Tag Archives: writing advice

52 – Dropped Threads

Daystar and Alexander discuss dropped threads and side plots in stories, what tends to lead to them and how to manage them as you go.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Timestamps

2:34 Serial Fiction

9:32 What Ends Up on the Page

14:55 Side Plots

17:10 Serials

21:25 Why Threads Get Dropped

27:30 Story Shifts

37:30 Our Dropped Threads

44:28 Bonus Dropped Threads

51 – Character Flaws

Daystar and Alexander discuss character flaws; what makes for good ones, how to avoid Mary Sues, and why some flaws show up so often compared to others.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Timestamps

0:35 Flaws As Conflict Generators

5:53 Mary Sues

15:23 Brought Low

23:14 Most Common Flaws

36:02 Rarest Flaws

Links

Twig by Wildbow

The Erogamer by Groon the Walker

48 – Romance

Daystar and Alexander discuss romance in fiction, particularly in finding meaningful romantic conflicts as either the major plot, or as a subplot in a broader story.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Links

Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton

Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal, is Alex’s post-credits recommendation, a romantic fantasy story set in Regency England. You can head over to Audible to help support the show and pick up a free copy!

Timestamps

7:21 Body Language and Chemistry

14:00 Source of Romantic conflict

21:43 Troubled vs Doomed

30:20 Extreme Romantic Contexts

36:29 Compatibility

43:06 Conflict from Change

50:38 New and Ongoing Conflicts

 

47 – Timeskips

Daystar and Alexander discuss the value and pitfalls of using time skips, long and short.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Links

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr.

Newton’s Cannon by J. Gregory Keys

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Seveneves by Neil Stephenson

Timestamps

1:13 The Two Axes

11:51 Rules for Timeskips

25:27 Relationships

42:13 Extremely Long Timeskips

46 – Story Research

Daystar and Alexander discuss the common necessities of research for writing fiction.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Links

Vulgar, language generator useful for consistency in made up languages: https://www.vulgarlang.com/

Google Translate, for real languages: https://translate.google.com/

Etymology Online, for word origins: https://www.etymonline.com/

Google N-gram viewer, for historical usage patterns: https://books.google.com/ngrams

WolframAlpha, for math and physics: https://www.wolframalpha.com/

Wikipedia, orders of magnitude for physics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Orders_of_magnitude

Timestamps

0:30 A Stable of Experts

12:49 Inspirational Research

19:15 Spot Research

45 – Writing as a Skill (Guest: Kuiper)

Daystar and Alexander are joined by professional game writer Kuiper to discuss writing as a skill, or rather a set of skills, and the ways people can improve them.

Kuiper’s various work can be found on his site.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Links

Brandon Sanderson lecture on description and and viewpoint.

Timestamps

1:19 Writing as a skill

21:03 What improves writing?

24:20 Don’t grow attached to your ideas

32:45 Skilling up one at a time

45:36 Sticking with or abandoning

50:25 Other ways to improve writing.

44 – Worldbuilding II (Guest: Erratic Errata)

Guest writer Erratic Errata joins Daystar and Alexander to discuss more aspects of world building, particularly in his serial A Practical Guide to Evil.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Links

A Practical Guide to Evil by Erratic Errata

Stronghold Builders Guidebook

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (Book 1: A Fire Upon the Deep)

A Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (Book 1: The Name of the Wind)

Anita Blake by Laurell K. Hamilton

Timestamps

1:36 Planet of Hats

12:01 Societal Axioms

20:02 Reconstructing Tropes

26:24 Playing with Narrative

35:38 Worldbuilding Differences

44:10 Free Will and Deities

50:10 Video game inspiration

55:47 A Practical Guide to Evil Q&A