On February 10, 2008, author Brandon Sanderson, cartoonist Howard Tayler, aspiring author Dan Wells and producer Jordan Sanderson first aired a podcast called “Writing Excuses."
They had no idea how far the podcast would go.
Nine seasons and one additional podcaster — Mary Robinette Kowal, author of the Glamourist Histories series — later, it's still going strong.
“When we started those early shows … not only did we have no idea how successful it would be, we had no idea what success looked like because podcasts were so new,” said Wells, who sold his first novel, “I Am Not a Serial Killer,” a few months after the first podcast aired. “Today we’re … averaging around 20,000 listeners per episode, which is gargantuan for podcasts. I’m not bragging; I’m just telling you how shocked I am that that many people want to listen to us.”
The weekly podcast focuses on specific aspects of fiction writing. Past topics have included everything from "Creating Suspense" and "Writing Epic Fantasy" to "Working with Editors" and "The Business of Writing." Everything that aspiring fiction writers would like to know is fair game.
The podcast’s tagline is “15 minutes long, because you’re in a hurry, and we’re not that smart.” Frequent listeners may challenge those assertions, though. The podcast almost always runs a few minutes over — which most listeners don't complain about — and some would say the podcasters are much smarter than they'd like to admit.
The group regularly invites guest authors on the podcast as well, including Patrick Rothfuss, author of the Kingkiller Chronicles series; James Dashner of the Maze Runner series; David Farland of the Runelords series; Jessica Day George of the Dragon Slippers series; Brandon Mull of the Fablehaven series; and Aprilynne Pike of the Wings series, among many others.
Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn series, was initially reluctant when his brother, Jordan Sanderson, first suggested the idea of doing a podcast, but he soon changed his mind.
“I started listening to some podcasts, and I found that I had trouble finding a podcast that was a good writing-focused podcast that wasn’t really meandering,” Brandon Sanderson said in an interview with the Deseret News. “I (wanted) something that was more fast-paced, more on topic and more targeted toward writers.”
After deciding to do the podcast, Sanderson recruited Tayler, author of the webcomic “Schlock Mercenary,” and Wells to join him.
“I didn’t want it to be just myself or my style of writing; I wanted different styles of writers,” Sanderson said.
After recording more than 170 episodes, the podcasters decided it was time for another change. The group brought in Kowal, who had previously been a popular guest for offering a fresh perspective.
“I really liked the podcast, and I liked them as individuals,” Kowal said in an interview with the Deseret News. “I really enjoyed it because of these very focused, intense conversations … and the other hosts are so smart. So it’s like we have this 15-minute conversation about a topic, and I feel like I come out of it being smarter than when I went in, and I love being forced to unpack my own process as well.”
The podcast has also branched out in other ways. In 2012, the podcasters announced a writing workshop and retreat, “Out of Excuses,” where participants could interact with the podcasters through a full week of classes, workshops and writing time. On the day of registration, the event sold out in nine minutes. The second retreat also sold out in minutes. Because of popular demand, the third retreat is taking place next year on a cruise ship with many more spaces available.
“Writing Excuses” has also been nominated for several awards, and in September 2013, the seventh season of the podcast won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work.
“For those who aren’t into science fiction and fantasy … this is kind of like our Academy Awards,” Sanderson said in a previous interview with the Deseret News.
Perhaps the biggest project the “Writing Excuses” team had undertaken so far has been “Shadows Beneath,” a unique anthology released in June that gives insight into the writing process of each author and shows aspiring fiction writers what it's like to be a professional author.
For the book, the authors each wrote one short story — Sanderson's story is closer in length to a novella — and included their original first draft, subsequent edits with marks for deletions and additions, a transcript of the podcast in which they workshopped their story and essays on their process while writing the story.
“People (would) ask me if they could see my early drafts, if they could see my outlines,” Sanderson said at the launch of “Shadows Beneath” at Westercon 67 on July 3. “They wanted to see behind the scenes for what a writer is doing … and that morphed into us writing our stories, workshopping them on air … and then we published them in book form with all of those transcripts, and with the original drafts and … what we changed, step-by-step.”
“I think it’s incredible,” Wells said in an interview with the Deseret News. “It’s the kind of thing I’ve never seen anyone do before. This is a book that couldn’t really have been done at any other time, by anyone else, and it’s really exciting to be a part of it. … I think that (“Shadows Beneath”) will do more for helping people see the gears turning behind how writing happens than anything else.”
While the book is geared toward helping writers understand the different authors’ writing processes, even fans of the authors who have no desire to write fiction can enjoy the stories. Similarly, the podcast, though geared toward writers, often offers insights into the authors’ stories that nonwriters may find interesting.
In 2015, “Writing Excuses” will embark on its 10th season.
“It is a level of success that we did not expect, and we’re doing our best to live up to what people expect of us,” Wells said. “We have done thousands of hours of stuff, and we’ve covered a lot of topics, and so we’re very careful (about) trying to maintain room to grow at all times. … We want to do more than we’ve done before without losing the formula, without losing what works, which is why we’re thinking that season 10 has to have a little more direction to it, a little more structure. We would like to keep going on this as long as we can.”
“Writing Excuses” is available on iTunes or at writingexcuses.com. A new podcast is uploaded every Sunday night on the website, and past episodes are also available to download.
Ben Tullis is a copywriter and a former Deseret News intern. He graduated from UVU in August with a bachelor's degree in English. He lives in Pleasant Grove with his wife and 3-year-old son. Follow him on Twitter at bentullis.