Mur Lafferty's Blog, page 45

ISBW #385

NaNoWriMo is in less than a month! AUGH! So we talk prep, and we talk to Nicky Drayden, author of The Prey of Gods (which was a NaNo book!)

ISBW #384: The black dog doesn't care

When mild depression hits.

ISBW #383: Point of View // Beth Cato Interview

I discuss the power of point of view and how it makes us sympathize with characters, what the different words (protagonist, antagonist) means, and reference a bunch of books and movies. Then I talk to Beth Cato.

AND GUESS WHAT? You can WIN Beth Cato's books! All you have to do is email me and I'll do a random drawing on the next ISBW, but I'd really appreciate it if you spread the word on social media too.

ISBW #382: Back to basics

WHY should you follow all those writing rules? These are the "story structure" and "no adverbs" and "Give your characters something to do" rules. Can't we all just break the rules and run amok? It's the digital age, we can do what we want!

ISBW 381

We talk awards and feedback and I wonder what happened at WorldCon. We will find out when I record again!

ISBW #380

I'm coming out of depression land and straight into the crazy that is August that is travel and WorldCon. So here is the podcast for the week of July 24, and the podcast for the week of August 7 is already queued. 

(Only I say it's for August 14 because calendars are hard)

Books mentioned: Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too by Jomny Sun

ISBW #379: Those Down Days

The bad thing about being on a regular recording schedule again is I have to podcast even when I don't feel like it. So sometimes it's just about the mental health. This is a short, low energy podcast, but I'm really fine, trust me. Just had a bad start to the week with migraine and super low energy. I'm doing much better now, but figured I should post this because I try to be honest with the look inside a writer's life, and sometimes there are days like this.

Mentioned: The War of Art.

ISBW #378: Preparations

I've decided I need some simple lists to help me when I travel and record, and figure those kinds of lists might help with writing, too. 

ISBW #377: Brain Weasels

I know I know I know I always say these supportive things but sometimes it's hard to listen to myself. Recently I've been suffering from "first draft must be perfect" syndrome, and had to step back and actually look at myself and what I was doing. 

First drafts don't have to be perfect. Write it 100x on the board.

ISBW #376: Must you write daily? And interview with Robyn Bennis!

Is Writing Daily a Necessity?

A new article has writer Twitter in a froth. It turns out that someone wrote a clickbait article about how if you aren't writing daily, then you might as well quit.

This is so, so, so wrong. Did I write daily for a while? Yes. Do I recommend the Magic Spreadsheet for others who want to write daily? Yes. Did it help me and others? Yes. But telling you that you MUST write daily because I did is like saying that since I ran a marathon, everyone must run a marathon else they have no chance of being an athlete. So I get into that more in this episode.

Then I talk to Robyn Bennis, author of the debut novel The Guns Above! (Note, the interview has some NSFW words but I reversed them, so there's no swearing but there are a few backward words. But I do have a new tool coming to make bleeping words easier!)

Also, don't miss the latest Ditch Diggers regarding parenting and a writing career!