First Lines over at Writing Excuses
Posted March 3rd, 2008 by Howard Tayler
It’s Monday, and that means another installment of Writing Excuses is live. This time around, Brandon grills Dan and I on “first lines,” the importance of hooking the reader, and why he worries that this gets too much emphasis when aspiring writers seek instruction on the craft. Have a listen to Episode Four: Beginnings.
There are a couple of great moments in there — at one point I shout “Heresy!” and at another Brandon has a massive brain-fart (silent but deadly, in this case.) I also use what I now believe to be one of the weakest metaphors ever. For the record, I shall never again compare your writing to a used car.
In unrelated news, I had a great birthday, and I owe you all at least one or two more photos of the Wall O’ Postcards. It looks wonderful, and I don’t want to ever take it down.
Also, we will be shipping the Rule 1 t-shirts this week. Please stop ordering them for a few days (don’t make me delete the link to the store item!) so Sandra can catch her breath.
Explore posts in the same categories: Podcasts
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
I am Deaf. I wonder if there are any transcripts available or if someone is willing to provide a transcripts to the talks. I am very interested.
Thank you.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 am
We don’t have any plans to transcribe these, but I expect it could be done. The challenge, of course, is that none of us have the free time to do it ourselves.
At least I know that *I* don’t.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
If you ever consider making a ‘Rule 1′ poster, please let me know. I have the ‘Rule 37′ poster already.
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Psst? Nalpdii - I summarized the first one over here http://mbarker.livejournal.com/56485.html
I’ll try to get to the others soon (four? How did that happen?)
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I’m really enjoying these. I like the premise, tagline, and content. I listen to them as I’m drifting off to sleep, so I guess you can say that every episode so far has put me to sleep (but in a good way)!
March 4th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Thanks a lot, mbarker. It’s nice.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
It isn’t quite as much of a summary, but try http://mbarker.livejournal.com/59057.html for episode two?
So now I’m just two episodes behind, right?
March 4th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
This isnt exactly related, but i figured you guys would like to know. Gary Gygax,co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons died this morning, March 4, 2008. Here is the news article. http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/report-gary-gyg.html
March 4th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I read that article just to see how long it would take for someone to say he failed his saving throw. (Sixth comment, by the way.)
I think the most tasteless comment in that vein is “What loot did he drop?” The best is “So is he going to re-roll?”
March 4th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Order Of The Stick has A Brief Tribute.
And this is the first time I’ve seen a dead guy hijack a thread.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:20 am
I’m amazed that Rich Burlew got that entire strip finished and up so quickly. It doesn’t really change the thread, I mean Roy was already up there, and the way it was done can actually fit perfectly into the story without sidetracking it.
It definitely is a sad day for us gamers. Strangely enough, I was wearing this ( http://www.jinx.com/men/shirts/pen_paper_games/dice_choose_weapon.html?catid=27 ) today, and I’ll go ahead and wear this one (http://www.jinx.com/men/shirts/gamer/the_map.html?catid=27 ) tomorrow. I can only hope that my history teacher, who happens to be an ubergeek will cancel class on account of mourning. We shall see.
March 8th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I like the game of “In Nomine,” which involves a war between Heaven and Hell. They have a special definition of the 3 and 18 (3d6). In most RPG’s, 3 is a critical success and 18 is a critical failure. In In Nomine, 3 implies Divine Intervention (3=Trinity) and equates to a critical success for those aligned with Good, but critical failure for those aligned with Evil. 18 implies Satanic intervention (18=666) and is a critical failure for Good or a critical success for Evil.