21.20: Sequencing from Mega to Micro

Writing Excuses

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

Business, Careers, Fiction

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we explore why writers place information in the order they do. From broad-to-narrow framing and cause-and-effect to repetition, rhythm, and surprise, we discuss how sequencing shapes the pacing, emotion, and clarity of your story. We discuss everything from “windowpane prose” and garden path sentences to recency-primacy effects and the ways readers naturally recognize patterns. Along the way, our hosts highlight how sequencing can guide a reader’s attention, create tension, and reinforce themes. Homework: Take something you’ve written—or a story someone recently told you—and write it down in its current order. Then rewrite it two different ways: first by completely reversing the sequence of information, and then by arranging it in the most unexpected or “wrong” order you can imagine. Compare how each version changes the reader’s experience. Final WXR Cruise! Our final WXR cruise is almost sold out, grab your spot before June 4th, 2026 here! Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, Erin Roberts, and DongWon Song. 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	S.W.w.com writing excuses.
0:15.3	Season 21, episode 20.
0:19.3	This is writing excuses.
0:21.6	Sequencing from mega to micro.
0:24.6	Tools not rules.
0:25.6	Four writers by writers.
0:27.6	I'm Mary Robinette.
0:28.6	I'm Don Juan.
0:29.6	I'm Aaron.
0:30.6	And I'm Howard.
0:31.6	And today we are talking about sequencing and why we put things in the order that we do. And I thought I would actually
0:39.3	start by, it's funny, the first thing I thought of when I was thinking about how to lead off
0:43.1	this episode was our actual tagline that we've changed because we could say, for writers,
0:49.7	by writers, tools not rules, or by writers, four writers, rules that are bad and tools that are good.
0:56.5	But instead we say tools not rules for writers by writers because I think we just think it sounds better.
1:03.6	And so one of the things I'm wondering about sequencing is how much of it do you think is like things we absolutely like can figure out by like dialing them up and having rules?
1:16.8	And how much of it do you think is like some sort of intrinsic thing that we know, like having rhythm?
1:23.1	A thing that I think about a lot.
1:24.8	I mean, I do think the rhythm is really important, right? And I think we're going to dive into that in even more detail in the next episode. But I do think, you know, part of why that tagline works so well is the rhythmic beat of it. But then there's also a narrowing funnel of the concept, you know, as you start from the broad statement of, why do we do this show,
1:46.7	right? What's our core principle? And, you know, we worked a lot on this tagline and we did a whole
	...

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