How can listening inform the way you write? We decided to ask Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author—best known for The Power of Habit and most recently released Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, a compelling guide that explores the art and science of meaningful conversation. We talked with Charles about myriad elements of writing, speaking, and listening—that is, communication in all its forms! We explored how passion and clarity are key parts of both pitching and book proposals. Charles also introduced us to active listening techniques, such as "looping for understanding," which can foster stronger connection in conversations. These effective and meaningful exchanges can help you showcase your project’s vision and voice. Thing of the Week: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg Homework: Charles has two pieces of homework for us! 1. First, tomorrow, ask someone a deep question that you might not usually ask a deep question of. Instead of asking, “How was your day?” ask them, you know, “I noticed that you really like Jasper. What do you admire about Jasper?” 2. Write one paragraph is terrible, but you feel like indulges some aspect of your voice. Maybe it's funny, maybe it's wry, maybe it's sad. Just do something completely pointless. Set that paragraph aside for a couple of days. And when you come back to it, you are going to see something in there that surprises you at how good it is. And that is a pebble on the path to finding your voice. P.S. Our 2025 writing retreat (on a cruise! In mexico!) is over 50% sold out! Learn more and sign up here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Time isn't just a backdrop—it’s a powerful tool in storytelling. In this episode, we explore how time shapes narratives, beyond just plot structure. From magnifying moments in a fight scene to revealing a character’s morals through temporal shifts, we unpack how timing, pacing, and the passage of time can deepen emotional impact, build tension, and elevate a scene's resonance. We discuss practical techniques like character memory, flashbacks, and sensory shifts, while also considering how time reveals inner worlds—through fear, anticipation, or even a late-night zoomie session with a talkative cat. Whether you're writing action scenes or quiet reflections, this episode offers practical insights for using time as a dynamic storytelling tool. P.S. Our 2025 writing retreat (on a cruise! In mexico!) is over 50% sold out! Learn more and sign up here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Erin Roberts. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, we’re digging into context—what it is, why it matters, and how it can totally transform your storytelling. Whether you're working in fantasy, sci-fi, or anything in between, the details you choose to include (or leave out) can make your world feel rich, real, and emotionally resonant. We talk about using context to deepen conflict, sharpen stakes, and land those emotional beats. And yes, we also get into puppets, geology, and the perils of overbuilding your world. (Spoiler: nobody needs to know how many toes your goblins have. . . unless it really matters.) Homework: Take a context, some piece of world building that you've done, and come up with three different narratives that you could write that use that context. Then separately, make a narrative that you have written and come up with three new contexts in which that narrative would succeed. Show Notes: Learn more about how Campfire can help you outline your novel, organize your world building, and publish your story! P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Erin Roberts, and DongWon Song. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today we’re talking about setting, which in speculative fiction is often called worldbuilding. But once you’ve finished building the world, how do you convey that world on the page? That is, how do time and place shape your story—and your characters? In this episode, we’re talking about the power of setting through the lens of “where and when.” From daily life details like transportation and sanitation to larger societal pressures like war or peace, we explore how characters are shaped by their environment. Whether you’re building a brand new world or writing alternate history, setting isn't just a backdrop—it’s a driving force in your storytelling. P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Erin Roberts. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What does cooking have to do with writing? In this episode, we explore how the creative choices we make in the kitchen—whether it’s improvising with missing ingredients or following a beloved recipe—mirror the choices we make on the page. From frozen dinners to fine dining, we discuss how all forms of creativity have value, how skills can be learned, and how the act of making—food or fiction—is, at its core, an act of nourishment. P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Dan Wells, and Dan Wells. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This season, we’ve been exploring different approaches to writing through the lens of other crafts and their respective toolkits. We had the pleasure of speaking with furniture-maker, writer, and publisher Christopher Schwarz. Christopher is an incredible artist, writer, and is also the founder of Lost Arts Press, which publishes books on hand tool woodworking. We talked with Christopher about his creative trajectory, and the intersection of tools, methods, and crafts. P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song and Howard Tayler. Your guest was Christopher Schwarz. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

With today’s episode, we are continuing our discussion on proximity by focusing on another POV: third person omniscient. In omniscient POV, the narrator can see all and move into any character's head. It's sometimes seen as old fashioned, like Jane Austen. But writers like John Scalzi and Liza Palmer are using it to good effect as a way of exerting control over exactly what the audience sees in ways that are similar to a filmmaker. So why is it so hard to do well? And what does it allow the writer to do that no other voice does? Homework: Describe a street scene where your main character is walking down the street. Move us through this scene through the perspective of 5-6 bystanders observing this happening. Focus on sensory details: what is everybody seeing/ smelling/ looking at? And how does this establish where your main character is in the scene? P.S. Our Writing Excuses cruise is over 60% sold out! Secure your spot today at www.writingexcuses.com/retreats  Sign up for our newsletter Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Third person limited is one of the most popular storytelling lenses. Yet it is often understood differently by various authors and readers. So today we’re diving into the complexities, intricacies, and beautiful constraints of third person limited—don’t worry, we’ll be tackling third person omniscient in our next episode! With third person limited POV, you get to use some of the tools of first person, while being able to back away from the character a little. We’re going to address the various levels of interiority and proximity that characters are afforded, why this matters, and what it would look like in your own writing. Homework: Take a scene that you’ve written and write it in the closest third person limited that you can possibly stand. Then, write it again at a slightly more distanced, but still limited, third person. Look at these two scenes side-by-side and ask yourself: what did I do differently in each? What did I emphasize? Then, figure out which perspective you want to use when actually writing this scene. P.S. Our Writing Excuses cruise is over 50% sold out! Secure your spot today at www.writingexcuses.com/retreats Sign up for our newsletter Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This episode was recorded live at our 2024 Writing Excuses Cruise. (Did you know that we host a writing retreat on a cruise every year!?! You can learn more at https://writingexcuses.com/retreats/.) While on a boat in Mexico, we were joined by author Mark Oshiro and literary agent Kate McKean. In addition to our hosts, they answered questions that were asked by our cruise attendees. Our answers included things such as how much space a character should take up and how to find the balance between plot-focused and character-focused novels. We also tackled questions about worldbuilding, motivation, and deadlines. Homework: Ask someone a question about writing, either to learn more about what they're working on or to work through a project of your own. P.S. Our Writing Excuses cruise is over 50% sold out! Secure your spot today at www.writingexcuses.com/retreats Sign up for our newsletter Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Sandra Tayler, Mark Oshiro, and Kate McKean. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today we have the pleasure of talking with author (and longtime listener!) Chuck Tingle. We invited him on the podcast to talk about breaking the rules—both in terms of how to publish and what to publish. Chuck told us about the business and creative rules that he has upended—he doesn’t do readings, he is anonymous (during our interview he wore a pink bag over his head), and he thinks you should tell and show. Chuck then shares some of his favorite failures, what he learned from them, and how failures actually aren’t real. Also featured on today’s episode: puppet bloopers, approaching art, and why LOVE IS REAL. You can learn more about Chuck Tingle here. Chuck’s Thing of the Week: The FrankenStand (a vegan hotdog stand in LA that serves horror-themed hot dogs) Homework: Choose a section from your current Work In Progress (WIP). Think of the writing rule that you’re treating as the North Star of Writing At Large (what would the English Department hammer into you?). Try to rewrite that section without that rule or doing the opposite of the rule. Then, look at it and see what changes that makes. Is there a version of your writing where you can use this as a tool, and not a rule? P.S. Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. P.P.S. Are you tired of ads?! You can join our $5 tier on Patreon and receive ad-free episodes each week! Sign up for our newsletter Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dongwon Song, and Howard Tayler. Our guest was Chuck Tingle. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/WX * Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, we’re continuing our conversation about the lens of who. On last week’s episode we talked about a character’s motivation and goals. Now, we’re starting to think about tension in the form of a character’s stakes and fears. The fears that a character has and the stakes that they face create the story that exists around them. These tensions also help move them through the story. So, how can you use stakes and fears to start– and build– your story? The answer may surprise you. Hint: you may not want to open with your character dangling off a cliff. Homework: Make a list of all the major fears that your main character has. Take your MC (main character), and draw a map of all the characters that your MC is connected to. Now, describe those relationships in one sentence or less. Now, compare this list of relationships with the list of fears. See if these two lists are in conversation with each other. Are they supporting each other or are they completely disconnected? If they are disconnected, start thinking about how you could bring these two lists closer together to establish a feedback loop between relationships and fears. P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. P.P.S. Are you tired of ads?! You can join our $5 tier on Patreon and receive ad-free episodes each week! Sign up for our newsletter Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Dongwon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/WX * Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Have you ever wondered how much you need to know about a specific character before you start your story? Do you need to have an entire outline of their childhood before you can start writing in depth about them? We don’t think so! But it is important to listen to these questions as they emerge. This can help you figure out how to incorporate facets of each character’s identity that have narrative weight, instead of crowding the story with small facts that might not be necessary. This can help you layer and backfill as you build out – and discover– your story. Homework: Identify something from your character's life before your story begins - write a scene in which that element of the character weighs on the scene but is never explicitly mentioned. P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. Our Sponsors: * Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/WX * Visit kinsta.com to get your first month free when you sign up today! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy