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Podcast / feed author: Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells
description: Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Recent Episodes:
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 30: The Most Important Thing Howard Learned In The Last Year released on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 23:34
This is the first of a three-part series in which Brandon, Dan, and Howard tell each other (and you, of course) about the most important thing each of them has learned in the past year. We start with Howard, who seems to believe that of all the many things he’s learned about writing in the [...]
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 29: How not to end your book released on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 03:40
Let’s talk about failure… but let’s talk about it so that we can avoid it. How do you know if your ending has flopped? What kind of approaches to ending a story should you be avoiding? How can you recognize these approaches in time to avoid them? The best approach? Identify the promises you’ve made [...]
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 28: Applying Critical Reading: “Watchmen” released on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 00:49
Last week we talked about reading critically, reading as writers. This week we decided to apply that critical reading skill to Watchmen, the Hugo award-winning graphic novel by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. We start (once we get past the donuts in our mouths) by breaking it down into character, [...]
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 27: Reading Critically released on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 00:43
As a writer you obviously know how to read. But being a writer changes how you read, and what you read, and even why you read. Do you read more, or less as a writer? How do you read so that your reading doesn’t interfere with writing? How do you channel your reading into bettering [...]
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 26: How Publishing is Changing in the new Century released on Mon, 04/06/2009 - 00:37
Nancy Fulda, assistant editor at Baen’s Universe and editor-in-chief and founder of Anthology Builder, joins us again while Dan Wells is out celebrating his birthday. We discuss the rise of digital SF magazines, and touch on concepts like user-generated content, the Superconducting Copy Machine, and disruptive technology. We talk about print-on-demand vs. self-publishing, we laugh [...]
- Writing Excuses Episode 632: Now that we’ve got time travel what do we do with it? released on Wed, 04/01/2009 - 07:48
This… THIS is why speculative fiction writers should never be trusted with actual technology.
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 25: The Seven Deadly Sins of Slush Stories released on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 02:04
Nancy Fulda fills in for Dan for this week’s episode (he was sick, she was in town, huzzah!) but she’s more than just “filling in.” She’s FEATURED. Nancy is the assistant editor for Jim Baen’s Universe, and as such is probably the one who rejected your story. Nancy is also the editor-in-chief and founder of [...]
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 24: Writing Habits and Q&A with Tracy Hickman released on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 04:45
Tracy Hickman joins us again at “Life, The Universe, and Everything,” and in this episode we let Brandon ask him random questions while Dan and Howard chime in with comments that hopefully don’t detract from the discussion.
During the interview Tracy mentions his latest project, XDM: Extreme Dungeon Mastery, but he doesn’t mention the very latest [...]
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 23: Avoiding the Cliché with Tracy Hickman released on Mon, 03/16/2009 - 14:19
We took Writing Excuses on the road last month for “Life, The Universe, and Everything,” the symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy at Brigham Young University. The Guests of Honor were Tracy and Laura Hickman, and poor Tracy agreed to join us for a podcast or two, recorded in front of a live audience.
After the [...]
- Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 22: Marketing 201, Branding for Authors released on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 02:53
“Branding,” not “Brandon,” just so we’re clear. Brand-ING.
We open with the definition of “branding,” talking about what it is, and (just as importantly) what it is not. With that out of the way we forge ahead and talk about author brands, brand messaging, and why any of this really matters. We throw down a few [...]
