20.29: Authorial Intent

Writing Excuses

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

Business, Careers, Fiction

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What the heck is authorial intent? Does it matter? And how do intentions end up on the page without cluttering or overwhelming the story? Today, our hosts dive into message versus content, and how to wrap your intention and narrative structure into your story’s execution. Homework: Take your work in progress, and in two sentences, describe to yourself why you are writing this (could be a scene, a chapter, or the whole book). Then, write one sentence explaining why that is the reason that you’re writing this. P.S. Our 2025 writing retreat (on a cruise! In Mexico!) is over 50% sold out! Learn more and sign up here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson. Join Our Writing Community! Writing Retreats Newsletter Patreon Instagram Threads Bluesky TikTok YouTube Facebook Our Sponsors: * Check out HomeServe and use my code homeserve.com/excuses for a great deal: https://www.homeserve.com * Check out Talkiatry and use my code Talkiatry.com/WX for a great deal: https://www.talkiatry.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript

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0:51.0	and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and Conditions Apply. Hiring, Indeed, is all you need. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www. www. patreon.com slash writing excuses.
1:15.0	Season 20, episode 29.
1:19.3	This is writing excuses.
1:22.0	Authorial intent.
1:23.7	I'm Mary Robinette.
1:24.9	I'm Howard.
1:25.6	And I'm Dan.
1:27.0	And we are going to talk to you about this particular, this little aspect of the lens of why called authorial intent,
1:36.4	a.k.a. Why are you writing this book?
1:40.6	Or this thing, or this scene, this chapter, this screenplay, this whatever.
1:46.3	This line of dialogue.
	...

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