Writing Excuses

Writing Excuses is a podcast hosted by authors Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, and author and web cartoonist Howard Tayler.

Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses website in December 2019.
Presentation
Hosted by
Genre
Updatesactive
Publication
Original release02/10/2008 – present
Websitewww.writingexcuses.com

Promoted as "fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart",[1] the four hosts and guests discuss different topics involved in the creation and production of genre writing and webcomics. As of 2017, authors Wesley Chu, Piper J. Drake and Mary Anne Mohanraj were added as secondary hosts, each having one show a month alongside different configurations of the primary hosts.[2]

Premise

Writing Excuses began in 2008 with three hosts – Sanderson, Tayler, and Wells – accompanied by Brandon's brother, Jordan Sanderson, who serves as producer. The show aims to cover a single writing-related topic in each podcast, in a format short enough to be listened to on a morning commute or during a lunch break. Adherence to a fifteen minute limit is not absolute, and Writing Excuses frequently runs to about 20 minutes.

The single topic is discussed in a back-and-forth by the hosts for roughly fifteen minutes. Given the authors' backgrounds in fantasy and science fiction there is a strong emphasis in those genres, but Writing Excuses covers a wide variety of topics intended to apply to fiction and creative arts generally. Halfway through the podcast the hosts introduce a book of the week, either a favorite of the hosts or one of their own works. Writing Excuses has been sponsored by Audible since October 2009.[3] On numerous occasions, often at conventions, the hosts invite guest authors and industry professionals on board for podcast episodes.

After making a number of guest appearances, Mary Robinette Kowal joined the permanent cast as a new host at the beginning of season 6.[4]

Wesley Chu, Piper J. Drake, and Mary Anne Mohanraj were added as secondary hosts at the beginning of series 12.[2]

Awards

The Writing Excuses podcast has received the following recognition:

Year Organization Award title,
Category		 Work Result Refs
2009 FarPoint Media Parsec Award,
Best Writing Related Podcast		 - Won [5]
2010 FarPoint Media Parsec Award,
Best Podcast about Speculative Fiction Content Creation		 - Won [6]
2010 Podcast Connect Podcast Award - Nominated [7]
2011 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award,
Best Related Work		 Writing Excuses Season 4 Nominated [8]
2012 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award,
Best Related Work		 Writing Excuses Season 6 Nominated [9]
2013 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award,
Best Related Work		 Writing Excuses Season 7 Won [10]
2014 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award,
Best Related Work		 Writing Excuses Season 8 Nominated [11]

Shadows Beneath anthology
Shadows Beneath
Cover image from hardcover.
EditorPeter Ahlstrom
Author
Illustrator
  • Kekai Kotaki
  • Kathryn Layno
  • Ben McSweeney
  • Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein
  • Howard Tayler
Cover artistJulie Dillon
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction, fantasy, horror
PublisherDragonsteel Entertainment
Publication date
July 2014
Media typePrint, digital
Pages366
ISBN978-1-938570-03-2 (hardcover)
OCLC884923884
LC ClassPS648.F3 S494 2014

Shadows Beneath, an anthology of four stories written by the members of Writing Excuses, was published in 2014.[12] The anthology's bonus material is intended to show some of the processes of story creation. The stories were brainstormed on the podcast and the first drafts later critiqued. Transcripts of the podcasts and one or more drafts of the stories are included.[13] The stories are illustrated by Kekai Kotaki, Kathryn Layno, Ben McSweeney, Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein, and Tayler.[14]

The anthology was released as a hardcover and an ebook in July 2014 through Dragonsteel Entertainment. The stories include:

Reception

Eric Seal of Nitwitty Magazine stated that "no other book on writing...offers a wealth of writing knowledge in such a consumable form."[15] GraphicAudio described it as "an exhaustive look at the entire process [of writing]".[16] MySF Reviews described the behind-the-scenes part of the book as "the most interesting thing about this collection".[17] The anthology was a preliminary nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2015, but did not make the final ballot.[18]

gollark: Well, that seems like a neat idea.
gollark: For ages it didn't even show virtual files in `fs.list` output.
gollark: I made a VFS thing which was barely good enough to sort of work for potatOS.
gollark: Also, dealing with file handles is irritating when 90% of the time you just want to read/write a string to a file (or HTTP handle, even).
gollark: I mean, `window` contains this whole neat framebuffer thing internally, but until `getLine` came along didn't expose any of it.

References
  1. "Writing Excuses". Writing Excuses. Archived from the original on 18 February 2008. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  2. Tayler, Howard (1 January 2017). "12.1: Variations on First Person". Writing Excuses. Archived from the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  3. "Season 3 Episode 22: Idea to Story". Writing Excuses. 25 October 2009. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  4. "6.1: Can Creativity be Taught?". Writing Excuses. 5 June 2011. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  5. "2009 Parsec Award Winners & Finalists". Parsecawards.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  6. "2010 Parsec Awards Winners & Finalists"". Parsecawards.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  7. "2010 Podcast Awards Voting Open". PodCastAwards.com. Podcast Connect. Archived from the original on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  8. "2011 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 19 October 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  9. "2012 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  10. "2013 Hugo Award Winners". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 7 September 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  11. "2014 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  12. Wells, Dan; Tayler, Howard; Kowal, Mary Robinette; Sanderson, Brandon. Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology. Dragonsteel Entertainment. ASIN B00LDOM8A2.
  13. Sanderson, Brandon (30 June 2014). "Shadows Beneath". brandonsanderson.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  14. "Publication: Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  15. Seal, Eric (19 May 2016). "Nitwitty Review – Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology". Nitwitty Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  16. "Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology". GraphicAudio. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  17. Joe (22 August 2014). "Shadows Beneath – The Writing Excuses Anthology by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler – anthology review". MySF Reviews. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  18. "2015 Hugo Award". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.


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