Podcasts

Writing a novel requires a lot of energy. Finishing one often leaves you depleted and struggling to write another word. What do you do to recharge and avoid burnout?

While V is at an undisclosed location, Terry asks the age-old question: how do you write believable characters when they're a different sex than you?

Before you send it to the editor, before you let another person set eyes on the manuscript, you need to edit. There are plot holes to look out for, character voice inconsistencies, and all those pesky punctuation marks. How do you catch it all?

How smart is your protagonist? Can they realistically solve the dread puzzle you've laid before them? Or is the situation tailor-made for their skillsets? How can you keep your characters feeling genuine while testing their limits of intellect or skill?

The DRS Crew discusses in-depth branding for authors and their work.

DRS caffeinates with Larry's Coffee. If you want to purchase fair-trade, organically grown beans that brew into smooth, balanced, never-bitter coffee, visit LarrysCoffee.com/drs, receive a free gift with your purchase, and help support The Dead Robots' Society.

Readers leave comments. Readers send emails. Readers respond to your social media posts.

But how should you interact with them? The DRS Crew discusses the ground rules.

When should a character or narrator use a quote? Does it have to be attributed? What about aping characters from an existing property? How do you do that?

So-called "fairy tales" are some of the oldest tales. As writers, what tropes/plots/character archetypes can we steal to use in our speculative fiction stories?

Michael J Strazinski wrote an article called "Silence Where a Story Would Have Been" that argues that the current state of the art AIs are incapable of writing great, memorable stories. Is he right?

Does your future or fantasy world require a system of government? How about a social caste system? How in-depth do you need to be in constructing social norms, mores, and taboos?