Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #86: NaNoWriMo Time

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:07 — 31.0MB)

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Matt and Mur come to you live from the lonely open road of loneliness (don’t worry, they’ll explain).

  • How the Ditch Diggers have ruined all those “fluffy” writing podcasts for our listeners, and why we’re proud of it.
  • Matt talks (as much as he can, which isn’t much) about his publisher Saga Press eliminating Hugo-winning senior editor Navah Wolfe’s position, and the future of his trilogy, the first book of which is still scheduled to come out next summer.
  • The actual topic of the episode reveals itself as the Ditch Diggers do their first NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) episode!
  • A brief rundown of what NaNoWriMo is, and Mur’s and Matt’s collective and separate histories with the yearly event (Matt is no longer anti-NaNoWriMo. Mur has been a NaNoWriMo powerhouse for a decade).
  • It doesn’t really matter whether or not you finish your novel by the end of the month.
  • NaNoWriMo is a great thing artistically and creatively, but the Ditch Diggers are going to focus on the professional/business aspects of the month for writers of all levels.
  • Mur is the Hugh Grant of podcasting.
  • Mur talks about how NaNoWriMo presents an opportunity and prompt for all writers, including professionals, to try new things and explore different genres and styles of stories they otherwise wouldn’t, some of which they can even sell, opening new career avenues.
  • The ways in which NaNoWriMo provides career opportunities for aspiring professional writers (read: writers who are paid money to write or for things they have written).
  • In the course of the above, Matt does a really half-assed John Mulaney impression and explains John Mulaney as Thoreau in Dickinson gifs to Mur, as well as the Ghostwriter remake and the original.
  • Mur talks about one of the problems professional writers can encounter during NaNoWriMo, and her creative workaround.
  • How NaNoWriMo presents an opportunity for writers to peer network and community build, and the right and wrong ways (and reasons) to do both.
  • Mur has once more backed away from Twitter, and she talks about why (spoiler warning: stress and self-care is involved).
  • BTW: It’s okay not to participate in NaNoWriMo. Matt has never participated in NaNoWriMo. Don’t give in to the FOMO.
  • Matt invents ShiFiDraMo (Shitty First Draft Month).
  • The Ditch Digger Discord Discord is a hotbed of NaNoWriMo games and prompts, so join the Ditch Diggers by supporting the Patreon at the $5 level or higher.
  • Matt and Mur will continue down the long lonely road of loneliness until they find a new home, and you should come along for that journey.

Hire Navah Wolfe to edit your book!
NaNoWriMo Forums

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Ditch Diggers #85: Feedback

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:07 — 41.7MB)

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  • Matt and Mur come to you live with another patented Ditch Diggers Q&A episode! They are, as always, woefully late at catching up on feedback, but it is for a good reason!
  • Matt should not be put in charge of the world or allowed to solve its problems.
  • A question from April concerning the Ditch Diggers’ thoughts on creating a cohesive writer brand when writing in multiple genres and medium (Mur is the same thing as Marvel).
  • Kay asks Mur about self-publishing her novel SIX WAKES in the UK despite the fact she sold it to publishers in America and multiple other territories.
  • Matt and Mur vow to devote an entire episode with qualified guests to the topic of back-channeling and confronting industry predators.
  • Diane wants to know if and how library check-outs of books support authors.
  • Publishing/selling companion pieces to fiction you’ve sold to a separate publisher.
  • The Ditch Diggers make it to June! Katie asks about writing and selling “trashy” fiction, and Matt goes off on marketing and “literary” labels.
  • Assembling a crack team of writers for collaborative projects, and dealing with the personalities of those involved.
  • Matt and Mur don’t answer a question about contracts because the person asking the question linked them to a tweet that no longer exists.
  • The Ditch Diggers are caught up on your queries! For now, anyway.
  • Mur has errands to run and many books available for purchase (which she shills briefly), and Matt has a novella excerpt in a new edition of Christa Faust’s HOODTOWN (which he shills briefly).

Christa Faust’s HOODTOWN