A Word in Your Eye

Writing Excuses 5.17: Dialogue Exercises

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/12/27/writing-excuses-5-17-dialog-exercises/

Key Points: Make your characters identifiable from their dialogue alone. Make sure there's a sense of the world, the setting, and action. If you use dialect, do it sparingly, but be consistent. Word choice, sentence length, verbal quirks, social position -- any and all of these can be used to differentiate your characters. And don't forget the interplay of the characters, too.
( talk, talk, talk... )
[Brandon] So we'll go ahead and do a writing prompt. Dan?
[Howard] Ha, ha!
[Dan] Oh, man. Okay. You are walking down a back alley and you meet Jason from Dragonmount and he's getting all uppity about how he had a great writing sample. What do you do to him?
[Brandon] Okay. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 5.10: John Brown and the Creative Process

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/11/07/writing-excuses-5-10-john-brown-and-the-creative-process/

Key points: How do you get ideas? Everyone can be creative. When you have a problem, you ask questions, and you come up with answers -- that's creativity. An important part is asking the right questions. To get answers, be on the lookout for zing! Then ask questions, and answer them. Immerse yourself in situations that interest you, and look for tools there. Ask the right questions. For story, think about character, setting, problem, and plot. Look for combinations. Be on the lookout for zings, ask specific questions, then come up with solutions. Make lists and see what's interesting. What are the worst ideas I can think of, and how can I make those ideas really attractive? How can I transform this scene? How do you develop ideas? Ask the right questions. Look for conflicts, look for interest. Look for defining moments. How do you know when to start writing? Freewrite, and see if it's ready. Watch for the click. Watch for the spin. Try to tell it to someone.
( an idea-packed session awaits your click... )
[Brandon] All right. A person gets... this is going to be our writing prompt, officially. A person gets surgery so that they can imitate He Who Does Not Sleep. Why? This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
[John] All right.

Writing Excuses Season Five Episode Six: Micropodcasts

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/10/10/writing-excuses-5-6-micropodcasts/

Key Points:

• What is the right way to kill a character? Bombs. With meaning!
• Authors that have influenced your writing and why? A. A. Milne, because he has so much fun playing with words. Melanie Rawn, because she mixed magic with characters that I cared about. Tolkein for introducing me to the world that isn't ours. Victor Hugo for finding beauty in the gutter. Jay Lake and Charlie Stross for taking ideas to the nth degree. Pat Rothfuss for showing that even well-worn tropes, done well, are still viable stories.
• When do you quit your day job? When God tells you to. When your wife tells you that you may. When you get your first advance check.
• What do you do when you discover you hate a character? Bombs. Redefining them radically. Have something happen to that character that is grossly unfair.
• How do you respond to accusations of being a Mary Sue? Do you really want to ask that? Is it wrong to write characters that people want to be like?
• What are some basic tools for ensuring that all characters in a story have different voices? Model them on people you know. Check that they are different enough to recognize. Practice having different characters react differently to a single issue. Make your characters individual.

( little podcasts, little podcasts, and they're all made out... )
[Brandon] All right. Let's wrap this up with a writing prompt. I'm going to go ahead and use one again this time.
[Dan] Excellent.
[Brandon] by saying the writing prompt is that these two different people who criticized Dan's book actually both read different books somehow.
[Dan] And thought it was the same one.
[Brandon] And thought it was the same book. They both had the same title, they both said they were written by Dan Wells, but somehow two different books were released. How and why is your writing prompt.
[Dan] Compelling.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 26: Avoiding Stilted Dialogue

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/07/05/writing-excuses-4-26-avoiding-stilted-dialog/

Key points: Stilted dialogue moves like stilts staggering down the street. It doesn't feel like a conversation, or it doesn't match the character. People don't talk in complete sentences. Fiction dialogue represents conversation, it doesn't portray it exactly (skip the ums, hums, haws, etc.). Give the illusion of reality. Write the dialogue you need, then prune it. Beware maid and butler dialogue, where characters talk about things to educate the reader, rather than because they would ordinarily talk about those things. Consider when they would have first talked about that, then let them reflect on those past conversations. Get your characters into arguments, and let them slip in the information you want as a side issue. Toss the characters into a scene and let them talk.
( Yackity-yack and don't talk back... )
[Brandon] All right. Howard, you're waving your hand. Why don't you do the...
[Dan] Oo! You have a writing prompt!
[Howard] I've got a writing prompt. This is a two-parter. Start with maid and butler dialogue with a maid and a butler who are establishing important plot points. Write the worst maid and butler dialogue you know how to write. Okay? It's an info dump and it's awful. Now go back and rewrite it. Now the maid and the butler are having an argument, a very impassioned, brutal sort of argument. The same information comes out, only make it not feel like maid and butler dialogue.
[Brandon] All right. There you are. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses Season Three Episode 29: Antiheroes

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2009/12/20/writing-excuses-season-3-episode-29-antiheroes/

Key Points: Antiheroes come in many flavors, including Frodo, Punisher, and the Talented Mister Ripley. Frodos are heroes, except they fail. Punishers do evil for good purposes. Talented Mister Ripley's are unsympathetic, unheroic, horrible. Sympathetic villains are not antiheroes, nor are heroes with a steep character arc. Heroes are like Christmas Day, and you wish it could last all year. Classical antiheroes are like olde Halloween, you never ever want to be like that, but it's stilll fascinating. Punisher antiheroes are more like modern Halloween, with cool costumes and candy from the neighbors. If you plan to write an antihero story, think about which kind you are writing and what will keep people turning pages.
( Inside the jack-o'-lantern )
[Brandon] Your writing prompt is going to be to write a true classical antihero and make it fun for Howard.
[Howard] I don't actually have to read what they write, do I?
[Dan] Yes, you do. And you have to grade them.
[Brandon] And you have to eat dinner at their house.
[Dan] And you have to dress up as a clown for their first date.
[Howard] All right. Schlock mercenary at gmail dot com. Go ahead and send me...
[Brandon] I want you guys to do this.
[Howard] Oh, dear.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
[Howard] Something awful.
[Brandon] [laughter and then choking...]

Writing Excuses Season Three Episode 16: The Anti-Mary Sue Episode

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2009/09/13/writing-excuses-season-3-episode-16-the-anti-mary-sue-episode/

Key points: Mary Sue means wish fulfillment. To write different voices, steep yourself in that voice and culture. Keep someone in mind when you write a character, a dominant impression. Get inside your character's head. Fix it in revision. Find someone fascinating and write about them, to avoid always telling your story.
( the voices in your head... )
[Jordo] Writing prompt?
[Brandon] Producer Jordo says I have to do a writing prompt, so I'm going to make John Brown do it.
[John] Okay. Here's your writing prompt. Go out and do some research. Find a fascinating character that is nothing like you. Go pick some topic that you don't know about. Then write a story.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses Season 2 Episode 1: Q&A At Mountain Con with John Brown

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/10/12/writing-excuses-season-2-episode-1-qa-on-setting-and-characters-at-mountain-con-with-john-brown/

Key Points: Setting drives characters who drive plot. Getting the right visual details can be as simple as looking at a picture while writing, although lush minimalism and studying masters also helps. When characters deviate from the plot, you need to consider why, and decide whether to go with it or bring them back to the plan.
( chunky! )