Season ten of Writing Excuses introduces an entirely new format. Instead of doing 15 minute episodes, each focusing on a different topic, they decided to string the topics together. So while still fifteen minutes long, they took listeners through the entire process of creating a story start to finish. My favorite part about this change was that the writing prompts began to build on each other, which made them way more useful.

There were still wild card episodes with special guests that were one-off topics. I’m glad, because while I’m never going to not take advantage of the opportunity to get amazing advice from writers like Brandon Sanderson, I’m not new at crafting stories. Brainstorming techniques are fantastic, but I’m under deadlines for books I’ve already brainstormed, plotted, and started. To me the very best bits of writing excuses are the things that I can use to build on to my existing story in a revision pass.

But the podcast wasn’t created just for me. As the season progressed into character development and world building. I really liked their podcast on the magical 1% (chosen ones in an otherwise less magical society).

This is probably the best season to start with for new writers. If you listen on your computer, the liner notes have links to any of the podcasts they’ve covered in a similar vein, so you can catch up on the last nine seasons with a focused direction.

Here’s the link to season ten, I hope you enjoy it!