Episode 314 – Defeating Writer’s Block Using Penspyre with David Olive Jr.

Mark interviews David Olive, Jr (AKA David Grimdark) author and one of the engineers behind Penspyre a tool to help writers tackle writer’s block and productivity.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes, and word about this episode’s sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In the interview, Mark and David talk about:

David’s love of reading as a young child and his love of fantasy novelsBegining to read eBooks on a dedicated reader, and reading WebnovelsStarting to write when interning in UniversityPutting some of his work up on WattpadThe Systems Design Engineering program David recently graduated from at University of WaterlooThe final year project that David and his fellow engineering students put together, which resulted in PenspyreThe procedural documentation of identifying problems related to the writing processReaching out to local writers from the Cambridge Writer’s Group as part of their research and investigationLearning the Google Spring methodHow Pensypre offers up AI-generated writing prompts to help a writer with their productivityThe research they’d done with writers leading them to believe they didn’t want a tool that would give them something they’d take word for word but that they needed something to help “get the ball rolling.”The metrics they looked at for their research with how writers engaged with the toolTheir study’s results showing that writers typically wrote 15% more in a 20 minute writing sprint using the tool than when not using the toolHow Pensyre is a tool David wanted to make as much for himself as for other writersThe “Continue the Story” option where you can focus on action, dialogue, or inner thoughts of the characters with various styles or moodsThe “Link the story” feature for briding two different scenes or moments or actions togetherThe “Describe” function that allows you to draw upon one or more of the five sensesPenspyre’s availability as a Google Docs extensionHow writers during the test kept the prompts unedited about 15% of the timeThe element of the software that suggests the level of “originality” score to the promptAdvice David would offer to beginning writersDavid’s thoughts on why writers shouldn’t be afraid of this new technology

After the interview Mark shares a few of his own reflections, thanks Patrons for their support and reminds them there’ll be a video walk-thru of Penspyre available for them at www.patreon.com/starkreflections.

Links of Interest:

David’s Author WebsitePenspyre WebsitePenspyre Extension on Google ChromeFindaway VoicesBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

David Olive Jr is a recent graduate from the University of Waterloo, Canada who has a passion for reading and writing fiction. As an aspiring writer he and some classmates decided to try and tackle writing productivity as their final year design project. The result was Penspyre, a tool that utilizes AI to give the writer contextualized writing prompts and help them be more productive.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0