19.49: Getting to Know You

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Fiction, Business, Careers

4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we wrap up our Close Reading Series, we’re shifting our focus towards helping you integrate what you’ve learned. For December, we’ll be releasing episodes designed to help you make measurable progress on a writing project. So dust off your current work-in-progress, or pull out your brainstorming documents—we’re here to help you finish the year strong.

What can we learn from romances? Today we’re talking about using elements of romance in your story (even if you have no romance in your current WIP!) Character relationships and dynamics are often at the heart of our stories, so what can we learn from the romance genre?

We’re thinking about the power of one character putting another one at ease, a character dismissing another (“I’ll never be interested in you!”), or two characters finding a commonality between themselves. Mary Robinette also introduces us to her family’s theory of compatibility, which measures these M-words: mind, money, morals, manners, monogamy, and mirth.

Thing of the Week: Ancient History Fangirl (podcast)

Homework: In the scene you’re working on, what is one thing your character finds attractive about the other character in the scene? Also, what does your own character think is their own least attractive trait, and how can you make them more anxious about that right now?

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, 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	AI might be the most important innovation ever. It's storming every industry with literally billions being invested, so buckle up.
0:07.9	The problem is that AI needs the right data and a lot of speed and processing power, so how do you compete without cost spiraling out of control?
0:15.7	Time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI.
0:21.4	OCI is a single platform for your infrastructure, database and application development, with AI
0:26.4	embedded across it all. And Oracle's offering cloud helps you address your requirements for location,
0:31.4	access and data residency. OCI provides blazing fast speeds for AI's demanding workloads,
0:37.3	and in the cloud when you pay by the minute, speed matters, and of course, nobody does data better than Oracle.
0:43.9	If you want OCI to help you do more and spend less, like Uber, the Premier League and Oracle Red Bull Racing, take a free test drive at oracle.com slash bandwidth. That's oracle.com slash bandwidth.
0:55.3	This episode of writing excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends.
1:03.0	If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www.com.com
1:09.2	slash writing excuses.
1:12.4	Season 19, episode 49.
1:17.4	This is writing excuses.
1:20.0	Getting to know you.
1:21.3	15 minutes long.
1:22.4	Because you're in a hurry.
1:23.7	And we're not that smart.
1:25.2	I'm Mary Robinette.
1:26.4	I'm Donglin.
1:27.1	I'm Erin. I'm Donglin. I'm Erin.
1:27.7	I'm Dan.
1:28.5	And I'm Howard.
	...

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