Rationally Writing

Daystar has noticed a trend in Alex's writing, and the two get into what it actually means to be a "bad" vs a "good" person. It doesn't exactly start as an intervention, but it arguably gets there by the end. Hosted by  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daystar Eld⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  and  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alexander Wales⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ . With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music,  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Daystar and Alexander talk about the various pitfalls, contradictions, and complications in writing heroes or villains who commit political violence... or don't, as the case may be. Hosted by  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daystar Eld⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  and  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alexander Wales⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ . With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music,  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Daystar and Alex invite Max back on the podcast to talk about his new novel, ⁠Red Heart⁠ , a modern sci-fi thriller that follows an American spy sent to a Chinese AI lab to investigate how far ahead their capabilities are compared to the US. Max works at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and has been thinking about the state of AI Safety for over a decade now. He's also written the...

Daystar and Alex invite Max back on the podcast to talk about his new novel, ⁠Red Heart⁠ , a modern sci-fi thriller that follows an American spy sent to a Chinese AI lab to investigate how far ahead their capabilities are compared to the US. Max works at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the trilogy is an imagining of what Artificial General Intelligence might be like, written from...

Daystar and Alexander hang out with Duncan Sabien (TK17) at LessOnline, and invite him back on the show to chat about his views on the Magic the Gathering Color Wheel this time, as well as some other stuff ⁠ . Duncan is the writer of Animorphs: The Reckoning , as well as a variety of other great essays on culture, epistemology, and more. Co-hosted by ⁠⁠Alexander Wales⁠⁠ With thanks to Tim Yarbroug...

Daystar and Alexander hang out with Max Harms at LessOnline, and invite him to record an episode on his books Crystal Society , Crystal Mentality , and Crystal Eternity . Max works at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the trilogy is an imagining of what Artificial General Intelligence might be like, written from the perspective of one of the AI's subagents. His newest book, Red Hear...

Daystar and Alexander talk about AI in writing, both for creating fiction and its impact on writing fiction set in the modern world. Hosted by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daystar Eld⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Alexander Wales⁠⁠⁠⁠ . With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, ⁠⁠⁠⁠G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Daystar and Alexander record in front of a live audience at LessOnline to talk about Utopian Fiction; what it is, why it's so rare, and what it says about us as individuals and societies. Hosted by ⁠⁠⁠Daystar Eld⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Alexander Wales⁠⁠⁠ . With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, ⁠⁠⁠G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Short episode where Daystar and Alexander speak with Velorien, one of the writers of Marked for Death⁠ , to discuss the impact of reader feedback in serial fiction. Hosted by ⁠⁠Daystar Eld⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Alexander Wales⁠⁠ . With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, ⁠⁠G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Daystar and Alexander discuss the role of money and class in fiction, and how it can affect, or fail to affect, their decisions and interactions. Hosted by ⁠Daystar Eld⁠ and ⁠Alexander Wales⁠ With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, ⁠G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Alex and I attended a writing retreat with some other authors in the rationality community, and while there decided to host an impromptu episode on subverting expectations, joined (primarily) by our Nebula nominated friend, Jamie Wahls. All I had to record with was my laptop, so apologies for the sound quality! Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G....

Today we're joined once again by Duncan Sabien, aka TK17, to discuss his incredible rationalfic, Animorphs: The Reckoning . It was recorded shortly after the story finished and includes questions on not just his writing process, but the various decisions that went into changes made from canon, so spoilers ahead! Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G...

Today we discuss Alexander's original serial fiction, Worth the Candle , and the various decisions and aspects of the story that came up throughout the writing process. Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Daystar and Alexander discuss gender in fiction, and how it cultural gender norms or deviances can inform not just character personalities but can be an interesting part of world building. Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Daystar and Alexander discuss using different species or "races" in fiction, and how it informs characters and is addressed by different types of stories. Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Daystar and Alexander discuss race in fiction, or rather, species, and how it informs characters and is addressed by different types of stories. Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected Timestamps 03:38 Race as a Social Construct 14:20 Approaches to Race in Fiction 22:30 Black Superman 32:55 How Race Informs Character 48:01 Lite...

Daystar and Alexander discuss politics as a plot device, and and political fiction as a genre. Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected Timestamps: 00:35 What is a political plot? 8:58 Main types of political plot structures 24:00 Political 5 Man Band 37:05 Challenges Links: Rules for Rulers

Daystar and Alexander discuss irrational or non-rational fiction.  Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected Timestamps 00:35 "Rational" vs "Irrational" 10:04 How do you distinguish? 18:50 Conversations around the difference 33:05 Audience Mindset 48:18 Writing non-rational fiction

Daystar and Alexander discuss horror in fiction, and the unique challenges and opportunities that come with rational horror. Co-hosted by Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected Timestamps 0:37 What Do You Find Scary in Fiction? 7:42 Rational Horror 22:50 Horror vs Thriller 31:00 Strengths of Prose Horror Links Hereditary It Follows Dr. Who...

Daystar and Alexander discuss dropped threads and side plots in stories, what tends to lead to them and how to manage them as you go. Timestamps 2:34 Serial Fiction 9:32 What Ends Up on the Page 14:55 Side Plots 17:10 Serials 21:25 Why Threads Get Dropped 27:30 Story Shifts 37:30 Our Dropped Threads 44:28 Bonus Dropped Threads

Daystar and Alexander discuss character flaws; what makes for good ones, how to avoid Mary Sues, and why some flaws show up so often compared to others. Timestamps 0:35 Flaws As Conflict Generators 5:53 Mary Sues 15:23 Brought Low 23:14 Most Common Flaws 36:02 Rarest Flaws Twig by Wildbow The Erogamer by Groon the Walker

Daystar and Alexander discuss the reasons authors abandon stories before they're finished, whether they want to or not. Hosted by Daystar Eld and Alexander Wales With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected Time Stamps 1:26 Abandonment vs Hiatus 6:16 Different reasons for Abandoning 17:10 Alex's List 25:55 Managing Burnout 39:37 Other Authors 48:21 Author Trust

Daystar and Alexander discuss Ideological Turing Tests; what they are, why they're important in fiction, and how to try to pass them as best you can. Timestamps: 0:34 Turing Tests 6:15 Avoiding Caricatures Isn't Enough 10:14 Passing ITT 25:48 Frames 37:53 Personal Challenges 47:11 Presentation

Daystar and Alexander discuss romance in fiction, particularly in finding meaningful romantic conflicts as either the major plot, or as a subplot in a broader story. Timestamps: 7:21 Body Language and Chemistry 14:00 Source of Romantic conflict 21:43 Troubled vs Doomed 30:20 Extreme Romantic Contexts 36:29 Compatibility 43:06 Conflict from Change 50:38 New and Ongoing Conflicts

Daystar and Alexander discuss the value and pitfalls of using time skips, long and short. Timestamps: 1:13 The Two Axes 11:51 Rules for Timeskips 25:27 Relationships 42:13 Extremely Long Timeskips