Comments on: Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 18: How To Not Repeat Yourself

By: Blógünder Schlock » Blog Archive » Drawing for free copy of Servant of a Dark God by John Brown

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:49:38 +0000

[...] debut novelist who Howard helped interview in two recent episodes of the Writing Excuses podcast: How Not to Repeat Yourself, and Emotion in Fiction with John Brown. If you click the links you can listen to the podcasts [...]

By: Carla

Carla — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:11:04 +0000

Does this writing prompt call for actual pie or metaphorical-or-allegorical pie? Either way, I’m hungry, and I’m going to write something now. Thanks for another great episode!

By: Andrew Jack

Andrew Jack — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:27:01 +0000

Excellent podcast, I often worry that my desire to get my characters into close combat is going to lead to repetitive scenes, so I found this podcast really useful.

Thanks,

Andrew

By: Raethe

Raethe — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:36:25 +0000

I could be wrong on this one, but as far as I know the only sequel he’s planning on (aside from Way of Kings stuff) is for Warbreaker.

By: Luis Montero

Luis Montero — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:30:31 +0000

I want know if Mr. Brandon Anderson will make a second part of Elantris I like know what will happen with the impire fjordell, arelon, new Elantris and our heroes… please say me what do you think????

By: Mike Barker

Mike Barker — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:03:28 +0000

Here we go again — a transcript.

http://mbarker.livejournal.com/125015.html

By: Clifton Hill

Clifton Hill — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:39:22 +0000

Another great podcast, especially good point about getting to the root of what your story is all about and making sure to take future stories in different directions if you keep that same root or seed. I had the same feeling when I read Eddings’; Belgariad was great, Mallorean was slightly derivative, but ok because it continued the story and gave it a bit larger scope. But the Elenium threw me, from what I recall (it’s been a while) it was decent enough but too close of a copy to the basic premises of his prior novels for me to really get into.

By: Matthew Watkins

Matthew Watkins — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:52:30 +0000

I really don’t think that repition is as bad as we think. The important thing is that we avoid formula. Many of the literary greats repeated themselves. Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Austen and so many others. In genre fiction we have Tolkien, Asimov, Jordan, Brooks, Herbert, and so many others. All of these writers leaned heavily on repeating themes, and I would like to think that these are the kinds of authors that we are trying to be like.

The difference is that we need to avoid formula fiction. Think of Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. That was formula fiction, because it did the same thing every single book. The important thing is to take a new look at your recurring themes. Approach it from a new angle. Throw in some unexpected elements. This correlates with the idea of recombination.

Essentially, we can repeat things, but we have to add some fresh elements.

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:59:58 +0000

Speaking of repetitions. Brandon you ARE the religions and cool magic systems guy…

By: WEKM

WEKM — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:39:31 +0000

Was it just me or did this episode end rather abruptly?
I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the part about turning your repetitions into a theme, tres cool.

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:26:06 +0000

I think there’s a certain advantage in repeating themes as an author. You DO get to write what you’re interested in, but readers also get to read what they’re interested in. The first book of Brandon Sanderson’s I ever read was Warbreaker, and I loved it. When I looked to see what Mistborn and Elantris were about, I could see they had similar themes; themes Sanderson did really well. So I was confident I would enjoy the books and wasn’t disappointed.

As long as the themes are kept fresh like the podcasts suggests or explored in new ways, I don’t think authors should worry too much. They may find fans who are glad they know where to look to explore certain concepts reliably.

By: Spencer Conrad

Spencer Conrad — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:19:56 +0000

Wow, this gives a lot of good insight. I have that problem like none other. I blame me creative writing class, because it wasn’t AS bad before I took my most recent one (well, it’s more like I didn’t NOTICE it was that way). I really like the advice given. And the random plot generator mentioned in the podcast finally got me to buy XDM (I’ve been on the edge for awhile). So I guess this episode was a great salesptich as well as great advice.

By: Berin

Berin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:03:22 +0000

As jazz musicians (or composers), we use repetition all the time to set up expectations, then change it at the last moment to (hopefully) pleasantly surprise the listener. The challenge is to make sure it doesn’t become redundant. I believe this same principle can be carried out in our writing.

By: Michael Dozark

Michael Dozark — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:40:33 +0000

Yes! I got started with TMNT & Other Strangeness too!

Really appreciated the discussion. Recently a friend and I made a decision to discontinue a webcomic we were working on, partly because it got too hard to not repeat ourselves. We will definitely make use of your advice while working on our next webcomic.

By: AlanHorne

AlanHorne — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:31:12 +0000

While I look for originality in any book that I consider reading, I have to say that redundancy is pretty powerful, and can hook a lot of readers. Because, lets face it:

We do not want Gilligan to get off the island.

We do not want Superman to permanently die.

We do not want a Star Wars movie where the good guys barely mention the force (even though we got three such movies in the past decade).

And we do not want the magic-sword-toting hero to discover, halfway through the book, that he feels he can better save the world by becoming a cosmetic surgeon who lives in a sitcom world where laughtracks actually happen.

There will always be some unoriginality and repetition in every great story. Some archetypes were meant to be broken, and some are unbreakable natural laws. What I’m trying to say is this: Don’t be too hard on yourself. If one of your books is similar to another, don’t fret. Because it seems sometimes like creative people worry themselves into the ground.

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:54:33 +0000

That must be one heck of a pie!

By: Patrick Sullivan

Patrick Sullivan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:16:05 +0000

I can’t imagine trying to do the pseudo mad-libs to create the characters or plot for my story, which means at some point I have to try it I think…

By: John Brown – the author’s official site » Blog Archive » John guests on Writing Excuses season 3 episode 18

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:15:54 +0000

[...] As usual, the guys had some great insights. Check it out: How to Not Repeat Yourself. [...]