Writing Excuses
Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler
Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
- 26 minutes 22 seconds20.13: First Person
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.
P.S. Our Writing Excuses cruise is over 50% sold out! Secure your spot today at www.writingexcuses.com/retreats
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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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy30 March 2025, 8:00 am - 29 minutes 2 seconds20.12: Fashion as a Writing Metaphor
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
P.S. Our Writing Excuses cruise is over 50% sold out! Secure your spot today at www.writingexcuses.com/retreats
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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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy21 March 2025, 5:17 pm - 21 minutes 57 seconds20.11: Kit Lit. Q&A Aboard the WX Cruise, with Mark Oshiro, Kate McKean, and Sandra Tayler
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.
P.S. Our Writing Excuses cruise is over 50% sold out! Secure your spot today at www.writingexcuses.com/retreats
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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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy16 March 2025, 8:00 am - 33 minutes 52 seconds20.10: Interview with Chuck Tingle: Breaking the Rules
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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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy9 March 2025, 8:00 am - 19 minutes 30 seconds20.09: The Reaction of Who?!
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.
P.P.S. Are you tired of ads?! You can join our $5 tier on Patreon and receive ad-free episodes each week!
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.
Join Our Writing Community!
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* Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy2 March 2025, 9:00 am - 22 minutes 36 seconds20.08: Character Stakes and Fears
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.
P.P.S. Are you tired of ads?! You can join our $5 tier on Patreon and receive ad-free episodes each week!
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.
Join Our Writing Community!
Our Sponsors:
* Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy23 February 2025, 9:00 am - 21 minutes 11 seconds20.07: Motivation and Goals
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.
P.P.S. Are you tired of ads?! You can join our $5 tier on Patreon and receive ad-free episodes each week!
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.
Join Our Writing Community!
Our Sponsors:
* Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy16 February 2025, 9:00 am - 25 minutes 54 seconds20.06: History and Community
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.
P.P.S. Are you tired of ads?! You can join our $5 tier on Patreon and receive ad-free episodes each week!
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.
Join Our Writing Community!
Our Sponsors:
* Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy9 February 2025, 8:30 am - 25 minutes 10 seconds20.05: The Lens of Who
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.
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.
Join Our Writing Community!
Our Sponsors:
* Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy2 February 2025, 9:00 am - 33 minutes 24 seconds20.04: Puppetry as a Writing Metaphor
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.
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.
Join Our Writing Community!
Our Sponsors:
* Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy26 January 2025, 9:00 am - 21 minutes 55 seconds20.03: Polishing Your Writing Lens
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.
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.
Join Our Writing Community!
Our Sponsors:
* Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy19 January 2025, 9:00 am - More Episodes? Get the App