Writing Excuses

How do you know which bits of your story have to come first?

Any discussion of story structure must necessarily take a look at that big, long bit between the beginning and the end, that piece where almost everything actually happens. In this episode we talk about the middles of stories, and how formulaic structures will help you get them to do all of the things that you need for them to do, and this can be done without the story feeling formulaic. We got things a bit out of order here -- this was supposed to be the SECOND episode of March, rather than the fifth. When Brandon says "two weeks ago" he means "four weeks ago." Sorry for the confusion.

Wes Chu joins us again for a Q&A about this month's topic: story structure! Here are the questions: Do you make a conscious decision about how to structure your story before you begin writing? Is it necessary to use multiple structures (three-act, Hollywood formula, etc) in order to ensure that your story works? What tools do you use to view your story's structure? What do you think about cliffhangers? How do you come up with plot twists for your stories? (Answer: A blast from the past with Michael Stackpole! Season 1, Episode 19!) What structures should I use to add variety to my writing? Is there a specific amount of time you should spend on your introduction before getting to the inciting incident? What do you do when you're halfway through with a story before you realize the structure is wrong?  

If you haven't yet read "Parallel Perspectives," from Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, we have a PDF for you to download and read before you start listening to this episode. It's a 33mb file in a public DropBox folder. Parallel Perspectives PDF for Writing Excuses listeners Got the file? Done reading? Okay, let's go... This week is a Project in Depth episode focusing on a 13-page graphic story ("comic book") found at the end of Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, and our focus this week will be story structure. It's fun, because the process of structuring a bonus story begins much differently than most projects, and the structure was laid in support of a four-creator collaboration. The creators? Howard Tayler, Brenda Hickey, Travis Walton, and Keliana Tayler. (If you'd like your own hard-copy of Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, you can get it from Amazon.com or directly from the publisher.)

Wesley Chu joins us for a literal shake-up of our structure for one episode. We had loads of fun with this one. The I Ching is a collection of poems which you consult with numbered sticks. You ask a question, shake a random stick from the cup, and the corresponding poem holds your answer. In writing The Man in the High Castle, Phillip K. Dick used the I Ching to make plot decisions at crucial points. We decided to turn that, and our format, on its head, so we used the I Ching to ask us questions.  Understanding exactly what the I Ching was asking was at least as much fun as answering the questions we inferred. Here are the I Ching's questions. Although he reached a great position, Wise Liu did not care for earthly things. He brewed instead the pills of heaven, forging immortality in his earthly crucible. Marriage is a blessed union indeed, when done in accordance with Yin and Yang. The dragon and the phoenix coil together, uniting in a sweet dream of love. All names in Heaven are unique, and even ea

This month's syllabus topic is story structure, and we'll be starting with the part we start with. And that part usually isn't the beginning -- that's where the story starts for the reader. We're going to talk about where the story starts for you. It's the answer to questions like "where is my story coming from?", "What kind of a story is this?", or  "What questions does it seek to raise, and subsequently answer for the readers?" Structurally, it may help to revisit our discussion of the M.I.C.E. quotient. Knowing that your story is primarily a milieu story, as opposed to a character story, is a pretty big thing to know before you start writing. Of course, if you're not outlining, this whole discussion may seem irrelevant to you, but ultimately if you discovery-write your way into a good story, you'll have answered these questions during that process. Knowing that this is a thing you do will likely help you do it better. The Sherlock Episode Howard re

It's time for a Q&A on characters! The questions for this episode were provided by the attendees at the 2014 Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat: How do you have a character grow in power and/or expertise without needing to ridiculously overpower the villains? How do you give a flawed character a growth arc without changing what originally made that character likable? When you have a 1st person POV, how do you convey the emotional complexity of the non-POV characters? How do you create an interesting an engaging story with a main character who is not the protagonist or hero of the story? Is there an easy way to tell when the plot is driving the character instead of the other way around? How do you write a character with egregiously offensive views without you, as the author, appearing to espouse or condone those views? How do you write a character who has a belief that is different from your own? What are some tips for writing a sympathetic antagonist?   Liner Note: The Tumbler to which Mar

Our character-focused month continues with an exploration of the challenges involved in building a cast for your story. Whether you're building a large or small cast, you need to know why you're putting these people in the book, whether they're main characters, secondary characters, or spear-carriers, and what purpose each of them actually serves in your story.

In which Max Gladstone introduces us to the concept of the Magical 1%

Does your draft have a boring main character? You're not alone! Also, the problem can be solved.

At the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat we premiered the Season 10 concept, and we invited our attendees to give us the questions we need this month. (They'll also be the ones providing our questions for February, but we'll cast our net wide for questions in March.) Ideas are hard! Is it ever acceptable for inexperienced writers to write derivative works? How do you keep from being discouraged when something similar to your idea comes out? How do you know when your idea is a novel, vs. when it's a short story? Should you only write for themed anthologies if you already have an idea ready in that theme? How can you practice description when your idea is set someplace completely unfamiliar to you? When should you abandon an idea you love? Liner Notes: We talked about novel-length vs short-story-length ideas in Season 6, Episode 10 when we covered the M.I.C.E. quotient, and again in Season 8, Episode 20, when Mary talked about short story structure. Also, the anthology into which Howard wa

Don't forget to nominate for the 2015 Hugo Ballot, and if you like Writing Excuses, please consider nominating Shadows Beneath for Best Related Work.

Cherie Priest joins us for a discussion of Lovecraftian horror.

Writing Excuses Season 10, the podcasted master-class, continues with this exploration of that critical second step: what do do once you've got an idea that has story-legs. (Note: When we say "two weeks ago" over and over, that's just bad math. You haven't missed an episode.) We talk about our various approaches to this, many of which center around finding the person or people who are most affected by the thing our idea conjures into their world, but that's really only the very beginning of it.

Brandon, Howard, Mary, and Dan offer useful answers to that age-old question: "Where do you get your ideas?"

As 2014 draws to a close we say goodbye to Season 9, and talk a bit about what we've each learned this year. Howard explained the surprising changes that came with a change in his work space Mary told us how she reached a new understanding of pacing Brandon talked about how recent time pressures have informed his writing process Dan learned why he is writing Hopefully our discussions of how we've changed as writers this year will offer you some insight into how your own writing has developed, and how you might take steps to develop it in the future. We also talk about how Season 10 is coming, and is going to be a bit different than seasons past. Thing We Failed To Do: get a picture of the possum. It turns out that those things are sneaky, and none of us a very good photographers. Can of Already Open Worms: Writing for fun. "Didn't you guys just talk about that?" Yes, we did, in an episode that was recorded 3 months later, but which aired just last week.  

You know what's fun? WRITING! Writing is fun. And that, more than anything else, is why we do it. Or at least it's why we decided to do it. Making sure that it is still fun is kind of tricky. Also tricky? Writing for nothing more than the fun of it. And this episode is about that. Missing from this episode: Mary. For contractual reasons we found ourselves in need of 54 episodes during Season 9, and that meant an emergency recording session while Mary was on the road. It also meant you got 54 weekly episodes this year!

Allison W. Hill and C. Austin Hill joined us at the Out of Excuses Retreat to talk about turning A Night of Blacker Darkness, by Dan Wells, into a stage play. "From the page to the stage" is a thing that theater people actually say to describe this, so the process is one that has a lot of precedent behind it. We talk about the guiding principles behind adaptation, and then dive into the challenges that our guests face with this particular project. (Note: We may be tweaking the audio on this episode in the future to remove the "Season 10" references right at the end. They're confusing, and you don't need that.)

If there's a crowd with good questions, it's the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat attendees. Given the trend toward moral ambiguity, is there still a place for an unquestionably evil character? Should you publish a first book that isn't in the style or genre that you're ultimately interested in? Is it possible to write epic fantasy with a single POV? Of all of the myriad talents of the literary agents you work with, what's the one that makes you stick with your agent? How do you maintain your writing chops when you're buried in the research phase of a project? What are some issues a short story writer should be aware of when tackling a novel? How do you go about discovery writing characters? When you build a story, does the foreshadowing go in during the first pass, or in later edits? Our sponsor, Audible, is giving away Legion: Skin Deep, by Brandon Sanderson between now and December 24th. Follow that link and get a free audio book!

Recorded live in front of the Out of Excuses students, a crowd of savvy readers if ever there was one, we talk about how to effectively write for readers who are familiar with the genre or story structure in which we're writing. It's a tricky problem, since genre fiction is supported in large part by the very tropes that prove problematic. Sometimes the solution is trope subversion, but that brings its own problems. Dave Farland’s Writing Workshops sponsored us for this episode! Both Brandon and Dan have studied under Dave, and we’re all happy to wholeheartedly recommend his workshops to you. If you can’t fly to his place, well, visit MyStoryDoctor.com and take the online course. The coupon code for your Writing Excuses discount is EXCUSES, but don't think that means you actually HAVE any of those...