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.