Writing Excuses

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

Animals and plants, round two! We begin this episode with examples where we think people did their flora and fauna wrong, or poorly, or at least in ways we can poke easy holes in. Our examples include...

16 Jan 201217min

Let's build the plants and animals for your science fiction or fantasy book! We begin with a discussion about naming, and about deciding how much evolutionary biology to put into creating cool beasti...

9 Jan 201215min

Welcome to Writing Excuses Season 7! Let's start with a trip to the dark side! How do you take a good character and make them evil? And why would you want to do this? Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard a...

2 Jan 201219min

Merry Christmas! Here's the last episode of Writing Excuses Season 6! We decided to end the season with a discussion of endings. Specifically, we answer cries for help that we've gotten. The cries ans...

26 Dec 201120min

Let's talk about character foils, and how to use them. We begin with a definition of character foils, expertly read by Mary. Then we talk about some archetypes, like the straight-man and the funny-guy...

19 Dec 201115min

Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman from the Interstitial Arts Foundation join Mary and Dan at World Fantasy to discuss things that fall into the gaps between the genres. How do publishers, agents, and b...

12 Dec 201119min

It's the Writing Excuses Fantasy Setting Yard Sale! In this experimental (at least for us) 'cast, Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard build a couple of fantasy settings for you, and they're free. Seriousl...

4 Dec 201117min