13.5: Villain, Antagonist, Obstacle
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What's the difference between villains and antagonists? How is an obstacle character different from those other two? How are they alike? And most importantl...
4 Feb 201818min
13.4: Protagonists Who Aren’t Sympathetic
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard This week we're joined by Valynne Maetani, who'll be one of our hosts all year. We're discussing protagonists who, per writer intent, do not engender aud...
28 Jan 201820min
13.3: What Writers Get Wrong, with Aliette de Bodard
Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard This year's third-week episodes will all follow a common theme: "what writers get wrong." Each of these episodes will feature an expert guest who will help ...
21 Jan 201822min
13.2: Writing Active Characters
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice This week we welcome Amal El-Mohtar and Maurice Broaddus to the Writing Excuses cast for a discussion of active characters. We cover characters who move s...
14 Jan 201819min
13.1: Hero, Protagonist, Main Character
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard 2018 is our Year of Character, and we kick it off with a quick exploration of the differences between heroes, protagonists, and main characters. Beginning w...
7 Jan 201817min
12.53: Writing Excuses True Confessions
It's the end of 2017, so let's talk about the things that we've tried to make work, and failed at. Not things that we tried before arriving at career-level measures of success—things that we've folded...
31 Dec 201729min
12.52: Cross-Genres as Gateways
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Howard, and Dan What are the books which have drawn us from the bookshelf genres where you're the most comfortable into bookshelves you haven't read from? What can we lear...
24 Dec 201717min
12.51: Constructed Languages, with Dirk Elzinga
Your Hosts: Howard, Mary, Dan, with guest host Beth Meacham Dirk Elzinga, an associate professor of linguistics, joined us live at LTUE to talk about constructed languages, and how we, as writers, mi...
17 Dec 201718min
