Comments on: Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 15: Writing Process Q&A, with Mary Robinette Kowal

By: Avi

Avi — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:59:06 +0000

“People imagine new colors, they imagine a horn on a horse’s head.”

Octarine!

By: Wade Stockton

Wade Stockton — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:24:04 +0000

Hopefully this can help some of the MS Word users. A new feature (to me) for MS Word is the WORK menu. The WORK menu lets you permanently list the files you work on frequently. No more file/open then hunt for the files. Apparently for 2007 this feature was rolled into the recently opened docs menu where you can PIN them to this menu.

By: Matthew Watkins

Matthew Watkins — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:38:18 +0000

My problem right now is that I don’t really know whether I am an outlining writer or a discovery writer. When I write short stories or plays, I tend to be more of a discovery writer, but when I write novels I tend more towards the “500 first chapters” person and I think it is because I don’t do enough outlining for my novels. I usually get through about the first 1/4 of a book, and then I get distracted from the story or I move on to another project or I have some kind of life event that keeps me from writing for a couple weeks, and when I go back to the story it has lost all of its magic. I don’t really know what comes next, because I lost the feel of the characters.

So, I decided to start my next novel by giving myself “world-builder’s disease.” Maybe by developing much more detailed outlines, I will be able to get this novel finished.

By: SF Signal

SF Signal — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:30:31 +0000

SF Tidbits for 9/10/09…

Interviews & ProfilesTwo interviews with LeVar Buron:@DVDs Worth Watching: Levar talks about being Black Lightning in the upcoming animated Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.@NPR: on the end of Reading Rainbow.SF Legend Frederik Pohl on L. Ron Hubbard (p…

By: Mike Barker

Mike Barker — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:41:53 +0000

And for the textually oriented, a transcript…

http://mbarker.livejournal.com/123449.html

By: Tom Hansen

Tom Hansen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:44:45 +0000

Thank you for such a great podcast.

I’m just getting into writing a novel and I just found you guys while doing some research on the net. You have so much information for us who are just getting into the craft. I’m currently downloading all three seasons and catching up.

Can’t wait for future casts!

By: jerome steegmans

jerome steegmans — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:32:38 +0000

Also,
The insight into Dan’s outlining process is particularly helpful and interesting.
It is always a pleasure to get a peek into the systems that work for people who work (and work well).
Thanks guys, for providing an aspiring public with such an enlightening forum.

By: jerome steegmans

jerome steegmans — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:23:05 +0000

Long-time listener, first-time poster.
A great episode. I particularly enjoyed hearing the technologies/methods used. People spend a lot of time bashing Word and searching for the perfect software suite for the creative writer. We often overlook the fact that miracles can be worked with the simple team of pen and paper. The important thing is to write.
That being said, my current method of outlining involves FreeMind, the open source mind-mapping program. I’ll do a little brainstorming, bubbling up themes and conflicts, then create a node for each scene (with a little summary of important points attached as a note). I link each scene node to a word processing file (WordStar, in my case–that’s right, WordStar for DOS), which I can launch right from the outline.
As my writing progresses, I change the outline/mindmap to reflect the evolution of the project. I can restructure the nodes or change the links without difficulty.
I quite enjoy working this way, but the final construction of a draft must be assembled manually. There are plenty of tools/methods to facilitate the concatenation of disparate files like this, but it is still another step to be taken, another thing to do that is not actual writing. I don’t mind such changes of pace in my workflow, but other people may.

By: Donald S. Crankshaw

Donald S. Crankshaw — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:48:46 +0000

It’s cool to see your interview with Mary Robinette Kowal. I met her at Readercon this year. We discovered that we had stories in the same issue of Aoife’s Kiss, and to our mutual embarrassment, neither of us had read the other’s.

By: John Brown

John Brown — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:02:35 +0000

Interesting. I really like this idea. It’s not plot per se, but seems like simply brainstorming ways to come at an issue and opportunities you might use as you plot the story arcs. It seems like a great way to think about things characters must learn and inner struggles as well.