Daystar and Alexander discuss irrational or non-rational fiction. Co-hosted by Alexander Wales
With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected
Timestamps
00:35 “Rational” vs “Irrational”
10:04 How do you distinguish?
18:50 Conversations around the difference
33:05 Audience Mindset
48:18 Writing non-rational fiction
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
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
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.