With today?s episode, we are continuing our discussion on proximity by focusing on another POV: third person omniscient. In omniscient POV, the narrator can see all and move into any character's head. It's sometimes seen as old fashioned, like Jane Austen. But writers like John Scalzi and Liza Palmer are using it to good effect as a way of exerting control over exactly what the audience sees in ways that are similar to a filmmaker. So why is it so hard to do well? And what does it allow the writer to do that no other voice does?

Homework: Describe a street scene where your main character is walking down the street. Move us through this scene through the perspective of 5-6 bystanders observing this happening. Focus on sensory details: what is everybody seeing/ smelling/ looking at? And how does this establish where your main character is in the scene? 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Third person limited is one of the most popular storytelling lenses. Yet it is often understood differently by various authors and readers. So today we?re diving into the complexities, intricacies, and beautiful constraints of third person limited?don?t worry, we?ll be tackling third person omniscient in our next episode! 

With third person limited POV, you get to use some of the tools of first person, while being able to back away from the character a little. We?re going to address the various levels of interiority and proximity that characters are afforded, why this matters, and what it would look like in your own writing. 

Homework: Take a scene that you?ve written and write it in the closest third person limited that you can possibly stand. Then, write it again at a slightly more distanced, but still limited, third person. Look at these two scenes side-by-side and ask yourself: what did I do differently in each? What did I emphasize? Then, figure out which perspective you want to use when actually writing this scene. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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We?re now going to have a few episodes focusing on the lens of proximity?specifically, how close you are to a character. Today, we?re talking about first person. First person seems like it would be one of the most natural forms of storytelling, because it's the one we use when talking about our own actions. But how do we use first person effectively? How close we are to the character and how much we get to know of their motivation and reaction can be controlled through interiority and embodiment. This often ends up defining the POV that we use in our stories. We'll talk about which tools are specific to first person, as well as flag pitfalls to watch out for.

Homework: Go pick up a book that you love. Find a scene that you think is really great that is not in first person. Then, rewrite that scene in first person from the POV of a character in the scene. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today, we?re returning to different personal metaphors for how we all think about writing and storytelling. In this episode, we?re talking about how DongWon uses fashion as a helpful metaphor to think about storytelling. For both fashion and writing, whether you know it or not, you are already engaging with it every single day of your life. You are writing emails, you are communicating with the people around you, you?re dressing yourself, you?re wearing certain things and not others, and you?re ordering pizza! But what?s the difference between ordering a pizza and performing a poem? Well, lots of things, but mostly intention and deliberateness. 

Note: In this episode, we mention cooking as a metaphor?this episode hasn?t aired yet but will in May!

Homework: Take one article of clothing from your closet and build three different looks around it. One for everyday wear, one for a family function, and one for a night out

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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This episode was recorded live at our 2024 Writing Excuses Cruise. (Did you know that we host a writing retreat on a cruise every year!?! You can learn more at https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/.) 

While on a boat in Mexico, we were joined by author Mark Oshiro and literary agent Kate McKean. In addition to our hosts, they answered questions that were asked by our cruise attendees. Our answers included things such as how much space a character should take up and how to find the balance between plot-focused and character-focused novels. We also tackled questions about worldbuilding, motivation, and deadlines. 

Homework: Ask someone a question about writing, either to learn more about what they're working on or to work through a project of your own.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Sandra Tayler, Mark Oshiro, and Kate McKean. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today we have the pleasure of talking with author (and longtime listener!) Chuck Tingle. We invited him on the podcast to talk about breaking the rules?both in terms of how to publish and what to publish. Chuck told us about the business and creative rules that he has upended?he doesn?t do readings, he is anonymous (during our interview he wore a pink bag over his head), and he thinks you should tell and show. Chuck then shares some of his favorite failures, what he learned from them, and how failures actually aren?t real. Also featured on today?s episode: puppet bloopers, approaching art, and why LOVE IS REAL. 

You can learn more about Chuck Tingle here. 

Chuck?s Thing of the Week: The FrankenStand (a vegan hotdog stand in LA that serves horror-themed hot dogs)

Homework: Choose a section from your current Work In Progress (WIP). Think of the writing rule that you?re treating as the North Star of Writing At Large (what would the English Department hammer into you?). Try to rewrite that section without that rule or doing the opposite of the rule. Then, look at it and see what changes that makes. Is there a version of your writing where you can use this as a tool, and not a rule? 

P.S. Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dongwon Song, and Howard Tayler. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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What do emotional beats and action scenes have in common? Well, they both need to land with your audience in order for your story not to fall flat. On today?s episode, we?re talking about the importance of reaction. Everything from portraying your characters? reactions to letting readers sit with?and witness? these reactions. The actions that a character takes?or doesn?t take? as a part of their reaction let the audience know what they are thinking and feeling. And this lets the audience react alongside the character, even if they haven?t experienced (in their own life) what just happened to the character. We?ll give you tips and tricks for building this level of resonance between your characters and readers.

Homework: Look at one of your characters? reactions and flip it. If they take an action that escalates a situation, how would that scene play if their reaction de-escalated the situation? Can you still get to the end point that you want? 

P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Dongwon Song, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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This week, we?re continuing our conversation about the lens of who. On last week?s episode we talked about a character?s motivation and goals. Now, we?re starting to think about tension in the form of a character?s stakes and fears. The fears that a character has and the stakes that they face create the story that exists around them. These tensions also help move them through the story. 

So, how can you use stakes and fears to start? and build? your story? The answer may surprise you. Hint: you may not want to open with your character dangling off a cliff. 

Homework: Make a list of all the major fears that your main character has. Take your MC (main character), and draw a map of all the characters that your MC is connected to. Now, describe those relationships in one sentence or less. Now, compare this list of relationships with the list of fears. See if these two lists are in conversation with each other. Are they supporting each other or are they completely disconnected? If they are disconnected, start thinking about how you could bring these two lists closer together to establish a feedback loop between relationships and fears. 

P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Dongwon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Do you know what your characters want? And is there a deeper desire underneath that one? 

A character's motivations can help make them "relatable," drive the story's momentum, and create obstacles. Additionally, characters/ desires can serve different parts of themselves, which can help make them complex and multifaceted. But what is a good character motivation and how do you share it with your readers? 

Homework: Write a scene from a secondary POVs character. Pick a concrete goal for them that is NOT the protagonist's goal. How does that change the way they react in the scene?

P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Dongwon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Have you ever wondered how much you need to know about a specific character before you start your story? Do you need to have an entire outline of their childhood before you can start writing in depth about them? We don?t think so! But it is important to listen to these questions as they emerge. This can help you figure out how to incorporate facets of each character?s identity that have narrative weight, instead of crowding the story with small facts that might not be necessary. This can help you layer and backfill as you build out ? and discover? your story. 

Homework: Identify something from your character's life before your story begins - write a scene in which that element of the character weighs on the scene but is never explicitly mentioned.

P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dongwon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today we are introducing the ?lens of who? ? which means talking about characters. We try to break big character ideas down into their elements. For instance, what do terms like "relatability" or "depth" of character really mean? 

One of the main take-aways from this episode is that your characters each have different sets of experiences, which *should* mean they could each describe the same exact thing differently. And you should know how to write this. 

Homework: Interview two friends and yourself, asking them the questions below. Write down their answers (and yours) as completely as possible.

1) The most pain they've had

2) The happiest memory they think of first

3) A description of a person and circumstance that positively and dramatically influenced them *before the age of 18*. Family member, teacher, boss at 1st job, etc.

P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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For our 20th season, we are focusing on this belief: that the lived experience that we all have affects the way we think about writing. We?ve all heard Mary Robinette talk about puppetry for seventeen (or so) seasons. Today, she dives into puppetry as a metaphor that helps her understand writing? specifically character, voice, and genre. And she invites you to start thinking about metaphors you can use and make in your own life to help you think about writing in a new way. 

Homework: Watch a puppet show. 

P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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One of the most important tools that a writer brings to their work is their own personal lens. This is shaped by your hobbies, your job, your history, and your experiences. In this season, we're going to be looking at personal lenses as well as the narrative lens through which stories are told. We'll look at how the questions of Who, Where, When, and Why shape a story. Also, we're going to do a Deep Dive later in the year with the novel All The Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, in which we analyze it using the lens we've been talking about.

Homework: What lenses from your non-writing life shape the way you see things? 

P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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This episode was recorded live at our 2024 Writing Excuses Cruise. (Did you know that we host a writing retreat on a cruise every year!?! You can learn more at https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/.) 

While on a boat in Mexico, we were joined by author Mark Oshiro and literary agent Kate McKean. In addition to our hosts, they answered questions that were asked by our cruise attendees. Our answers included things such as how much space a character should take up and how to find the balance between plot-focused and character-focused novels. We also tackled questions about worldbuilding, motivation, and deadlines. 

Homework: Ask someone a question about writing, either to learn more about what they're working on or to work through a project of your own.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Erin Roberts, Mark Oshiro, and Kate McKean. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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For our 20th season, we are focusing on your toolbox. We?re going to be thinking about tools in terms of the lenses that we use to approach a story. We?re going to focus on the four lenses of: who, where, when, and why (don?t worry? what and how will be looked at in a later season, since they?re more about execution and less about lenses.) Our hosts talk about the lenses they?re adopting as they look towards 2025. 

At the end of this season, we?re going to take all these lenses and apply them to one work: All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. 

A note: we will now only have ?thing of the week? occasionally, and not regularly! 

Homework: Make a list of the tools you already have in your toolbox. Now, as an intention, think of an area that you want a tool for. Over the course of this year, we?re going to try to help you find that tool. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today, we?re reflecting on 2024. Individually, all of us went through a lot throughout the year?we encountered myriad speed bumps that slowed us down in different ways.. How do you balance your workload with your own personal life and its needs? How can you help make navigating these speedbumps easier by knowing your own limits and needs? We give you specific questions you can ask yourself in order to locate your problem points and figure out how to rearrange your life (and your stories about your own life) in order to not over-exhaust yourself.  

Thing of the Week: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Homework: Once a day for the next week, identify and write down something that is causing you pain. At the end of your week, look through your list and identify the one that is causing the most pain, and try to bulldoze it. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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As the end of Season 19 approaches, we want to help you integrate what you?ve learned over the year. For December, we?ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents?we?re here to help you finish the year strong.

Today, we?re thinking about endings?specifically, what endings have in common with beginnings. When you?re coming to your conclusion, you can revisit the start of your work in order to get clues for how you should end it. You can also revisit your favorite works of fantasy fiction, which we?ve noticed often wraps things up with big climactic moments that don?t lose track of smaller moments of impact. Additionally, we talk about surprising versus inevitable endings, what Toy Story got right, and Howard?s rule for the last third of a story. 

Thing of the Week: Chants of Sennaar

Homework: Think of how what you?ve been writing recently is going to end. What might be the next scene you need to write? Write that. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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We had the pleasure of sitting down with Gabriela Pereira, founder and instigator of DIY MFA, which is the do-it-yourself alternative to a Master of Arts in Writing. Pereira has some incredible advice for how to put together a writing curriculum for yourself. Using the pillars of writing, reading, and community, she explains how she first came up with the idea for DIY MFA. We also talk about how to build a well-rounded craft, how to know what you don?t know, and what exactly it means to ?write with focus.?

Thing of the Week: DIY MFA Starter Kit

Homework: Observe your own habits! Think about your writing time like a pie: 1 slice for writing, 1 slice for reading, and 1 slice for community. Draw a circle at the end of every day and map out how much time you spent doing each of these three things. Do this for several weeks, and watch the patterns that emerge! 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. Our guest was Gabriela Pereira. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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As the end of Season 19 approaches, we want to help you integrate what you?ve learned over the year. For December, we?ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents?we?re here to help you finish the year strong.

How do you have multiple plot threads moving at the same time? Today, we?re talking about complex plot structures?focusing on space opera and epic fantasy. Some of the questions we?re tackling are: how do you escalate existing problems, how do you juggle multiple climaxes at once, and what are the cascading effects of each? We ask each host about their unique approaches to writing larger projects. We talk about the utility of multiple POVs and what fast food can teach you about escalating problems (somebody?s gonna get burnt buns). 

Thing of the Week: Laboratory Conditions 

Homework: Take a piece of technology you?ve already introduced to your work. Find out a new, cool way you can use it in the next scene that you?re writing. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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As we wrap up our Close Reading Series, we?re shifting our focus towards helping you integrate what you?ve learned. For December, we?ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents?we?re here to help you finish the year strong.

What can we learn from romances? Today we?re talking about using elements of romance in your story (even if you have no romance in your current WIP!) Character relationships and dynamics are often at the heart of our stories, so what can we learn from the romance genre? 

We?re thinking about the power of one character putting another one at ease, a character dismissing another (?I?ll never be interested in you!?), or two characters finding a commonality between themselves. Mary Robinette also introduces us to her family?s theory of compatibility, which measures these M-words: mind, money, morals, manners, monogamy, and mirth. 

Thing of the Week: Ancient History Fangirl (podcast)

Homework: In the scene you?re working on, what is one thing your character finds attractive about the other character in the scene? Also, what does your own character think is their own least attractive trait, and how can you make them more anxious about that right now?

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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As we wrap up our Close Reading Series, we?re shifting our focus towards helping you integrate what you?ve learned. For December, we?ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents?we?re here to help you finish the year strong.

Today, we?re focusing on beginnings. The titular phrase ?beginning with a thrill,? doesn?t have to mean a burst of action or violence, but more so refers to how you hook your reader within the first few pages of whatever you?re writing. A great example of this is Toy Story, which we dive into at the end of this episode. Dan encourages us to shift our focus from starting with tension to starting with a thrill. How do you introduce conflict into your work while taking into consideration your genre? How do you establish?and then break? the ?normal? in your world? DongWon talks about micro-tropes, and encourages us to steal and borrow from various genres. Also on this episode: meat cubes versus meet cutes. They?re different, even though they sound (phonetically) the same.

Thing of the week: The Favourite (movie) 

Homework: What breaks ?normal? for your character right now? Now, write that.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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What does it mean to be building a career as an author in this day and age? We talk with author and speaker Andrew Buckley about everything from author brands to conferences while we ask Andrew to give us advice on how to get comfortable talking about yourself. In addition to hosting the StoryCentric podcast and speaking at conferences, Andrew is a speculative fiction author, with a focus on paranormal fantasy for young adult readers. He also has a background in marketing and business. 

Thing of the Week: Fallout (TV show on Amazon Prime) & ?The Watchers? by A.M. Shine

Homework: Try something that scares you. 

Special Offer: Do you want 20% off a signed special edition copy of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin? You can order The Orbit Gold Edition set at orbitgoldeditions.com, and use the code ?excuses? for 20% off! 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal,Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. Our guest was Andrew Buckley. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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We reminisce on when we were on a writing retreat on a cruise in 2023, planning this close reading series. We have loved how this series grounded our conversations, allowing us to dive into works that were complex in specific ways. We have loved wading into the waters of voice, world-building, character, tension, and structure while talking about these phenomenal works of science fiction and fantasy. 

Thank you, listeners, for reading along with us. It has been powerful to read the same books, and to feel connected to you all through the Patreon, Discord, Instagram, and emails. 

Thing of the Week: Forget Protagonists: Writing NPCs with Agency 

Homework: Get a group of friends together, and pick a book you love. Discuss and unpack what makes the book work. Then, tell us what it is by tagging us on Instagram, @writing_excuses. 

Special Offer: Do you want 20% off a signed special edition copy of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin? You can order The Orbit Gold Edition set at orbitgoldeditions.com, and use the code ?excuses? for 20% off! 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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We had the pleasure of sitting down with N.K. Jemisin to talk about the structures and processes that helped create The Fifth Season. We talk about outlines, multiple plotlines, and planets as characters. Jemisin lets us into her writing process?ranging from  the influence of poetry in her work to her process of writing ?test chapters.? She also gives us advice on writing multiple POVs, the power of parallelism, and the intersection of mental health and storytelling. 

Thing of the Week: Alan Wake II (N.K. Jemisin?s recommendation) 

Homework: Imagine you are in a game where you are presented with 3 different attitude-oriented choices. Take your protagonist from your current work in progress and put them through these attitudinal-flavored choices. What happens if you continue your character does the diplomatic thing? What happens if you have them snap? Explore!

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. Our guest was P. Djèlí Clark. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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We?ve loved doing our close reading series throughout 2024, and The Fifth Season has been no different. Today, we?re reflecting on what we learned in our episodes focusing on N.K. Jemisin?s incredible work. We reflect on POV as structure, parallelism, and finding the beating heart of your manuscript.  

Thing of the Week: I Saw the TV Glow 

Homework: Reverse engineer an outline for your work in progress. Then, try to add one parallel.

?Do you want a signed special edition copy of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin? Preorder The Orbit Gold Edition set before November 19th to get 20% off! Visit orbitgoldeditions.com to order. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today we?re zooming out to see where N.K. Jemisin?s The Fifth Season fits into the canon of fantasy literature. How does Jemisin interact with magic, words, and the expectations of the genre? And what expectations do the readers bring themselves? 

How does Jemisin repurpose parts of the hero?s journey while creating something fundamentally different? Does this work start a new lineage for epic fantasy? We think so! We talk about what other works this book is in conversation with, and what it even means to be in conversation with something. 

Thing of the Week: Family Reservations by Liza Palmer 

Homework: Make a list of the books that you consider the antecedents to the book that you?re working on now. What other works are your book in conversation with? Are you following in and building upon their foundation, or are you disrupting and disputing their legacy?

Do you want a signed special edition copy of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin? Preorder The Orbit Gold Edition set before November 19th to get 20% off! Visit orbitgoldeditions.com to order. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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The structure of The Fifth Season features both mirroring and inversion. How do these structural shifts interact with the three POVs? On today?s episode, we talk about the parallelism of the perspectives and the linguistic references to seasons. This leads us to the question, how many things need to work in sync in order for readers to feel the cyclical nature of the plot (and life)? How does N.K. Jemisin use structural arcs, beats, and elements to create upheaval? And finally, how can you create overlapping emotional states and narrative rhyming in your own writing? (And what is narrative rhyming you may ask? Don?t worry, we define it for you!) 

Thing of the Week: Who Lost, I Found by Eden Royce

Homework: Take a look at one of your main character's arcs, and then try to rework another character's arc to match similar beats and structure to the first one.

Structure and POV (point of view) are often intertwined. In N.K. Jemisin?s The Fifth Season, we see this in the myriad perspective shifts. In this episode, we talk about the importance of these shifts on the structure of the book. How does the narrator talk directly to us, and what purpose does this second-person perspective serve? DongWon shares one of their theories with us on the relationship between author, reader, and POV. 

P.S. Do you want a signed special edition copy of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin? Preorder The Orbit Gold Edition set before November 19th to get 20% off! Visit orbitgoldeditions.com to order. 

Thing of the Week: Kurzgesagt ? In a Nutshell

Homework: Think about the main character of your story, and carve their life up into three different pieces. Have one of those pieces/ perspectives write to another piece, using second perspective. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Just a reminder that we will be talking about a lot of spoilers, so if you haven?t read The Fifth Season, go and do so now! As we dive into N.K. Jemisin?s The Fifth Season, we wanted to tell you why we chose this work to examine the importance of structure. The structure of the book is the device through which we are understanding this world, in a way that feels radical in relation to what we normally see in fiction. We chose this novel because the structure is visible and active in a way that many other works aren?t. Jemisin?s structurally audacious novel is punctuated by perspective shifts, parallelism, and innovative approaches to the forward movement inherent in stories. How does the structure affect the way we take in narrative, and what can you learn from this? 

P.S. Do you want a signed special edition copy of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin? Preorder The Orbit Gold Edition set before November 19th to get 20% off! Visit orbitgoldeditions.com to order. 

Thing of the Week: Rest In Pieces 

Homework: Look at the Table of Contents of The Fifth Season and, without opening the book again, write down the one important thing you remember from that chapter. As we talk through things, refer back to this list and see what you need to add.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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We sat down with the author of Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark, in order to wrap up our close reading of tension. We talked with Clark about his influences, which ranged from Birth of a Nation to Beyonce?s ?Formation.? We dive into contextual vs. narrative tension, why food is the unsung hero of worldbuilding, and Clark?s unconscious desires that helped this novella come to fruition. 

Thing of the Week: The Terror (on Netflix) 

Homework: Watch Midnight Mass on Netflix. Notice how it builds various areas of tension. How did this happen? What were the different areas of tension, and how were they distinct from each other? Now use this in your own writing. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. Our guest was P. Djèlí Clark. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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This episode, we?re talking about how important tension is in creating a world where your readers feel fully immersed. We talk about the importance of using tropes and techniques while also using variation in order to make your story less predictable. We dive into the difference between tension and conflict, and talk about how you can use the former to help the ladder. Tension can be found in movement, but also in inaction. We touch on tension's effect on try-fail cycles, inverted pyramids, and worldbuilding.  

Thing of the Week: The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottir (a novella translated by Mary Robinette Kowal) 

Homework: Take a look at your outline and move one of the major conflict points to a different act forward, and then try and move it to a later act. Consider how this changes the pacing and tension.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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When you?re subverting your readers? expectations, do you need to do the exact opposite of what they?re anticipating? Today, we dive into this question, using various examples of books and movies. We then examine how P. Djèlí Clark does this throughout Ring Shout? does he subvert our expectations completely? Not always. In fact, sometimes he does the opposite. 

Thing of the Week: White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link 

Homework: Write a scene listening to three different piece of music that move you in different ways.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today, we?re using music as an entry-point for tension. Howard introduces us to the power of the half-step, and other musical metaphors that can help you to incorporate tension in a new way to your writing. And then DongWon updates the metaphor with an electronic dance music analogy. 

We also dive into questions you can ask as you weave tension into your work in progress, such as, ?what does your character have to gain by withholding their secret?? 

Thing of the Week: Clueless (the movie!) 

Homework: Write a scene three times. Same scene, and make sure to write it from scratch three times. But listen to different music each time.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today, we?re talking about the tension that is actually happening on the page, and the contextual tension is what the reader is bringing to the table. Ring Shout lives in a place of contextual tension and we are excited to dive into how you can use both types of tension in your own writing. Your readers will always bring their own context to your work; and if you think about this, you can use tension in both big and small ways in your work. 

Thing of the Week: Random Friday - Solar Fields (Album) 

Homework: Take a scene you?re working on, and put a piece of information at the start that is only meant for the reader. Then, revise the scene, believing that the reader has that information. 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Compared to This is How You Lose The Time War, which we read earlier this year, Ring Shout deals with a very real world. This discordance, where authors make their audience uncomfortable by creating things that shouldn?t go together, is part of the power of this novella, and part of the reason we chose to dive into tension! Our favorite metaphor about tension from this episode comes from Howard: potential movement (imagine a rock at the top of a hill). 

Note: this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be intense for some readers! 

Thing of the Week: Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix) 

Homework: Take a movie or a book you've read that you find highly suspenseful and write an outline covering the major plot beats. Look at where tension is created and where it is released, and build a map of how it evolves over the course of the story

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today we have a wildcard episode for you! We are talking about all the different ways you can sustain your writing career. Our host, Erin Roberts, has done an incredible job of applying for grants, fellowships, and residencies. So, we put her on the spot and got her to dole out advice and insights to help you sustain and develop your writing. 

Thing of the Week: ?Extreme Economies: What Life at the World's Margins Can Teach Us about Our Own Future? by Richard Davies 

Homework: Write a one-paragraph personal artistic statement.

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Tension! Starting September 1, we?ll be diving into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Please note, this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be intense for some readers! 

Liner Notes: 

Resources related to grants and fellowships:  

Creative Capital's monthly list of Artist Opportunities: https://creative-capital.org/category/artist-opportunities/

Philanthropy News Digest's lists of RFPs, which can be filtered to just those for Arts & Culture: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/rfps 

? Link to the filtered list here: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/rfps/(search)/?tags_interest[]=arts+%2F+culture

The Create Daily's Opportunity Roundup Newsletter (requires a sign up at the link below):  https://www.thecreatedaily.com/community

For residency opportunities, the Open Calls list from Artist Communities Alliance: https://artistcommunities.org/directory/open-calls

Profellow list of fellowships:

https://www.profellow.com

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, and Erin Roberts. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today we?re taking a break from our Close Reading Series to discuss writing workshops and retreats! We dive into how to find and prepare to attend a workshop or a retreat and what to think about for organizing your own. 

Thing of the Week: Solo RPGs! (Strider Mode, Star Trek Adventures, Mythic Game Master) 

Homework: Go find 3 writing retreats you are interested in attending. 1 retreat-focused, 1 workshop-focused and 1 combination. Then think about what your expectations would be for each one.

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Tension! Starting September 1, we?ll be diving into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Please note, this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be intense for some readers! 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Sandra Tayler, and Sarah Sward. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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We sat down with CL Clark to talk about character?specifically, how they build different POV characters in the compressed space of a short story. We dive into plot processing (a tool CL Clark has learned from Mary Robinette!), how to specify the stakes of your world, and how to build distinct characters. 

Thing of the Week: Reasons Not To Worry: How to be Stoic in Chaotic Times by Brigid Delaney

Homework: ?4 Scenes About Power? ? Write four scenes: (1) a scene in which your protagonist does something to someone else, (2) a scene in which someone does something for someone else, (3) a scene in which your protagonist has something done to them, and (4) a scene in which your protagonist does something with someone else. 

Liner Notes: 

Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin 

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Tension! Starting September 1, we?ll be diving into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Please note, this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be intense for some readers! 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal and Erin Roberts. Our guest was CL Clark. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today, we?re taking a higher view on the techniques we?ve been talking about over the last four episodes and focusing on how you can use our takeaways in your own writing. We?ll go over our final thoughts on C.L. Clark?s short stories (until next week?s episode, when we interview them!). We?ll also try to summarize the lessons we've learned from Clark and our favorite bits of their writing. 

Thing of the Week: Rude Tales of Magic (podcast) 

Homework: Write a character study in which two characters meet twice. Something momentous has happened in between the meetings. Imply it by the way those characters have changed.

Liner Notes: 

Axis of Power (available on Patreon) - Ability, Role, Relationship, Status

DREAM from Elizabeth Boyle - Denial, Resistance, Exploration, Acceptance, Manifestation

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Tension! Starting September 1, we?ll be diving into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Please note, this novella uses tools from the horror genre to add tension, and this can be intense for some readers!

We have a theory that we want to work through on today?s episode: agency is the ability to take action, whereas choices are more about the interior life of the character. We use Mary Robinette?s talking cat, try-fail cycles, and C.L. Clark?s Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home in order to examine this theory and its underpinnings. 

Thing of the Week: Marginalia by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny Magazine) 

Homework: Create a scene in which your character has very little agency, but still must make a choice. Do your best to make that choice still feel critical.

Liner Notes: 

Fluent pet buttons - Elsie the talking cat

?We Are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist? by Vida Cruz

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Arkady Martine. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Our episode today focuses on C.L. Clark?s short story ?You Perfect Broken Thing? for how the character's stakes shape the barriers facing her. We use this story to examine how to tell the difference between barriers versus stakes. We also examine how to do this in a compressed space? whether that?s a short story, a single scene, or a compressed timeline. 

Thing of the Week: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Homework: Write a short scene in which your character has to deal with a mundane obstacle, then rewrite it as if that small obstacle has life-or-death stakes. How did you shift it to make the stakes clearer?

Liner Notes: 

Sandra Tayler's new book, Structuring Life To Support Creativity. Preorder your copy today at sandratayler.com! 

And help fund Mary Robinette Kowal?s Silent Spaces, a collection of short stories on Kickstarter here: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mary-robinette/silent-spaces?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=silent%20spaces%20

(Or go to kickstarter.com and type in ?Silent Spaces?) 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Arkady Martine. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today, we?re focusing on C.L. Clark?s  ?The Cook,? as we explore external and internal expression. We chose this story because it's a remarkably physical and touchable story with myriad sensory details. While the audience gets very little information about what Clark?s characters are thinking, you can still understand their internal landscapes by what they seee and notice. How do these external indicators help us understand the internal worlds of the characters? 

We mention two infographics during the episode? ?Intersections of Self (Trauma Points)" and ?Axes of Power."  These are available on Patreon (they?re posted publicly, so anyone can view them!) Feel free to use them in your own writing, and let us know if you find them helpful! 

Thing of the Week: ?Bodies? (on Netflix) 

Homework: Pick a major character in your story and write two short summaries of the character arc, one using your original motivation and goal, and a second with a different motivation but the same goal.

Liner Notes: 

Sandra Tayler's new book, Structuring Life To Support Creativity. Preorder your copy today at sandratayler.com! 

And help fund Mary Robinette Kowal?s Silent Spaces, a collection of short stories on Kickstarter here: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mary-robinette/silent-spaces?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=silent%20spaces%20

(Or go to kickstarter.com and type in ?Silent Spaces?) 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Arkady Martine. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today we introduce our next close reading series?we?re focusing on character through the lens of three of C.L. Clark?s short stories:  ?You Perfect, Broken Thing,? ?The Cook,? and ?Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home?. They are all hyperlinked above and available online for free through Uncanny Magazine. 

We are so excited to shift our focus to short stories! We love the compressed form, and C.L. Clark?s stories exemplify the freedom that exists within the genre itself. They masterfully combine light world-building with deep character development. We?re excited to dive into each story over the next five episodes, ending with an interview with C.L. Clark! 

We recommend reading these short stories ahead of time, but this episode is fine to listen to as a primer for why you should read them!  

Thing of the Week: Monster of the Week (a tabletop role-playing game) AND Sandra Tayler's new book, Structuring Life To Support Creativity. Preorder your copy today at sandratayler.com.

Homework: Write the sentence "[Character] is someone who...." with different endings for an entire page. Read them over and pick one that surprises or intrigues you, then write a short scene showcasing that trait.

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Arkady Martine. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today we are joined by the incredible falconer Krista Hong Edwards. Krista was kind enough to take our hosts out with her falcons, and we had the most amazing time! Krista sat down with us to talk about falcons, literature, and much more. Check out our liner notes (below) for all of the texts we reference! 

Thing of the Week: Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey: A Novel Book by Kathleen Rooney

Homework: Look up your local falconry club and see if you can attend their next event!

Liner Notes: 

See more of Krista, her falcons, and her mission on Instagram at @kristafeather and @feathersforthought

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George 

?The Goshawk? by T.H. White

?H is for Hawk? by Helen McDonald

?Untethered Sky? by Fonda Lee

To find Krista?s Articles: Hawkchawk Magazine & Pursuit Falconry 

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Character! Starting July 7, we?ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark. These are all available for free through Uncanny Magazine. 

Character: ?You Perfect, Broken Thing,? ?The Cook,? and ?Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home? by CL Clark (starting July 7) 

And a sneak peak on the rest of the year? 

Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (starting September 1) 

Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (starting October 13) 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Krista Edwards, Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Arkady Martine. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Learning is great, but how do you translate it into doing without getting overwhelmed? What is the difference between learning in the classroom and executing when you're on your own?

Marshall, our incredible recording engineer, just finished an MFA program. Congrats, Marshall!! On today?s episode, we gril Marshall in order to understand his takeaways from the program. Specifically, we are interested in how he takes everything he learned in the classroom and turns it into actionable things he?s doing on the page. We talk community, motivation, and how to consistently make time for your writing. 

Thing of the Week: The Fall of the House of Usher, TV show created by Mike Flanagan

Homework: Take a turn being the teacher? how would you teach a group of people about a concept you?re struggling with in your own work, and what homework would you give them to better understand it? 

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Character! Starting July 7, we?ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark. These are all available for free through Uncanny Magazine. 

Character: ?You Perfect, Broken Thing,? ?The Cook,? and ?Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home? by CL Clark (starting July 7) 

And a sneak peak on the rest of the year? 

Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (starting September 1) 

Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (starting October 13)

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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We've spent the last month talking about "A Memory Called Empire, and now, we are so excited to welcome the author, Arkady Martine, to the show! On today's episode, we talk with Arkady about the origins of her novel, and dive into how she navigated the dense and intricate world-building. Arkady gives us advice on what not to do, where to look for your first ideas, and what her writing process looks like. 

Thing of the Week: 

?The Shamshine Blind? By Paz Pardo

Homework:

Using the character and the story you are currently working on, look at the nearest building you can see out your window, and describe it from their point of view. What does that say about the world that you are in and the world that they are in? 

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Character! Starting July 7, we?ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark. These are all available for free through Uncanny Magazine. 

Character: ?You Perfect, Broken Thing,? ?The Cook,? and ?Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home? by CL Clark (starting July 7) 

And a sneak peak on the rest of the year? 

Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (starting September 1) 

Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (starting October 13) 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Arkady Martine. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Today, the gang talks about their final thoughts on Martine?s ?A Memory Called Empire.? We conclude with some lessons we?ve learned through analyzing her work, and we share our favorite bits! 

Thing of the Week: Pasión de las Pasiones

Homework: Find a piece of world building that you love and come up with another way to use it in your work in progress. 

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Next up is Character! Starting July 7, we?ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark. These are all available for free through Uncanny Magazine. 

Character: ?You Perfect, Broken Thing,? ?The Cook,? and ?Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home? by CL Clark (starting July 7) 

And a sneak peak on the rest of the year? 

Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (starting September 1) 

Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (starting October 13) 

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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The imago technology lies at the heart of this novel thematically and narratively. How does this technology create a world, delineate Mahit's culture from Teixcalaan, and ask enormous questions about identity and empire?

Thing of the Week: ?Rotten? (Documentary Series available on Netflix)

Homework: Come up with three technological or magical approaches that would raise questions about what it means to be you, to be an individual. Take one of these, and then write a scene wherein two characters argue about it.

For those of you just joining us, here's what our close reading series has covered, and what lays ahead!

Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline

Voice: This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar (March 17) 

Worldbuilding: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (May 12) 

Character: ?You Perfect, Broken Thing,? ?The Cook,? and ?Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home? by CL Clark (July 7) 

Tension: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (September 1) 

Structure: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (October 13)

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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What cultural and worldbuilding information is embedded within the smallest of word choices? Today, we dive into three specific sections from throughout Martine?s ?A Memory Called Empire?:  the word for empire, assimilation and naming, and learning the word for bomb. We unpack how Martine uses language to establish important principles of how the world works. 

Thing of the Week: 

The Gilded Age - Created and Written by Julian Fellowes  Julian Fellows (on HBO Max) 

Homework:

Write a scene that describes a fictional piece of literature? whether that's a poem, a song, or a story? that means something to the people in the story you?re telling.

Here?s a link to buy your copy of ?A Memory Called Empire? if you haven?t already:

https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19

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https://writingexcuses.com

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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How do you use language and scale to focus your writing? Today, we think about scale and movement across vast spaces. What do characters? movements tell us about empires and also?force? We talk about Martine?s incredible work establishing an empire across time, not (just) space. We read aloud some of Martine?s writing, and try to understand exactly how they work, and what they?re doing to build the novel?s world. 

A refresher on why Worldbuilding is essential and some working definitions of how we want to talk about it. After the break, we discuss why we chose this book and highlight what it does well. As always in our close reading series, we distill each text?s elements into approachable steps for you to take in your own writing. 

Thing of the Week: 

Softboiled eggs in an instant pot: 1.5 cups of fridge-cold water. Add 2-6 eggs onto the little trey. Pressure cook for low on one minute, and then release the pressure after 90 seconds. Remove the eggs (use tongs!), and put them in a bowl of fridge-cold water for one minute. Now, try them! If thye?re too runny, then for your next bath, increase your wait time for pressure release by 5 seconds. If they?re too firm, reduce the wait time by five seconds. That one variable: how long you wait before releasing pressure, is the only one you need to worry about. (Does this resonate with our study of worldbuilding? Maybe? DM us on Instagram and tell us what the metaphor or analogy is for you! @writing_excuses ) 

Homework:

Take one of your works in progress, and write three paragraphs, each describing a different kind of scale: 

1. A scale of time

2. A scale of place/ space

3. Emotional scale (fear, joy, ambition, sadness)

Here?s a link to buy your copy of ?A Memory Called Empire? if you haven?t already:

https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19

Sign up for our newsletter: 

https://writingexcuses.com

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Join Our Writing Community! 

Patreon

Instagram

YouTube

Facebook

Twitter