The Murverse Mothership

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“Why Are Habits So Hard?” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

Everyone knows the way to write a book, or get in shape, is to do the thing (writing, exercising, abstaining from junk food, etc) every day, and boom, you’re done.

So why is it so freaking hard?

May 3 – May 7: Latest Twitch stream times (EDT):

• 5.3 (M), 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• 5.4 (T), 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• *NEW* 5.4 (T), 1:00, Ditch Diggers Live with Alasdair Stuart!
• 5.5 (W), 4:00, Gaming
• 5.6 (Th), 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

Links:

• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch
• The Practice by Seth Godin

April 27, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 30 (Ep 581) | murverse.com
Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:57 — 22.2MB)

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“Flawed Characters” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

I’ve been working on my protagonist’s flaws, and realizing that the story is a lot easier to write when your character may have flawed reasons driving them, and it gives them something to fight against!

• 4.26 (M), 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• 4.27 (T), 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• 4.28 (W), 4:00, Gaming
• 4.29 (Th), 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live
• *NEW* 4.29 (Th), 5:00, Ditch Diggers Live with Kameron Hurley!

Links:

• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch
• Writers Helping Writers series (Incl Positive & Negative Trait Thesaurus)

April 22, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 29 (Ep 590) | murverse.com
Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:22 — 29.4MB)

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“How to Pro” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

I was on a panel at Flights of Foundry this weekend where we talked about what made a pro writer, and it turned out not to be what most people would assume. So we unpack that.

• 4.26 (M), 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• 4.27 (T), 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• 4.28 (W), 4:00, Gaming
• 4.29 (Th), 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live
• *NEW* 4.29 (Th), 5:00, Ditch Diggers Live with Kameron Hurley!

Links:

• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch
• Flights of Foundry

April 20, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 28 (Ep 579) | murverse.com
Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:57 — 25.4MB)

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“Calling All Imposters!” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

We’re all imposters, no matter what you think. Trust me. All of us.

Latest Twitch stream times (EDT):

• Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• Tuesday, 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming
• Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

Links:

• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch
• Behind the name

April 15, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 27 (Ep 578) | murverse.com
Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:23 — 32.2MB)

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“NEWS and Audience Choice” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

I’m a HUGO FINALIST! Escape Pod is up for Best Semiprozine, and SB Divya and I got nominated for Best Editor (Short form)! See all the nominees here!

The news went out right before I recorded, so I was a little out of it, hence the flightiness. But the audience pulled me through it!

Latest Twitch stream times (EDT):

• Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• Tuesday, 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• Wednesday, TBD
• Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

Links:

• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch

April 13, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 26 (Ep 577) | murverse.com
Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:27 — 33.2MB)

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“Avoiding Cliches” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

It’s easy to slip into stereotypes when you  are writing someone different from yourself. I have some thoughts on how to avoid that.

Latest Twitch stream times (EDT):

• Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• Tuesday, 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming
• Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

Links:

• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch
• Craft in the Real World
• Writing the Other (book and website) 
• Ursula K. Le Guin’s Tehanu
• Just Keep Writing (Wil Ralston’s podcast)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:42 — 36.8MB)

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“Bad Advice” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

The most recent “Main Character” on Writing Twitter is doling out the bad advice: a woman flat out said horror can’t happen in space. If the story is in space, no matter how scary, she argues, it’s automatically science fiction.

This means space beats zombies, if you’re keeping score. Also, cross-genre isn’t a thing apparently.

Now, aside from bringing the Internet down on your head when you say stuff like this, blanket advice is harmful in other ways, too.

Latest Twitch stream times (EDT):

• Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• Tuesday, 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming
• Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

Links:

• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch

April 6, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 24 (Ep 575) | murverse.com
Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:31 — 15.3MB)

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“Fear Is Like the Wind or Tides or Something” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

I’m realizing that fear is often connected to the lack of control in a situation. Such as submitting to an editor or publishing a book. You might as well try to control the tides.

Also, I’m a NYT Bestseller now! Or part of one, anyway. (I wrote one of the Minecraft novels!)

Donations benefitting the Trevor Project.

Latest Twitch stream times (EDT):

• Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• Tuesday, 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming
• Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

Links:

• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch
• Professional Troublemaker
• Becky Chambers’ books

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:54 — 28.1MB)

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“Writing Is Like Running, Except When It’s Not” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an expanded version of this episode early. You can join our community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

Practice and expectation of improvement are similar components between writing and running, but there’s a big difference.

Donations benefitting The Trevor Project.

Latest Twitch stream times (EDT):

• Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• Tuesday, 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming
• Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

Links:

• Camp NaNoWriMo is in full swing!
• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:07 — 19.9MB)

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“Staying Monogamous to Your WiP” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received an expanded version of this episode early. You can join our community with a pledge as low as $3 a month!

It’s a standard feeling that once you get used to your current WiP and you may have hit a snag here and there, you will get the desire to focus on another, newer, shinier project. This is totally normal, everyone from a newbie to a pro feels this. But the question is, what do you do when you feel like that?

I record these episodes live on Twitch, and cut out most of the interaction with the chat for a cleaner podcast. But we did have one topic suggested in chat that needs to be repeated: one person thought that accountability buddy + food = good focusing incentive. Putting the power in someone else’s hands, where you can’t go out for a beer/dinner/movie/something else together until you hit a certain deadline. Brilliant.

Note: by “monogamous” I don’t mean you can’t work on more than one project at once, I mean that if you keep getting distracted by new projects. If you can safely polyamory your projects then more power to you.

Fundraising for The Trevor Project. Help me hit my goal!

Get the extended version of this podcast via Patreon!

I’m back on Twitch for April! Latest Twitch/YouTube stream times (EST):

• Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout
• Tuesday, 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live
• Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming: Skyrim
• Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

Links:

• 4 The Words: an RPG for writers
• Write or Die
• I Should Be Writing Ink Stained Fabulists Community
• Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch or YouTube!