Posts Tagged ‘ditchdig’

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

Podcasts, Projects

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:00 — 59.5MB)

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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.
Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #83: Your first advance check!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:15 — 31.1MB)

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– Mur and Matt come to you live from Jeff Goldblum’s financial advisor’s office (they are totally trespassing, but it’s cool, it’s off-hours).

– It’s the first full-length Ditch Diggers episode in a while! Also, Ditch Diggers is world-wide now! Woo-hoo!
– Matt and Mur catch up on book projects new and old, and talk about Mur podcasting daily (without Matt, of course, because he lacks the work ethic).
– Mur goes on a worthy tangent about “excitement fatigue,” the concept that by the time a writer can share news about a project they’ve already gone through so many emotions about it they’re too burned out to join in on the celebration of those they share the news with.
– Authors are like artichokes.
– Matt and Mur are not going to dissect THAT Medium post (the one with the author who wrote of squandering all their book advance money), but they do briefly discuss what it is and how it was the catalyst for today’s topic.
– That topic is revealed! What should you do (and NOT do) when you receive your first book advance check?
– Matt and Mur talk about how book contracts and payments are structured and what an advance payment actually is.
– Matt rants a little (or a lot) about the “idealized” version of what to do with an advance and how our expectations are warped by both the publishing industry and (at least in America) by debt culture.
– The basic steps to take when you receive your check, and why you take each one. Taxes, agent commissions, sequestering money, interest-bearing accounts. All that good stuff!
– “Day jobs,” and the too-common idea that being an author is the only way to make a good living as a writer, and alternative methods of writing for a living.
– No Q&A this episode, but they will get to it next time!
– Jeff Goldblum’s HorseShare app, and why you should invest in it (but not with your first book advance).
– The end of episode shilling (Mur is a one-woman empire).

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #80: Mur is Bad Cop Today

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:37 — 13.2MB)

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We recorded this a month ago and then the hammer of deadlines fell.

We come to you from Jody Foster’s Gorilla Preservation, and talk about how, if you want to make a career, you are not the one story you’re in love with.

We talk about Wonder Boys. And Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. And Mur is really mean.

 

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #76: Ennui

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:19 — 40.6MB)

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  • Matt and Mur come to you live from Jeff Goldblum’s Teeter-Totter Playground, which is really just one teeter-totter in the middle of a room that his guests all think is an art installation but that Jeff desperately wants them to use.
  • Matt is stressed and yearns to live in Goldblumian fantasy, and Mur is using self-awareness to guide her out of a depression fog as she drives towards her most recent book deadline.
  • Depression, phlebotomy, and tormenting butchers are all discussed.
  • The main topic of the episode is finally revealed, and that is the myth that once you make that first big sale as a writer, your work is done and your career is made.
  • Matt and Mur talk about experiencing the highs and lows of a long, steady freelance writing career, specifically how they’re both currently experiencing a quiet year after a big professional year.
  • Dealing with the illusion, vastly perpetuated by social media, that everybody is constantly announcing big deals and exciting news except for you.
  • Matt can’t think of a non-sexual-sounding metaphor for orally ingesting CBD oil.
  • Mur talks about feeling like nothing matters when you’re in-between big projects and big announcements, and trying to fill her time by redirecting energy into meaningful tasks.
  • Matt and Mur talk about how to get past that initial slong of trying to get into a new project, and how to build momentum.
  • Q&A! Matt and Mur are referred to as “entrepreneurs” and are very excited about it, eventhough the question that follows is vague. Plus, conspiracies and Matt resisting his old urges to say dickish things, and much more!
  • Obligatory end-of-episode shilling.
Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #75: Feedback

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:40 — 40.0MB)

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  • Mur and Matt come to you live from Jeff Goldblum’s Genius Bar, because it is time once again for a Ditch Diggers feedback/Q&A episode!
  • Matt is pissed off and Mur is emotionally and physically drained, so they are both ready to do the best episode ever!
  • Matt rants for several minutes about Apple and Mac products. (spoiler: they both anger him)
  • Mur is tired because they keep stealing her blood. No, seriously. Well, it’s not technically theft, but still. But anyway, Mur is literally too metal for life.
  • Mur is behind on listener-submitted I Should Be Writing questions, but that’s not what we’re dealing with right now.
  • What lesson did the Ditch Diggers learn from their first published novels that made a big difference?
  • In a future episode, Gail Carriger will return to DD to talk about public speaking for writers!
  • A drachma is 100 leptas and the plural of “drachma” is “drachmae.”
  • Phillip asks Matt about novella series, and low-key calls Matt out for constantly bemoaning the disappointing commercial performance of his novella series.
  • ML Moos asks about internet trolls and “agent blacklists” (mostly to hear Matt light up a particular troll who neither Matt nor Mur have ever heard of).
  • A listener responds to a previous question about publishing rights and languages in the Finnish market.
  • Short story, novellete, novella, and novel lengths are discussed and defined as well as such things can be in this or any genre.
  • How typical is it for authors who sell movie rights to retain control over character and story decisions about their work? (spoiler: very rarely if ever)
  • How private is your identity when you use a pseudonym? (Matt’s meta erotica fiction pen name is going to be John Smith)
  • Scams played on new authors trying to get published (this could obviously be an entire episode of its own, but Matt and Mur give general guidelines to protect yourself).
  • Previews of episodes to come, praise for Russian Doll, and the customary end-of-episode shilling (which includes out-of-date Hugo nomination pleas)! 


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Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #56: Drinking From the Fire Hose

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:33 — 47.3MB)

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(I still don’t have the hang of recording and uploading on the road. Apologies.)
Is hobo pejorative?

  • The Ditch Diggers come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s calendar room (featuring an inordinate amount of train calendars).
  • Matt and Mur argue about the configuration of a train whose cars are the months of the year and whether or not “hobo” is a pejorative term (yes, this really happens).
  • Mur is a bona fide Nebula Award nominee for her novel SIX WAKES! Woohoo!
  • Mur talks about being up for the Neblua and the Philip K. Dick Award, and meeting fellow Nebula nominee Annalee Newitz at a late-night con fetish panel.
  • The topic of the episode finally emerges: Feast or famine as a freelance writer!

(more…)

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #55: Christopher Brown and Timely Subjects

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:49 — 39.4MB)

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ARGH I put this in the feed but somehow didn’t make the blog post live! Here is #55. #56 will be coming soon.

Notes of Show:

  • Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s Border Crossing (it’s an inside reference) with special guest co-host Christopher Brown.
  • Morgan’s border crossing is a cerebral crossing into expanding your mind (Matt mostly comes here for the colors), because Morgan is an open-world kind of guy.
  • Mur apologizes to Christopher for inadvertently botching her recording of Christopher’s interview on her OTHER podcast, I Should Be Writing.
  • Christopher talks about his novel, Tropic of Kansas (Harper Voyager, 2017), a dystopian road trip about a walled-off America, and how the themes and events in the book came to life around him after he finished it.
  • The Ditch Diggers discuss with Chris how writing a novel that abruptly became so topical affected, for better or worse, the process of shopping his novel to publishes and selling the book to the public.
  • The folly of chasing headlines and current events in your fiction, and how it mimics attempting to write to the market and chase the next fiction “trend.”
  • Matt and Mur engage Christopher on the subject of award season, as his novel is on the long list for the Compton Crook Award, and the three discuss the do’s and don’t’s of campaigning for literary awards.
  • Christopher talks about how awards and the marketing of them can be used to spotlight underseen and unrecognized work from around the world, using an anthology of Mexican fiction he edited/translated that was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and how it affected and validated the authors, as a prime example.
  • The Ditch Diggers dive into the email question bag and take on the always popular topic of MFA’s.
  • The customary end of episode shilling (Ditch Diggers is once again eligible for Best Fancast Hugo!)

Twitter handles: Mur, Matt, Chris

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