First Lines over at Writing Excuses
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.