Writing Excuses

In this episode we field some questions about elemental mystery. Here they are! * How do you balance between two mysteries in the same story? * What types of mysteries can fit well as sub-plots? ...

26 Jun 201619min

Per our Elemental Genre theme, this week we further explore elemental mystery. Elemental mystery can be found in any work in which our curiosity is what keeps us turning pages. The type of satisfactio...

19 Jun 201617min

We talk a lot about "raising the stakes" in our writing. When we say "stakes," we're referring to the things that keep our characters involved in the conflict, rather than just walking away and doing ...

12 Jun 201618min

Mystery may well be the most common element in use, at least in some form or another, across the many bookshelf genres comprising "fiction." We discuss the driving force of elemental mystery, how to e...

5 Jun 201619min

Shannon Hale joins us at LTUE for a live-audience session in which we explore gender biases, and extrapolate from there to our many other unconscious biases. Our unconscious biases are not just the t...

29 Mai 201620min

Steve Diamond joins us for our third and final Elemental Horror episode as we field your questions about this particular building block. Here are the questions we selected from your submissions: * I...

22 Mai 201620min

Steve Diamond joins us again to talk horror, this time about using elemental horror as part of our stories' elemental ensemble. We discuss how the sense of dread can be a page-turning motivation, and ...

15 Mai 201622min

How do we go about describing the clothing our characters are wearing? How do we use that to add depth to our story? What are the common mistakes that writers make when they start dressing their chara...

8 Mai 201619min