Daystar and Alexander discuss the reasons authors abandon stories before they’re finished, whether they want to or not.
Co-hosted by Alexander Wales
With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected
Timestamps
1:26 Abandonment vs Hiatus
6:16 Different reasons for Abandoning
17:10 Alex’s List
25:55 Managing Burnout
39:37 Other Authors
48:21 Author Trust
Daystar and Alexander discuss Ideological Turing Tests; what they are, why they’re important in fiction, and how to try to pass them as best you can.
Co-hosted by Alexander Wales
With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected
Timestamps
0:34 Turing Tests
6:15 Avoiding Caricatures Isn’t Enough
10:14 Passing ITT
25:48 Frames
37:53 Personal Challenges
47:11 Presentation
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
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
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
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.
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
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
Daystar and Alexander discuss reader feedback, and taking criticism constructively.
Co-hosted by Alexander Wales
With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected
Links
Twig by Wildbow
Timestamps
2:02 Pareto Principle
6:30 Trends and Spikes
19:50 Typos vs Style
26:56 Continuity
29:30 Actionable
37:49 Deep Criticism
45:50 Spoilery feedback
Special guest CthulhuRaeJepsen joins the podcast to discuss pseudonyms, and his story Worth the Candle.
Co-hosted by Alexander Wales
With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected
Links
Stronghold Builders Guidebook
Timestamps
2:19 Writing Under Pseudonym
7:52 Worth the Candle
17:07 Spoiler Talk up to Ch. 84
Daystar and Alexander discuss worldbuilding, and why considering second-order effects is so important to making it rational, and can help in finding or fleshing out good plots.
Co-hosted by Alexander Wales
With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected
Links
Timestamps
2:50 Battle School concept
6:46 Inadequate Equilibria As Story Elements
22:55 Shadows of the Limelight
28:22 Consequence of the Consequence
37:20 Aesop Exacerbation
41:14 Confronting Civilizational Inadequacy
Alexander’s Book Recommendation
My recommendation for this week is The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson, starting with “The Way of Kings.” Sanderson is a rather prolific author, and this is his epic fantasy series, with thick, doorstopper books, dozens of viewpoint characters, and a larger scale than he’s worked on before.
I feel like worldbuilding, and specifically, second-order worldbuilding, has always been one of Sanderson’s strong points. The world of Roshar is dominated by immense, rock-hurling storms that move from east to west, which has all sorts of interesting first order effects, like the best places to build cities being in the lee of a mountain or cliff, and architecture being suited specifically to defend against heavy winds from one side. The second order effects are in trade, travel, the organization of civilizations, and the prominence of cities. Because the highstorms grow weaker as they move across Roshar, the vegetation and plantlife is affected, and the civilizations that live within them are adapted to different conditions.
If you want to give it a listen instead of a read, you can go to Audible and get a free book credit when you start a trial, and by using that link you can help support the show!
