20.35: Deep Dive into “All the Birds in the Sky” - Using the Lens of Where

Writing Excuses

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

Fiction, Careers, Business

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you still want to read All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, you can purchase it here! Today we’re talking about places and place-moments. We’re looking at how Anders uses context, details, and relationships to create a deep, familiar, and authentic reading experience for us, even if we’ve never been to the locations in the story. In this episode we’re also analyzing how Anders creates lived-in locations by including non-essential sensory details that imply the rest of the world. Homework: List all the locations in your WIP (work in progress). Next to each one, describe its story functions: grounding, wondrous, plot-logical, and/or worldbuilding. P.S. Want to come write with us in September 2025 (we know that’s soon)?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Dan Wells, Erin Roberts, 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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0:00.0	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 www.com
0:11.8	slash writing excuses.
0:15.1	Season 20, episode 35.
0:19.5	This is writing excuses.
0:22.5	A deep dive on all the birds in the sky using the lens of wear.
0:26.5	I'm Mary Robinette.
0:27.5	I'm Don Juan.
0:28.2	I'm Dan.
0:28.8	I'm Aaron.
0:29.8	And I'm Howard.
0:30.9	And I'm here to talk about places.
0:35.3	All the birds in the sky had, for me, some of the most memorable and grounding
0:41.3	place moments in anything I've read recently. One of them was when Lawrence is taking his trip to, I guess, it was MIT, to go see a launch, and someone tells him,
0:58.3	you know, oh, I'll give directions to your parents so they can find their way there.
1:02.3	And someone comments that they will never find their way there without specific directions.
1:08.6	Because I remember a couple of occasions driving in Boston
1:11.6	and complaining about it to someone
1:14.0	and having them tell me,
1:15.1	oh, yeah, the budget for the Boston MTA
1:17.5	is handled like, here's the amount of money you have,
1:20.6	see how wrong you can make all the maps.
	...

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