Podcast Episodes
Back to Search13.8: Making Characters Distinctive
Season 13 Episode 8
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard What do we do to make our characters distinctive? Often we categorize the distinctions as flaws or quir…
8 years, 1 month ago
13.7: What Writers Get Wrong, with Lou Perry
Season 13 Episode 7
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Lou Perry joined us in front of a live audience at GenCon Indy to talk about law and courtrooms, and what …
8 years, 1 month ago
13.6: External Conflicts for Characters
Season 13 Episode 6
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice An external conflict is a story driver that originates outside the protagonist. In this episode a large …
8 years, 1 month ago
13.5: Villain, Antagonist, Obstacle
Season 13 Episode 5
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard What's the difference between villains and antagonists? How is an obstacle character different from those …
8 years, 1 month ago
13.4: Protagonists Who Aren’t Sympathetic
Season 13 Episode 4
Your Hosts: Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard This week we're joined by Valynne Maetani, who'll be one of our hosts all year. We're discussing protag…
8 years, 2 months ago
13.3: What Writers Get Wrong, with Aliette de Bodard
Season 13 Episode 3
Your Hosts: Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard This year's third-week episodes will all follow a common theme: "what writers get wrong." Each of these ep…
8 years, 2 months ago
13.2: Writing Active Characters
Season 13 Episode 2
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice This week we welcome Amal El-Mohtar and Maurice Broaddus to the Writing Excuses cast for a discussion of…
8 years, 2 months ago
13.1: Hero, Protagonist, Main Character
Season 13 Episode 1
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard 2018 is our Year of Character, and we kick it off with a quick exploration of the differences between hero…
8 years, 2 months ago
12.53: Writing Excuses True Confessions
Season 12 Episode 53
It's the end of 2017, so let's talk about the things that we've tried to make work, and failed at. Not things that we tried before arriving at career…
8 years, 3 months ago
12.52: Cross-Genres as Gateways
Season 12 Episode 52
Your Hosts: Brandon, Piper, Howard, and Dan What are the books which have drawn us from the bookshelf genres where you're the most comfortable into b…
8 years, 3 months ago