The Murverse Mothership

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:32 — 51.1MB)

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• Mur and Matt come to you live after abandoning Morgan Freeman’s elaborate and fictitious estate (because, once again, the Ditch Diggers believe women) and tunneling from the interstate (for reasons Mur explains) to Jeff Goldblum’s modest empire. Or possibly Jodie Foster’s underground lair. It’s all very complicated, but we’re working on it.
• After a typically masterful Ditch Diggers segue, Matt and Mur turn their attention to the hot button topic of the week on Twitter (a recurring and always relevant hot button topic): unpaid internships, particularly in freelance writing fields.
• Mur and Matt talk about the classist wall that are unpaid internships, and how they exist as a barrier between anyone who isn’t financially independent from entering the industry.
• How the concept of unpaid internships are normalized to the point people actually defend them and how the general public still thinks creative work should be done for free.
• The hard wiring of people to accept “the way it’s always been” as the way it should be.
• Matt reminds you that JoBlo.com is a low-rent stalker porn website posing as a movie news website that exploits its writers and editors.
• The idea that those who suffered before you did it so you wouldn’t have to. Also, capitalism!
• Matt and Mur discuss how to actually abolish the unpaid internship model and change the system for the better.
• Matt tells a story that segues into the next topic, which is related to the previous topic, which is film/TV representation for authors.
• Matt and Mur talk about dealing with the entertainment agent, manager, or entity your literary agency might partner with.
• Twitter Q&A! When should you start looking for an agent? Are business cards for writers?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:53 — 46.5MB)

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• Mur and Matt come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s sandwich cart right outside of the unemployment line (thanks to a classic Mur Lafferty improv).
• The Ditch Diggers discuss conflict; not as a narrative device, but whether or not their internal conflict on the show is more interesting than other types of conflict (Matt is very offended by the idea it’s not).
• Format change! Regular episodes will continue twice a month, while every other week we will present The 20-Minute Ditch, a shorter episode dedicated to a single topic without Q&A.
• Matt and Mur also announce that they are forced (for the time being) to make the transcriptions of each episode a new Patreon goal.
• The importance of your support to the show via things like Patreon (mainly Patreon) and how the lack of it has real consequences on the show.
• Matt and Mur bring each other (and the audience) up to date on their careers and what’s been going on with their writing and related business matters.
• The episode’s topic emerges! How the hell do you get a job as a freelance writer, anyway?
• Mur talks about the process, pitfalls, benefits, detriments, and necessity of networking.
• Matt talks about what to do (and what not to do) if you have no contacts and are unable to network to any significant degree.
• The importance of having strong writing samples, getting to know your peers and contemporaries, and never dismissing anyone based on your perception of their talent/potential, and reading/watching the content you want to write.
• Matt tells the story of getting his first writing job in LA off of Craigslist.
• The obligatory end-of-episode shilling!

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