brandon and Dan to talk about what they do for "their authors." While this may seem like an incre...

25 Sep 201121min

Keffy Kehrli joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard in front of a live audience at WorldCon 69 in Reno. He's a Writers of the Future winner, a few votes short of being a Campbell Award nominee, and a female-...

19 Sep 201120min

In our second WorldCon 69 episode we're joined by Lauren Beukes, whose novels Moxyland and Zoo City are excellent case studies for writing in other cultures. It's a difficult subject, and anybody vent...

12 Sep 201118min

Patrick Rothfuss joins Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard at WorldCon 69, where we recorded before a live, enthusiastic audience. The topic? Suspension of disbelief, specifically, how to get your readers...

5 Sep 201119min

Let's talk commo! How does the ubiquity of communication tech affect your story? How far out of your own experience do you need to step in order to build a culture whose communications are believable?...

29 Aug 201116min