Writing Excuses 9.48: Neurobolics of Characters

Writing Excuses

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

Business, Careers, Fiction

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2014

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As authors we spend a lot of time trying to make our readers care about the characters we create. We have a wide variety of techniques at our disposal to accomplish this. But do we ever ask ourselves why any of this is possible in the first place? What is it about our brains that makes us care about fictional characters?

Enter Cory Doctorow, who posed this question to us at Westercon 67. If you like the episodes where a guest comes in and blows our minds (and they're some of our favorites) you need to put this one on the list.

Audiobook Pick of the Week: Homeland, by Cory Doctorow, narrated by Wil Wheaton, with Noah Swartz and Jacob Applebaum. (Note: Cory Doctorow's titles aren't carried by Audible, but you can find all of them here and buy them DRM-free directly from Cory.) 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 year my family will be having our 67th annual Christmas Eve dinner.
0:04.8	It's a menu passed down from my grandmother through my mom to me.
0:08.8	The entire family shows up.
0:11.8	I'm talking fourth cousins once removed and this is not an
0:15.1	exaggeration which means that during the lead up I don't have time to menu plan or
0:20.0	cook anything else. That's when I turn to prepared meals like Factor, America's
0:26.0	number one ready-to-eat meal delivery service. Factor can help you eat well for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with chef-prepared, dietition approved, ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door.
0:37.0	It allows me to save time and not eat garbage while tackling all my holiday to-do's.
0:42.0	So if you want to cross meal prepping... while tackling all my holiday to-do's.
0:42.6	So if you want to cross meal prepping off your list
0:45.8	this holiday season, consider factor.
0:48.4	You can skip the meal planning, grocery shopping,
0:50.9	shopping, shopping, prepping, and cleaning up, and get factors fresh never frozen meals delivered
0:55.8	to your door.
0:56.8	They're ready in just two minutes, which my dad says is the appropriate amount of time to cook
1:01.4	a meal.
1:02.4	He has no idea. The point is, all you have to do is heat and enjoy.
1:07.0	And if you're trying to squeeze writing into the holiday press, it might be useful to know that Factor isn't just for dinner.
1:15.1	Count on extra convenience any time of the day with an assortment of 55-plus add-ons to suit various
1:20.8	preferences and tastes.
1:22.8	So you can carve out some writing time in the morning by choosing quick breakfast items,
1:27.2	lunch to go, grab and go snacks, or ready to eat cold-pressed juices, shakes, and smoothies.
	...

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