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Writing Excuses

20.40: Mary Robinette Kowal’s Personal Writing Process

Writing Excuses

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

Business, Careers, Fiction

4.61.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A lot of people ask published authors what their writing process is like, as if it is a key to being able to write. The only important process is the one that works for you. So, we’re going to let each of our hosts spend an episode explaining their own personal process. Our idea is that the best writing process is the one that works for you. Also, this is going to change over the course of your life and career. Today we’re learning about Mary Robinette’s writing process, which is built on having a totally random schedule. Homework: What helps you want to do the things that aren’t writing? For instance, the other tasks and joys in your life? Because the tools that you use for those, also work for writing. Is it lists, or spreadsheets, or body-doubling? Now, see if you can use those same things to help you write more. 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

I'm no tech genius, but I knew if I wanted my business to crush it, I needed a website now.

0:05.7

Thankfully, Bluehost made it easy. I customized, optimized, and monetized everything exactly

0:10.8

how I wanted with AI. In minutes my site was up, I couldn't believe it. The search engine tools

0:16.1

even helped me get more site visitors. Whatever your passion project is, you can set it up with Bluehost.

0:21.6

With their 30-day money-back guarantee, what do you got to lose?

0:24.8

Head to bluehost.com.

0:26.3

That's B-L-U-E-H-O-S-T.com to start now.

0:30.6

This episode of writing excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends.

0:36.2

If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www.com

0:42.3

slash writing excuses.

0:45.7

Season 20, episode 40.

0:49.8

This is writing excuses.

0:52.5

Mary Robinette Coal's personal writing process.

0:56.3

I'm Mary Robinette.

0:57.7

I'm Dongwan.

0:58.4

I'm Dan.

0:59.1

I'm Erin.

1:00.1

And I'm Howard.

1:02.7

So we had this thought.

1:06.0

I hear a lot of people say, but what is your writing process?

1:09.0

And ask successful writers, people who are published, what is your writing process? And ask successful writers, people who are

1:11.5

published, what is your writing process, as if it is a key to being able to write? The idea here

...

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