19.06: NaNoWriMo Revision with Ali Fisher: Length
Writing Excuses
Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2024
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ali Fisher, editor at Tor Books and member of the podcast Rude Tales of Magic, joins us for a three-part series on editing.
First up: length! How do you edit your work—whether it's a book or a short story or a novella? Maybe you wrote a draft during NaNoWriMo, maybe you didn't-- either way, we want to help you figure out how to make your writing the perfect length.
Homework: Find two scenes next to each other from your writing. Remove the scene break and write bridging text between the two of them instead. Then, find a different scene that has that bridging text, and cut it into two different scenes so that you are removing it and creating new signposts. See what this does to length and your perception of the pacing.
Thing of the Week (from Ali Fisher): Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender
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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, and guest Ali Fisher. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. |
| 0:05.6 | If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit |
| 0:08.9 | www.patreon.com slash writing excuses. |
| 0:15.0 | Season 19 episode six. |
| 0:20.0 | This is writing excuses. |
| 0:22.0 | A miniseries on revision with Ali. This is a writing excuses. |
| 0:23.0 | A mini series on revision with Ali Fisher, length. |
| 0:27.0 | I'm Mary Robinette. |
| 0:28.0 | I'm Dong Wan. |
| 0:30.0 | And with us this week we have a special guest, which is executive editor at Tor Publishing Group, Ali Fisher. |
| 0:37.0 | Ali acquires an edit speculative fiction and nonfiction across young adult, middle grade, and adult categories and is as a bonus a cast member of |
| 0:46.8 | the podcast Rude Tales of Magic, which is a D&D flavored comedy podcast. |
| 0:52.4 | But really Ellie is here in her capacity as an editor and has worked |
| 0:57.4 | on a very wide range of incredibly successful titles in speculative fiction, mostly science fiction fantasy. |
| 1:07.1 | Yeah, so welcome Ali. |
| 1:08.7 | Thank you. |
| 1:09.5 | Hello World! |
| 1:10.8 | I'm so excited to be on this podcast. |
| 1:13.4 | Longtime listener, first time being on the podcaster. |
| 1:17.3 | I've been listening to writing excuses since I think 2010. |
| 1:21.8 | So is that true? You've've been we've been doing this that long correct I mean |
| 1:26.2 | next season will be your 20 season so I don't remember what year we started but it's been a minute |
... |
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