Archive for Podcasts

Podcasts, Projects

DD 6.20: Should you be “political” on social media?

Mur, recovering from a migraine, and Matt discuss the concept of “staying in your lane” when politics are a hot topic and perhaps your audience doesn’t want to hear your views.

 

Also, please vote.

 

NOTE- We are changing our formatting around here, and there will be, as the cute similes say, a lot of dust. We are determining each year a season, so the titles of these episodes will be changing — ie, 2020 is our 6th year, and this episode is our 20th. If you have already downloaded this or older episodes, nothing will change. Only new downloads will get the new numbering of old episodes. 

Podcasts, Projects, Video

ISBW #526: Outlining with Story Grid… kinda

Story Grid BookI discovered that the Story Grid method is more of an editing tool than an outline tool, but we talk about that. You can see more resources at the Story Grid website.

NOTE- I am now on YouTube with these videos! So you don’t have to wonder what you missed in the stream!

 

ALSO NOTE- As I’m a podcaster of 16 years, you no doubt won’t be surprised that I still forget to set my mic input. So the internal mic grabbed allllll the fan noise and the audio was a bear to edit. I’m quite sorry.

Twitch Schedule (All times Eastern Daylight Time):
  • M- Lunch AMA, 12:30
  • T- Live ISBW, 12:30
  • Th- Live ISBW, 12:30, Live gaming, 8:00
  • Su- Live gaming, 2:00
October 1, 2020 — Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty — BY-NC-SA 3.5 License
Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #525: Outlining with the Save the Cat Method

Save the cat coverThis one went MUCH better, so for me, Saving the Cat is better than Snowflake. It’s still a long video, so it’s only on Twitch till October 14, 2020. Update- it’s currently on YouTube for the foreseeable future!
Tuesday we cover the Story Grid method (live — it’ll be on the feed next Thursday)!

Support this show on Patreon! 

Books and sites listed, “homework” sites in bold:
Twitch Schedule (All times Eastern Daylight Time):
  • M- Lunch AMA, 12:30
  • T- Live ISBW, 12:30
  • Th- Live ISBW, 12:30, Live gaming, 8:00
  • Su- Live gaming, 2:00
October 1, 2020 — Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty — BY-NC-SA 3.5 License
Podcasts, Projects

DD 6.19: Andrea Phillips, Transmedia, and America, Inc.

We welcome Andrea back to the show, talking transmedia, marketing, and her new book, America, Inc.

  • Matt and Mur come to you live from the library of witty comebacks in the Ditch Diggers manor with special guest, author and transmedia writer, Andrea Phillips!
  • Mur begins the show by depressing everyone immensely with a reminder of fire, ice, and plague, but Andrea is quick to point out it’s all about the friends we made along the way (during Mur’s intro).
  • Professional updates! Mur is doing kind of okay (and starting a trend), Matt did his first reading for an audience in five years, and Andrea had a rough week with copy and script writing (NDA’s abound!).
  • Andrea talks about the collaborative process of writing transmedia content over Zoom for established IP’s, most of which she can’t mention, supervising other writers, and how it proscribes forming a regular routine.
  • The phenomenon that is Blaseball is discussed at length. What it is, how it has evolved, why it is so compelling, how the developers achieved all of that, and how that all relates to what Andrea does with transmedia and game content.
  • Andrea talks about her new author-published novel AMERICA INC, what it is, why she decided to self-release it, and her process of transparency with sharing her sales numbers and marketing process publicly.
  • How online marketing can affect sales of a self-published novel, and where authors can fall short in marketing their self-published works.On the subject of “the only way you really fail is if you stop putting out work” and Andrea apologizes needlessly for her lack of sunny optimism.

The patented end of episode shilling commences! Spoiler Alert: Buy AMERICA INC by Andrea Phillips (only on Amazon right now, but possibly moving to other platforms soon!). Also, Mur yells at games. And Matt has written a middle-grade novel that may or may not be for people who eat children (it isn’t).

Mentioned In This Episode…

 

NOTE- We are changing our formatting around here, and there will be, as the cute similes say, a lot of dust. We are determining each year a season, so the titles of these episodes will be changing — ie, 2020 is our 6th year, and this episode is our 19th. If you have already downloaded this or older episodes, nothing will change. Only new downloads will get the new numbering of old episodes. 

Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #524: Outlining using the Snowflake Method

snowflakeThis is the audio for a LONG video and it seems people don’t like you to post 1hr + videos to Youtube when you’re not fancy and verified. So the video is on Twitch for TWO WEEKS only, check it out if you want.
Next Tuesday we cover Story Grid LIVE on Twitch!

Support this show on Patreon! 

Books and sites listed, “homework” sites in bold:
Twitch Schedule (All times Eastern Daylight Time):
  • M- Lunch AMA, 12:30
  • T- Live ISBW, 12:30
  • Th- Live ISBW, 12:30, Live gaming, 8:00
  • Su- Live gaming, 2:00
September 29, 2020 — Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty — BY-NC-SA 3.5 License
Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #523: NaNoWriMo Prep & Plan

I like to plan early, and through long discussion we worked out what we’re doing for NaNoWriMo. Reruns for the daily show and live virtual write-ins for the streams!
Note: I lost the stream in the middle and had to reconnect. I’ve edited the two halves together but I’m noticeably flustered for the second half.
Support this show on Patreon! 
Books and sites listed, “homework” sites in bold:
Twitch Schedule (All times Eastern Daylight Time):
  • M- Lunch AMA, 12:30
  • T- Live ISBW, 12:30
  • Th- Live ISBW, 12:30, Live gaming, 8:00
  • Su- Live gaming, 2:00
September 24, 2020 — Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty — BY-NC-SA 3.5 License
Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #106: Mike Underwood and Marketing

annihilation aria coverMike Underwood comes on to talk to us about his new book, ANNIHILATION ARIA (The Space Operas, Vol. 1), but the talk also goes into Mike’s experience with book marketing, and, boy, the stuff he tells us, no lie, is enlightening.

  • Matt and Mur come to you live from the haberdasher in the Ditch Diggers Manor that is also occasionally a Mansion, with special guest, author, podcaster, and book selling/marketing veteran, Michael R. Underwood!
  • Very important cowboy hat discourse preempts the main topic of the episode, with an aside into the difference between a comically small bowler hat and a fascinator.
  • Everyone talks about what’s new in their freelancing lives, and Mike discusses being an SWFA mentor working with multiple mentees.
  • Mur is a runaway Twitch sensation, and anyone who hasn’t joined in on the phenomenon is going to be left behind (according to Matt. Mur insists she’s having to build a new platform from scratch and it is difficult).
  • Mike talks about his new space adventure found family novel, ANNIHILATION ARIA, and Matt and he discuss how their careers have intersected at multiple points in weird ways.
  • Mike discusses the spectrum of traditional publishing, small presses, and self-publishing from the perspective of someone who has released books through all three, and worked as a bookseller and publisher rep.
  • Different ways to think about marketing your book as an author.
  • The big ways the publishing industry is broken, how that affects the staff, including publicists, at the publisher itself, and your relationship/dynamic with them as an author.
  • Virtual book tours, and the importance of diversifying your marketing content in the age of COVID, and balancing everything with self-care.
  • The traditional end of episode shilling commences!
  • Mike will return in Michael R. Underwood vs. The World Crime League (no, seriously, Mike will be back in a future episode to talk more about publishing and marketing).

Mentioned in This Episode…

Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #522: Agents, ADD, and Track Changes

It’s been a rough few days, but I’m back to talk about agents being people, too, still addressing ADD and productivity (I’m seriously considering writing a LARPing a responsible human blog series), and how to handle an editor who doesn’t use Track Changes. (Wha?)

Other things:

Twitch Schedule (All times Eastern Daylight Time):

  • M- Lunch AMA, 12:30
  • T- Live ISBW, 12:30
  • Th- Live ISBW, 12:30, Live gaming, 8:00
  • Su- Live gaming, 2:00

September 22, 2020 — Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty — BY-NC-SA 3.5 License — murverse.com

Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #521: Bad Days are the BEST

I talk about training your brain, and as long as you do your part, you should start training your brain to do its part.

Other things:

Twitch Schedule (All times Eastern Daylight Time):

  • M- Lunch AMA, 12:30
  • T- Live ISBW, 12:30
  • Th- Live ISBW, 12:30, Live gaming, 8:00
  • Su- Live gaming, 2:00

September 17, 2020 — Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty — BY-NC-SA 3.5 License — murverse.com

Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #520: The Angry Molasses Episode

I’ve had a few bad days and am still dedicated to streaming on time, so I talk about what’s making me mad (because it does affect my creative pursuits.) I bet Terry Gross doesn’t bring her angst to her show…

By the way, the Murverse newsletter is no more. I kinda did a rage-quit this morning.

It’s never one thing, it’s a cascade of suck, constant mayhem
And I knew today was gonna go from bad to goddamn

~”Not Amused” by Devo Spice

Other things:

Twitch Schedule (All times Eastern Daylight Time):

  • M- Lunch AMA, 12:30
  • T- Live ISBW, 12:30
  • Th- Live ISBW, 12:30, Live gaming, 8:00
  • Su- Live gaming, 2:00