I am spending almost as much time on the road these days as I did when I was touring full time with puppet theater. It’s wacky.
This time, I’m in town to record episodes of Writing Excuses. We’re going to spend Four DAYS recording so that we can get a lot of episodes in the can before Dan Wells heads off to Germany for a year.
I’ll be here through the 4th, which means that I get to attend the launch party for Dan Wells’s new book The Hollow City. Are you jealous? You should be. Mwahahaha!
Meanwhile, if you want to ask questions or suggest topics here, please feel free. No guarantee that we’ll get to it, but as I mentioned we are recording for FOUR DAYS.
Could you go over how to better “show, not tell” or refer to an older episode that talks about it? Thanks!
How do you avoid getting discouraged about the quality of your own writing, especially as you’re in the process of writing it?
How do you get over the fear of writing something unoriginal? I know nothing is perfectly original, but I don’t want to come across as derivative.
Could you discuss what a new/unpublished author should have on hand at a con right after they’ve finished a novel they want to pitch and the best way to approach editors and agents? I ask because I’m hoping to have a ready to pitch novel ready in time for World’s Fantasy in Toronto this year. (fingers crossed).
A few ideas… Any thoughts on Ray Bradbury’s passing or influence on writing? Best way to attack major revisions on a finished novel? (I’m frequently overwhelmed when I sit down to do this.) Characters with disabilities and handling them realistically and respectfully?
What would be the best way to write an ongoing storyline? I not sure you guys have already covered this in previous Writing Excuses’ podcasts.
How much to write on an outline? I feel the need to lay down the ideas and work over potential problems before going into a first draft but when I finally do, sometimes it seems like I’m already getting tired of the story. Is it just insecurity or do I need to write less on the outline and just go to the first draft?
Yes, jealous 🙂
Writing questions. Hmm, there is a fair amount that WE has covered thus far. So forgive me if its a topic done before…
It’s the odd duck of the POVs, so why not a show on “Second person” tense?
Another question: How do you guys avoid burnout? Especially when working on longer pieces like a novel? Do you work on more than one thing at the same time (alternating between one and the other)?
Often times, I have heard that short stories are a good way to get one’s start as a fiction writer, as they can be submitted to journals, magazines, and the like. In what ways is writing short fiction different than writing novel-length fiction? Are the principles of good writing the same, or are there pitfalls a novelist can fall into while writing short fiction? Are the expectations for character, setting, and plot more stringent?
Hmm. Out of curiosity – Have you ever gone to write a book and then realized someone else has already written it? If so, what were the books, and why?
What’s the one piece of advice you wished you’d known when you were unpublished? (There might be a podcast already on this topic, I can’t quite recall, but I don’t think you’ve answered this question yet, Mary.)
What were the (perhaps embarrassing) pet projects you all had when you were younger? What did you learn from them? (See! An educational question.)
How (if anything) have the foreign cultures you’ve visited impacted your writing? (Since Dan is leaving, it might be a fun topic.)
Ummm. Good luck coming up with four days worth of topics to cover. Also, welcome back to Utah!
Oh! A friend of mine wants to know how to write a book outline, the kind that you give to an editor or agent after the query letter and however many pages they request. The question is actually how to write it to best effect so that it flows well, is easy to understand, keeps you interested, and makes sense. She figures it’s not the I.A.i.B.i.ii. format, but from there…?
I’d love to hear a podcast on opacity/ambiguity. Not sure you’ve covered this topic before, but the idea that not all good fiction engages/clarifies/explains. I’m thinking in particular of Borges or Calvino or Murakami. Maybe the question is more, when in a writer’s career can one dare to be mysterious? Love the podcast BTW.
I endorse this one. It’s something I’ve been struggling with lately. Am I being ambiguous or just lazy here?
It doesn’t look like you’ve done an episode on epistolary fiction. How about: why would you want to write a piece of epistolary fiction and how do you write one well?
Another: what non-fiction reading have you found valuable in the past year and/or for your most recent writing projects?
Oh, and I don’t think you’ve done this one either: what makes for a great novellette/novella and does it makes sense to even write at that length?
If you’re in the middle of writing a novel and realize that a major change needs to be made to the beginning of the novel, do you go back and fix it right away, or do you save that sort of editing until after the first draft is done? And would you advise a novice, less-disciplined writer to do likewise?
Oh, and to follow up on David Chase, I would love an entire episode on short-story writing sometime. I really want to write a short story just so that I could actually *finish* something :), but my story ideas always end up too big it seems.
I have been wondering if you guys can do an episode on editing? How do you do it? What steps do you follow? Are there any tricks to speed up the editing process? Are there any computer programs out there that can help? I’m editing my way through my first novel and I find that if I want it to be great, I need to spend hours editing each chapter. I don’t fear hard work, but I’d rather work smarter, not harder.
Also, I’m very jealous that you get to hang out with Dan Wells… I’ll be buying his book as soon as it’s out but I’m in Canada, so he never comes up here to do signings. I need to convince my local bookstores to bring in more authors.
For a podcast I was wondering–how do you write about things you have never experienced and might never experience? Such as being in jail, in love…whatever end of the happy/unhappy pole. For example, I find it difficult to write grim things and make them believable. They read more like a parody. I suppose this extends to writing about the opposite sex, different races, ages…Should writers be limited by what they know, or are there methods that help make things believable. Or should I just write light hearted fiction?
Any chance you guys could discuss ‘new adult’ and YA aimed at the top end of its age bracket? Even just another podcast on YA fiction in general would be great.
Alternatively, a podcast discussing controlling your public image would be interesting; do you guys ever feel you need to bite your tongue on politics or current events to avoid losing readers or ticking your publisher off?
If you have a great premise and great events along the way but not a satisfying ending how do you get that?
Similar to a few who have gone before, I’ve been waiting for a podcast on short fiction for the entire series.
I’d also love to see some discussion on how storytelling techniques differ in flash, shorts, novelettes, novellas, and novels.
Maybe something on poetry? Either included or original.
Have a great time! We’ll all look forward to the new episodes.
Hi Mary, without getting too morbid how do you and the guys handle the subject of death in your books? I mean killing off characters or even major characters and how to do it well?
Enjoy the launch party.