Tag Archives: writing advice

33 – Review of Pokemon: OoS (Spoilers to Ch. 43)

Daystar and Alexander review some of each other’s writing, starting with Pokemon: The Origin of Species.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

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

Time Stamps

3:30 – Planning the story

8:36 – Present Tense

10:15 Viewpoints

16:39 Goals/Defeats

23:41 Cycles

28:24 Interludes

34:55 Criticisms

Links

Dark Wizard of Donkerk review will be up in a couple weeks!

32 – Multiple Perspectives (Guest: TK17)

Daystar and Alexander are joined by special guest Duncan Sabien (TK17) to discuss multiple perspectives in fiction, including common pitfalls and benefits.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

Special guest: Duncan Sabien, aka TK17, Curriculum Director at CFAR and writer of Animorphs: The Reckoning.

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

Time Stamps

1:30 Archetypes vs Whole Characters

5:34 Choosing Who Gets what Scene

14:45 Shifting Focus and Disorientation

25:06 Different Character Dialogue

35:30 Differentiating Characters

Links

Animorphs: The Reckoning by Duncan/TK17

Metropolitan Man by Alexander Wales

Shadows of the Limelight by Alexander Wales

Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

Magic Color Wheel

Odyssey by Vance Moore

Daystar’s friends as magic cards, circa 2012:

View post on imgur.com

 

31 – Action Scenes

Daystar and Alexander discuss action scenes and how to ensure they’re engaging and meaningful.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

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

Links

RDJ Sherlock Holmes

Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund

Monster Hunters International by Larry Correia

Kung Fu High School by Ryan Gattis

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Time Stamps

1:23 Action Scenes in Different Mediums

5:38 What Makes a Good Action Scene

11:22 Avoiding Repetition

17:01 Rational Action Scenes

20:07 Pacing and Flow

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This month, the podcast is being sponsored by Scrivener! It’s a great program to help better organize writing projects, from novels to research papers and more. They’re offering a 30 day free trial, and if you like it enough to buy it, you can support the show by using the promo code RATIONALLY through May 10th to get 20% off.  Hope you find it useful!

Alexander recommends Altered Carbon in today’s post-outro Audible advertisement. Sign up for Audible today to get an extra free book by using our promotion link!

http://www.audibletrial.com/rational

Thanks for listening!

30 – Literary Fiction

Daystar and Alexander discuss literary fiction, its values and failure modes, and its similarities and differences from rational fiction.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

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

Links

Watchmen by Alan Moore

Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gabbie

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

White Noise, Don DeLillo

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss

FLEEP, by Jason Shiga

House of Leaves by  Mark Z. Danielewski

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

The Necromancer’s House by Christopher Buehlman

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Kafka by the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Time Stamps

01:20 What Qualifies as Literary Fiction?

15:06 Pretentiousness

25: 03 Literary Fiction and Rational Fiction

35:50 Writing Literary Fiction

45:43 Recommendations

Advertisements

This month, the podcast is being sponsored by Scrivener! It’s a great program to help better organize writing projects, from novels to research papers and more. They’re offering a 30 day free trial, and if you like it enough to buy it, you can support the show by using the promo code RATIONALLY through May 10th to get 20% off.  Hope you find it useful!

Alexander recommends The Necromancer’s House in today’s post-outro Audible advertisement. Sign up for Audible today to get an extra free book by using our promotion link!

http://www.audibletrial.com/rational

Thanks for listening!

29 – Creative Appropriation, Part 2

Daystar and Alexander discusses the value of new settings opposed to using an established one, and the idea of others using their own stories and ideas.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

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

Links

Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Metropolitan Man by Alexander Wales

Unsong by Scott Alexander

Pact by Wildbow

Guardian

Time Stamps

01:24 Taking Ideas vs Fanfic

7:17 Stealing Mechanics

11:33 The value of something new

19:36 Taking our ideas

27:09 Guardian

Advertisement

This month, the podcast is being sponsored by Scrivener! It’s a great program to help better organize writing projects, from novels to research papers and more. They’re offering a 30 day free trial, and if you like it enough to buy it, you can support the show by using the promo code RATIONALLY through May 10th to get 20% off.  Hope you find it useful!

28 – Creative Appropriation, Part 1

Daystar and Alexander discuss creative appropriation, aka “stealing,” and the philosophy and benefits behind it.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

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

Links

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Copyright: Forever Less One Day by CGP Grey

Time Stamps

01:03 How to not be original

11:10 Adding something new

16:01 Stealing details

22:10 The argument against copywrite

28:38 Artistic distinction for using

Advertisement

This month, the podcast is being sponsored by Scrivener! It’s a great program to help better organize writing projects, from novels to research papers and more. They’re offering a 30 day free trial, and if you like it enough to buy it, you can support the show by using the promo code RATIONALLY through May 10th to get 20% off.  Hope you find it useful!

27 – Description

Daystar and Alexander explore the differences between good description and bad description, and analyze examples of descriptions from novels.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

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

Links

Meredith Gentry series, by Laurell K. Hamilton

Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin

Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk

The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher

There Will Be Dragons, by John Ringo

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon

Time Stamps

01:16 Why is description important?

8:53 What is good description?

14:40 When to put the description?

22:12 Alexander’s notable examples

30:00 Daystar’s notable examples

Advertisement

This month, the podcast is being sponsored by Scrivener! It’s a great program to help better organize writing projects, from novels to research papers and more. They’re offering a 30 day free trial, and if you like it enough to buy it, you can support the show by using the promo code RATIONALLY through May 10th to get 20% off. Hope you find it useful!

26 – Tabletop RPGs vs Writing

Daystar and Alexander explore the differences between GMing a tabletop RPG and writing a story.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

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

Links

A bunch of articles by Daystar, mostly on GMing and writing.

Codex Alera by Jim Butcher

John Ringo’s Pulpy Action Series (NSFW)

Alexander’s campaign wiki, Magus Europa

Marked for Death Naruto Quest

Changeling: The Lost

D&D 5e Player’s Handbook

Time Stamps

01:04 Gaming creds

05:10 Starting a story vs an RPG.

15:50 Railroading

28:36 Players as Characters

35:23 Exposition

37:51 Source Books

Advertisement

This month, the podcast is being sponsored by Scrivener! It’s a great program to help better organize writing projects, from novels to research papers and more. They’re offering a 30 day free trial, and if you like it enough to buy it, you can support the show by using the promo code RATIONALLY through May 10th get 20% off!

25 – Endings

Daystar and Alexander explore what makes endings satisfying, effective, or just annoying.

Co-hosted by Alexander Wales

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

Links (to things we’re going to be spoiling the endings of)

The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis

6 Feet Under

Game of Thrones (books) by George R R Martin

Terminator: Salvation

Scott Pilgrim vs the World (movie)

Inception

The Mist (book) by Stephen King

The Mist (movie)

Seven

1984 by George Orwell

The Giver by Lois Lowry

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia (and my rant on it)

The Dark Tower by Stephen King (recommended to start at book 2, The Drawing of the Three)

Time Crimes

Arq

Die Hard

The Stand by Stephen King

Dawn of the Dead remake

Elysium

I Am Legend (movie)

Children of Men (movie)

Timestamps

2:41 What makes endings satisfying?

15:23 Alternate Endings

18:38 Bad Endings

25:56 Ambiguity in Endings

32:07 Downer Endings

37:58 Endings we’ve enjoyed

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Alexander recommends the Merchant Princes series in today’s post-outro Audible advertisement.

http://www.audibletrial.com/rational

Thanks for listening!