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17.8: The Alchemy of Creativity
How do you translate things from the spark of inspiration into a work that someone else can consume? Like, instead of turning a movie into a book, you’re trying to create a book out of the movie in your head. And what if your “spark” isn’t a movie in your head, but instead a suite of emotions?
17.7: Dissecting Influence
What are your influences? What pieces of art, music, literature, or other media have inspired you? In this episode we’ll talk about making that inspiration deliberate, and consciously learning from our influences.
17.6: Hitting Reset Without Getting Hit Back
Oh no! You’re in the middle of a thing (a novel, a series, a career) and you suddenly realize that the expectations you set early on are not the expectations you’ll be meeting. What do you do now? ,
17.5: The Promise of the Brand
Your brand—your name, the cover art for your book, and even the typeface for the title—set expectations for the book’s contents. That advice about not judging a book by its cover? It’s lovely in theory, but in practice, that’s just not how it works.
17.4: The Gun on the Mantel is Actually a Fish
In the previous episode we discussed how to ensure that your surprise feels inevitable. In this episode we’re covering how to make inevitability feel surprising. The title is a nod to the concept of the “red herring,” which is arguably the most useful tool for setting up a good surprise.
17.2: It Was a Promise of Three Parts
The title of this episode comes to us from the first paragraph of The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss—a novel which delights us with turns of phrase and evocative prose from beginning to end.
17.1: Genre and Media are Promises
The genre of your story is making promises to the reader, and the medium upon which your story is told makes promises too.
Who are the hosts of the show "The Hero"?
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, James L. Sutter, Dan Wells, Cassandra Khaw, and Howard TaylerSo, you're the hero of your own story, and the hero gets choices, and in many ways directs t…
Who are the hosts of Game Design and Nove?
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Cassandra Khaw, Dan Well, James L. Sutter, and Howard TaylerWorldbuilding is one of our favorite topics, and it's a domain in which game design and nove…
92 - The Alloy of Law - Prologue and Chapter 1
This week we return to Scadrial for The Alloy of Law. Our crew is delighted by the western vibe and intrigued by Waxillium Ladrian, our new allomancer... View Details
91 - Sixth of the Dusk
This week is a special event, we actually read an entire story in one go. I know, it's like a revolution in podcast form. Join the crew as we talk abo... View Details
86 - The Hope of Elantris, The Selish System, and other Elantris-y things
This week we're kind of wrapping up the whole Elantris thing by reading one short story and then a few other tidbits, all to give us more of an idea a... View Details
85 - Elantris - Chapters 61, 62, 63, and Epilogue
And we're finishing Elantris in this episode. Final chapters and final thoughts on this, Brandon's first published novel. Find out what the crew think... View Details
84 - Elantris - Chapters 54 - 60
Things really took a turn for the worse in these chapters. It's been exactly a day since Roial died in the previous set of chapters, and if you though... View Details
83 - Elantris - Chapters 49 -53
The magic is back! The crew is very excited as Raoden finally finds the solution to the puzzle of how to fix AonDor. Then things really start to ramp ... View Details
