Writing Excuses

It's again time for us to do a Q&A by any other name! * Is it better to include romance, horror, SF, or other genre elements to flesh out a story, or should the story stand alone? * Any tips for de...

12 Mars 201215min

David Brin joined Mary and Dan at World Fantasy to pound the importance of criticism into our heads. Our episode opens with a discussion of what your first book should be (a murder mystery) and why Da...

5 Mars 201218min

Microcasting! This is a fancy word for "Q&A" -- we pick some questions from Twitter, and do what amounts to nine mini-episodes of Writing Excuses with a side of bacon. This time around the questions w...

27 Feb 201216min

Mary and Dan discuss using a city as a character with Sarah Pinborough, for whom London is an important setting and one of her favorite places. We talk about the importance of being accurate, and how ...

20 Feb 201219min

We begin with a definition of Historical Fantasy that allows us narrow the topic and differentiate it from Alternate History. When we say historical fantasy we mean "adding magic to a historical perio...

13 Feb 201218min

Poor Mary. Even after recording an entire season with Brandon, Dan, and Howard, she still scratches her head sometimes and asks herself "why?" "Why does Dan say 'these marshmallows are delicious' in ...

6 Feb 201221min

Dan and Mary were joined by Sam Sykes at World Fantasy, and invited him to talk about sensory writing, which he had recently discussed in a workshop. The heart of the discussion is which senses (typi...

30 Jan 201217min

Brevity! Use fewer words! After the obligatory "we-are-going-to-cut-this-short-after-the-intro" joke, we talk about how we can be appropriately brief, even in the context of writing epic fantasy. Mar...

23 Jan 201215min