This episode, we’re talking about how important tension is in creating a world where your readers feel fully immersed. We talk about the importance of using tropes and techniques while also using variation in order to make your story less predictable. We dive into the difference between tension and conflict, and talk about how you can use the former to help the ladder. Tension can be found in movement, but also in inaction. We touch on tension's effect on try-fail cycles, inverted pyramids, and ...
Sep 29, 2024•23 min•Season 19Ep. 39
When you’re subverting your readers’ expectations, do you need to do the exact opposite of what they’re anticipating? Today, we dive into this question, using various examples of books and movies. We then examine how P. Djèlí Clark does this throughout Ring Shout – does he subvert our expectations completely? Not always. In fact, sometimes he does the opposite. Thing of the Week: White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link Homework : Write a scene listening to three different piece of music that move you...
Sep 22, 2024•20 min•Season 19Ep. 38
Today, we’re using music as an entry-point for tension. Howard introduces us to the power of the half-step, and other musical metaphors that can help you to incorporate tension in a new way to your writing. And then DongWon updates the metaphor with an electronic dance music analogy. We also dive into questions you can ask as you weave tension into your work in progress, such as, “what does your character have to gain by withholding their secret?” Thing of the Week: Clueless (the movie!) Homewor...
Sep 15, 2024•21 min•Season 19Ep. 37
Today, we’re talking about the tension that is actually happening on the page, and the contextual tension is what the reader is bringing to the table. Ring Shout lives in a place of contextual tension and we are excited to dive into how you can use both types of tension in your own writing. Your readers will always bring their own context to your work; and if you think about this, you can use tension in both big and small ways in your work. Thing of the Week: Random Friday - Solar Fields (Album)...
Sep 08, 2024•27 min•Season 19Ep. 36
Compared to This is How You Lose The Time War, which we read earlier this year, Ring Shout deals with a very real world. This discordance, where authors make their audience uncomfortable by creating things that shouldn’t go together, is part of the power of this novella, and part of the reason we chose to dive into tension! Our favorite metaphor about tension from this episode comes from Howard: potential movement (imagine a rock at the top of a hill). Note: this novella uses tools from the horr...
Sep 01, 2024•19 min•Season 19Ep. 35
Today we have a wildcard episode for you! We are talking about all the different ways you can sustain your writing career. Our host, Erin Roberts, has done an incredible job of applying for grants, fellowships, and residencies. So, we put her on the spot and got her to dole out advice and insights to help you sustain and develop your writing. Thing of the Week: “Extreme Economies: What Life at the World's Margins Can Teach Us about Our Own Future” by Richard Davies Homework : Write a one-paragra...
Aug 25, 2024•29 min•Season 19Ep. 34
Today we’re taking a break from our Close Reading Series to discuss writing workshops and retreats! We dive into how to find and prepare to attend a workshop or a retreat and what to think about for organizing your own. Thing of the Week: Solo RPGs! (Strider Mode, Star Trek Adventures, Mythic Game Master) Homework : Go find 3 writing retreats you are interested in attending. 1 retreat-focused, 1 workshop-focused and 1 combination. Then think about what your expectations would be for each one. Cl...
Aug 18, 2024•30 min•Season 19Ep. 33
We sat down with CL Clark to talk about character—specifically, how they build different POV characters in the compressed space of a short story. We dive into plot processing (a tool CL Clark has learned from Mary Robinette!), how to specify the stakes of your world, and how to build distinct characters. Thing of the Week: Reasons Not To Worry: How to be Stoic in Chaotic Times by Brigid Delaney Homework : “4 Scenes About Power” — Write four scenes: (1) a scene in which your protagonist does some...
Aug 11, 2024•33 min•Season 19Ep. 32
Today, we’re taking a higher view on the techniques we’ve been talking about over the last four episodes and focusing on how you can use our takeaways in your own writing. We’ll go over our final thoughts on C.L. Clark’s short stories (until next week’s episode, when we interview them!). We’ll also try to summarize the lessons we've learned from Clark and our favorite bits of their writing. Thing of the Week: Rude Tales of Magic (podcast) Homework : Write a character study in which two character...
Aug 04, 2024•24 min•Season 19Ep. 31
We have a theory that we want to work through on today’s episode: agency is the ability to take action, whereas choices are more about the interior life of the character. We use Mary Robinette’s talking cat, try-fail cycles, and C.L. Clark’s Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home in order to examine this theory and its underpinnings. Thing of the Week: Marginalia by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny Magazine) Homework : Create a scene in which you...
Jul 28, 2024•23 min•Season 19Ep. 30
Our episode today focuses on C.L. Clark’s short story “You Perfect Broken Thing” for how the character's stakes shape the barriers facing her. We use this story to examine how to tell the difference between barriers versus stakes. We also examine how to do this in a compressed space– whether that’s a short story, a single scene, or a compressed timeline. Thing of the Week: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Homework : Write a short scene in which your character has to deal wit...
Jul 21, 2024•23 min•Season 19Ep. 29
Today, we’re focusing on C.L. Clark’s “The Cook,” as we explore external and internal expression. We chose this story because it's a remarkably physical and touchable story with myriad sensory details. While the audience gets very little information about what Clark’s characters are thinking, you can still understand their internal landscapes by what they seee and notice. How do these external indicators help us understand the internal worlds of the characters? We mention two infographics during...
Jul 14, 2024•24 min•Season 19Ep. 28
Today we introduce our next close reading series—we’re focusing on character through the lens of three of C.L. Clark’s short stories: “You Perfect, Broken Thing,” “The Cook,” and “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home” . They are all hyperlinked above and available online for free through Uncanny Magazine . We are so excited to shift our focus to short stories! We love the compressed form, and C.L. Clark’s stories exemplify the freedom that e...
Jul 07, 2024•24 min•Season 19Ep. 27
Today we are joined by the incredible falconer Krista Hong Edwards. Krista was kind enough to take our hosts out with her falcons, and we had the most amazing time! Krista sat down with us to talk about falcons, literature, and much more. Check out our liner notes (below) for all of the texts we reference! Thing of the Week: Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey: A Novel Book by Kathleen Rooney Homework : Look up your local falconry club and see if you can attend their next event! Liner Notes: See more ...
Jun 30, 2024•28 min•Season 19Ep. 26
Learning is great, but how do you translate it into doing without getting overwhelmed? What is the difference between learning in the classroom and executing when you're on your own? Marshall, our incredible recording engineer, just finished an MFA program. Congrats, Marshall!! On today’s episode, we gril Marshall in order to understand his takeaways from the program. Specifically, we are interested in how he takes everything he learned in the classroom and turns it into actionable things he’s d...
Jun 23, 2024•26 min•Season 24Ep. 25
We've spent the last month talking about "A Memory Called Empire, and now, we are so excited to welcome the author, Arkady Martine, to the show! On today's episode, we talk with Arkady about the origins of her novel, and dive into how she navigated the dense and intricate world-building. Arkady gives us advice on what not to do, where to look for your first ideas, and what her writing process looks like. Thing of the Week: “The Shamshine Blind” By Paz Pardo Homework : Using the character and the...
Jun 16, 2024•36 min•Season 19Ep. 24
Today, the gang talks about their final thoughts on Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire.” We conclude with some lessons we’ve learned through analyzing her work, and we share our favorite bits! Thing of the Week: Pasión de las Pasiones Homework : Find a piece of world building that you love and come up with another way to use it in your work in progress. Close Reading Series: Texts & Timeline Next up is Character! Starting July 7, we’ll be diving into three short stories by C.L. Clark. These a...
Jun 09, 2024•22 min•Season 18Ep. 23
The imago technology lies at the heart of this novel thematically and narratively. How does this technology create a world, delineate Mahit's culture from Teixcalaan, and ask enormous questions about identity and empire? Thing of the Week: “Rotten” (Documentary Series available on Netflix) Homework : Come up with three technological or magical approaches that would raise questions about what it means to be you, to be an individual. Take one of these, and then write a scene wherein two characters...
Jun 02, 2024•26 min•Season 19Ep. 22
What cultural and worldbuilding information is embedded within the smallest of word choices? Today, we dive into three specific sections from throughout Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire”: the word for empire, assimilation and naming, and learning the word for bomb. We unpack how Martine uses language to establish important principles of how the world works. Thing of the Week: The Gilded Age - Created and Written by Julian Fellowes Julian Fellows (on HBO Max) Homework : Write a scene that descri...
May 26, 2024•28 min•Season 19Ep. 21
How do you use language and scale to focus your writing? Today, we think about scale and movement across vast spaces. What do characters’ movements tell us about empires and also—force? We talk about Martine’s incredible work establishing an empire across time, not (just) space. We read aloud some of Martine’s writing, and try to understand exactly how they work, and what they’re doing to build the novel’s world. A refresher on why Worldbuilding is essential and some working definitions of how w...
May 19, 2024•28 min•Season 19Ep. 20
Why is worldbuilding is essential in your writing? Today, we answer this question and dive into some working definitions of how we want to talk about it. After the break, we discuss why we chose this book Arkady Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire” and highlight what it does well. We dive into the elements that help make Martine’s worldbuilding so accessible and effective. Thing of the Week: “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman (think about what it teaches you about POV!) Homework : Pick your favorite fict...
May 12, 2024•29 min
Sometimes we know the action and themes of your story, but you don’t know how to build an economy that supports those. Well today, we explain just how to do that! What are some questions you can ask yourself about the worth of certain goods and services in the world you’re building? What would a post-scarcity world look like and ask of your characters and how would it shape their wants? We loved recording this episode, it brought up so many interesting questions for us, and we hope it does the s...
May 05, 2024•27 min•Season 19Ep. 18
How do you find the right size for your story? And speaking of size, what do novellas do differently than both short stories and novels? What even is the difference between a novel and a novella? How many characters do they usually have? How many subplots? How do you know if your story should take the form of a novella or a novel? We dive into all these questions (and…you guessed it… more!) in our conversation. A note on the structure of Season 19: in between our close reading series (six episod...
Apr 28, 2024•28 min•Season 19Ep. 17
Today we get to talk to the inimitable Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. Amal and Max are on the podcast to tell us about how they wrote a book together (hint: they didn’t write it together in the form of one voice.) They talk to us about the practice of writing letters, collaboration, and the revelation of friendship. They talk about the complexity, harmony, and cadence of two-author projects. We also talk about that voice in your head that criticizes your writing, and how to work with it and h...
Apr 21, 2024•47 min•Season 19Ep. 16
As we conclude our first deep dive of our close reading series, we want to explore how the evolution of voice helped carry readers throughout "This Is How You Lose The Time War." We also talk about the relationship between character arcs and language, learning and voice. Stay tuned for next week’s episode, where we interview Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar on what it was like to write “Time War” together! Thing of the Week: Princess Weekes Homework : Write a short outline of your work noting wh...
Apr 14, 2024•25 min•Season 19Ep. 15
What's epistolary writing? Well, it's writing through letters. But it's also a lot more than that. As we continue to dive into the concept of Voice, we want to explore the importance and power of the letters that Blue and Red write to each other throughout "This Is How You Lose The Time War." If you haven't already listened to our episodes introducing this novella, we recommend you go back and start with Episode 11 (of this season, Season 19)! And if you’ve been reading along with us while liste...
Apr 07, 2024•26 min•Season 19Ep. 14
On our third episode diving into Voice through the novella “This Is How You Lose The Time War,” we begin to explore the different voices that make up the two main characters in the story. Last episode we dove into Red’s voice– if you haven’t already, we recommend you listen to that first! Today, we are doing a close read of Blue at the tea shop and how voice establishes character, growth, and vulnerability. How do the authors make Blue’s voice distinct from Red’s? Is it in the tone, the structur...
Mar 31, 2024•24 min•Season 16Ep. 13
Today, we are doing a very close read of Red's opening narration and how Red’s voice communicates both character and world in an effective and efficient way. We read several sections aloud and dive into what each sensory detail is doing. Also Mary Robinette talks about what she thinks is the most effective way to draw your readers attention to something. Thing of the Week: Planet Crafter Homework : Take a sentence from your work in progress and rewrite it to adjust the age of the character to ma...
Mar 24, 2024•27 min
The book that became a New York Times Bestseller because of a tweet. Well, it won LOTS of awards when it came out, but it was rediscovered by a Twitter account with a large following. So-- let's get into it! On our first episode diving into Voice using the short novel "This Is How You Lose The Time War", we talk about why Voice is essential and some working definitions of how we want to talk about it. We also explain why we chose this book and highlight some of the things it's done well, and wha...
Mar 17, 2024•24 min•Season 19Ep. 11
You’ve probably seen us posting about our Close Reading Series, and in his episode, we finally officially introduce it! For most of the remainder of 2024, we’ll be diving into five core elements of writing by focusing on five different literary texts. We’ll spend five episodes on each one, and then we’re going to… drumroll please… interview the author(s)! As you know, we’ve spent lots of time reading, writing, talking, and recording our thoughts about different elements of the craft. But this ye...
Mar 10, 2024•24 min•Season 19Ep. 10
