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Ditch Diggers #86: NaNoWriMo Time

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.

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Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #84: Having the cake and still eating it

WOW Matt and I have had a month! We are super behind with existing episodes, and will be posting this week and recording new stuff tomorrow!

  • Matt and Mur come to you live from George Lucas’ treehouse made of money, in Jeff Golblum’s vast field of treehouses.
  • Mur cut her finger, and tells stories in the wrong order, which causes Matt to get stern with her.
  • Mur received her first piece of fan mail in snail mail paper form.
  • A brief tangent about hanging personal mementos and why Matt’s house is called “unwelcoming” by his mother-in-law.
  • Mur launches into a very entertaining and impassioned rant about George Lucas selling the rights to Star Wars for FOUR BILLION DOLLARS (a figure she will repeat throughout the episode) and yet continuing to complain about the handling of Star Wars.
  • Matt attempts to steer Mur’s ranting into a discussion about the line between art and commerce, and writers and other creators thinking about how much control they want to retain over their intellectual property vs. what they want to accomplish with their work, professionally.
  • “Four BILLION dollars!” – Mur
  • Matt and Mur free associate about why creators of massive media franchises who make billions of dollars choose to continue publicly wading through the discourse of their fandoms.
  • Matt makes it clear if he ever sells IP for a billion dollars you will never hear from him again, because he will be on his private island avoiding all human contact.
  • George Lucas wanted to make TIE Fighters purple. That’s a true fact.