19.15: A Close Reading on Voice: Tying It All Together
Writing Excuses
Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2024
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As we conclude our first deep dive of our close reading series, we want to explore how the evolution of voice helped carry readers throughout "This Is How You Lose The Time War." We also talk about the relationship between character arcs and language, learning and voice. Stay tuned for next week’s episode, where we interview Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar on what it was like to write “Time War” together!
Thing of the Week:
Homework:
Write a short outline of your work noting where the voice changes and evolves to reflect the character growth and change rather than focusing on the plot beats
A Reminder
That starting May 12th, we'll be focusing on Worldbuilding and reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. If you’re going to buy this book, we have this bookshop link available for you to do so! (If not, go support your local library!) https://bookshop.org/lists/close-readings-season-19
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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. 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 | Hey listeners, we want your input on season 20, |
| 0:18.3 | which I have to be honest does not sound like a real number. |
| 0:21.0 | What elements of the craft do you want us to talk about? What episode or core |
| 0:26.0 | concept do you use or reference or recommend the most? Or what are you just having trouble with? |
| 0:33.0 | After 20 seasons, we've talked about a lot of things. |
| 0:36.0 | What element of writing do you wish we'd revisit for a deeper dive on the podcast? |
| 0:41.0 | Email your ideas to podcast at writing excuses.com. |
| 0:46.8 | Season 19 episode 15. |
| 0:51.6 | This is writing excuses. |
| 0:53.0 | A close reading on voice tying it all together. |
| 0:56.0 | 15 minutes long. |
| 0:57.0 | Because you're in a hurry and we're not that smart. |
| 1:00.0 | I'm Mary Robinette. |
| 1:01.0 | I'm Dong-wan. |
| 1:02.0 | I'm Aaron and I'm Howard |
| 1:04.0 | So this episode we are reaching the end of our first little module here talking about this is how you lose the time war |
| 1:10.9 | And we want to focus a little bit on both recapping some of the stuff we've talked |
| 1:15.4 | about but also making sure it feels actionable for you, the audience about how you can |
| 1:19.7 | start apply this to your own fiction. So one of the things I really wanted to focus on. |
... |
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