Writing Excuses Season 4: My fave episodes

My favorite casts of Writing Excuses season 4. These are all about 15 minutes, cause the tagline of the podcast is: "15 minutes, cause you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart!"

* Season 1 Faves here.

* Season 2 Faves here.

* Season 3 Faves here.

Types of Humor We manage to cover character-based humor, physical humor, and non-sequitur, brushing alongside cognitive humor and exaggeration as we go, but hey… we only had 15 minutes to work with.

Pacing with James Dashner We talk about reveals, punchlines, cliffhangers, chapter length, and the “Brandon Avalanche.” 

Breaking the Fourth Wall We talk about the theatrical origins of the term, and how the technique it represents might be used by authors and others....We also talk about when it would be absolutely, inarguably inappropriate to break the fourth wall.

Living with the Artist Beyond the fact that Sandra and Dawn are stay-at-home moms, and Kenny is a stay-at-home Dad, the three of them each have important roles to play in their spouses’ careers, and those roles go far beyond mere cheerleading and moral support. We talk about that, and then Sandra, Dawn, and Kenny offer advice to those who may find themselves as significant others to creative types.

Writing Practical Fantasy ...if you have an army of 1000 armored knights, you’d better have an economy and political system capable of producing and supporting them.

Mating Plumage Yes, we judge books by covers, and no, writers don’t have any control over them. We have a little more control of our titles, and still more over our first lines.  Humorous and tragic anecdotes follow, along with a great example of a first line from Barbara Hambly.

I'd be doing alright if...

For all their kitsch, a lot of Abba's songs had a lot of truth to them--like this one. Problems always seem worse at night. And, for me, first thing in the morning. No matter what the problem, all my life when I was upset about something I dreaded going to bed the most. And waking up didn't feel much better. (Shakespeare was wrong about that sleeve gag.)

By midday I'm alright, and in the evening I'm quite good. But if the desire to cry is going to finally overpower me, it'll be at lights out. I even remember that from childhood.

(Except when I'm on Topomax. Then it'll be in broad daylight at abusy intersection of Cote Vertu.)

 

 

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Best Writers' Rules (Part 3)

Michael Morpugo: By the time I sit down and face the blank page I am raring to go. I tell it as if I'm talking to my best friend or one of my grandchildren.

Andrew Motion: Let your work stand before deciding whether or not to serve.

Joyce Carol Oates: Keep a light, hopeful heart. But ­expect the worst.

Will Self: You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you.

Colm Tóibín: No going to London.

Rose Tremain: Forget the boring old dictum "write about what you know". Instead, seek out an unknown yet knowable area of experience that's going to enhance your understanding of the world and write about that.

Sarah Waters: Writing fiction is not "self-­expression" or "therapy". Novels are for readers, and writing them means the crafty, patient, selfless construction of effects. 

James Joyce: Write it damn you, what else are you good for?

And finally, from Shakespeare's Top Ten Rules O' Writing: If ye suffer from block, have your mistress take up the quill while you cane opium and give her daughter goodly tup. If ye be nabbed, claim research.