20.09: Lens 4 - Reaction

Writing Excuses

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

Fiction, Business, Careers

4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What do emotional beats and action scenes have in common? Well, they both need to land with your audience in order for your story not to fall flat. On today’s episode, we’re talking about the importance of reaction. Everything from portraying your characters’ reactions to letting readers sit with—and witness— these reactions. The actions that a character takes—or doesn’t take— as a part of their reaction let the audience know what they are thinking and feeling. And this lets the audience react alongside the character, even if they haven’t experienced (in their own life) what just happened to the character. We’ll give you tips and tricks for building this level of resonance between your characters and readers.

Homework: Look at one of your characters’ reactions and flip it. If they take an action that escalates a situation, how would that scene play if their reaction de-escalated the situation? Can you still get to the end point that you want?

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Dongwon Song, 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	Writing doesn't have to be a solitary activity.
0:04.2	That's why we host in-person retreats and workshops.
0:07.7	At the writing excuses retreats, you'll get access to classes, one-on-one office hours,
0:12.1	critique sessions, and activities to keep you inspired and motivated.
0:16.3	Become a more engaging storyteller and learn how to navigate the publishing landscape.
0:20.4	As you make meaningful
0:21.4	progress on your stories, you'll also build connections with your fellow writers that will last for
0:26.3	years to come. Check out our upcoming events at writingexcuses.com slash retreats.
0:34.0	This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends.
0:39.3	If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www. patreon.com slash writing excuses.
0:49.6	Season 20, episode 9.
0:53.6	This is writing excuses.
0:56.3	The reaction of who?
0:58.4	I'm Mary Robinette.
1:00.1	I'm Howard.
1:01.2	I'm Dong Wan, and I'm Dan.
1:03.7	And I'm sure many of you writers out there are saying,
1:08.3	Howard, it's supposed to be the reaction of whom?
1:11.4	But if you've been following along with us, you know that right now we're in our fourth
1:15.7	episode where we're talking about the lens of who, the lens of the character, how we are
1:23.6	approaching our writing through a specific lens.
1:28.3	And in this episode, we're finishing that up
	...

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