Podcasts, Projects, Transcript
[Transcript] ISBW S17 Ep5: Dropping Truth Bombs
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Dropping Truth Bombs
I Should Be Writing S17 Ep5
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
playing, writing, people, book, animal crossing, project, feel, post, finished, read, mantra, year, writer, happy, song, words, couple, point, watership down, podcast
SPEAKER
Mur Lafferty
Mur 0:33
And here we are. Happy Tuesday. It’s Tuesday, January 19, 2021 and I’m still here. Can’t believe it. I really can’t. It’s a rough day for me. I wrote 80… 8300 words yesterday. I can’t even count. 8300 words and then I had insomnia at five. So, got up, and finished the novella and turned it in, which is good. But I haven’t had a chance to sleep today. So I’m a little out of it. My hair looks snazzy. Thank you Fyrerider. I have a new overlay for those of you who can see it. And I think it’s a little less distracting. I put my word count up here in the top left. It says two days to go, but I’ve already turned it in, because I know I’ll reach my goal when I do edits, because that’s kind of how I write. Hey Sario. Good to see you. But Santa. Santa is not there anymore. At least he shouldn’t be. I tested new alert things. He’ll be back before you know it. Yeah. Anyway, this is a podcast called I Should Be Writing. I mentioned last week that I was going through a bit of a cold shock, realizing that I’ve not been very good with turning my stuff in lately. It’s partly there’s a lot of stuff going on there. I mean, we’re in a pandemic. There was an insurrection against the capital. I’ve had a lot of problems with migraines in the past 12 months. A lot of excuses but other people managed to get stuff turned in. So, I realized I needed to bust my butt and so I counted this morning and I’ve written 31,000 words this month. And it’s not the end of the month yet and I didn’t start on the first. So I guess I should be proud of that. I’m glad you like the new overlay people. I’m pretty happy with it. Thank you. I’m glad you think that’s a good accomplishment Frigsdaughter. I’ve been still feeling kind of bad about myself because I had to write so much in a binge because I’ve been putting it off, procrastinating. I shifted and the camera went weird, okay. But it’s done. The stuff’s done. The stuff’s into the editors, so that’s a good feeling. But I wanted to talk about, you know this show tries to tell you about a lot of the insecurities and terrible things you feel are normal as a writer, as a creative person in general.
Mur 3:59
And there’s a lot of buck up little camper kind of stuff. But sometimes there are truths that need to be said because no one is saying them, which Matt and I do a lot on Ditch Diggers. My other podcast, you can find out more at murverse dot com. But I was thinking about how I felt today-never mind the insomnia and the just general exhaustion-but I’m starting to feel that tired sadness that comes with finishing a project. Nobody ever talks about this, because they’re all like “Hey, I finished a project! Yay me!” And there’s something weird about finishing a project, something weird about doing all of this work, and then not doing all the work anymore. On one hand, yeah you don’t have to do the work anymore, but on the other hand, you get into a groove and now something has to change. And there’s always a little bit of stress with change. I’ve finally gotten to where when a friend of mine tells me she’s finished a project I just say ‘I’m so sorry’. Because I know that she’s feeling awful because she talks about it. And I’ve mentioned it before on I Should Be Writing because I had somebody write in and say, ‘Thank you for saying that because I thought I was the weird one.’. No you’re not, there’s a post project let down period. It happens. And I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist so I don’t know why it happens. I could pontificate. Again the ritual is gone, whatever work you did the new focus is gone. Saying goodbye to a world in your head is not an easy thing, says Sario. That’s another thing. This was sort of near future sci-fi with some hand wavy hacking. So I didn’t create a vast fantasy world. But I’m proud of a couple of things I came up with. I think some of the other things are complete crap so we’ll see what the editor thinks. At least I know myself well enough to know that I will hate my work at some point.
Mur 6:42
This is another thing! I talk about it a lot, so if you’re a longtime listener you will have heard this but, in case you’re new, there’s a point- in novels, usually hits around 35,000 mark 35,000 word mark. So I guess you scale it down to the other lengths. So I would say maybe with a novella, it would be 7000 words. That might work. I don’t know, about a third of the way in. Hey BillyBoy. Oh I’m not feeling down. I reject the idea that I’m feeling down. I’m just specifically sad about this project being done. I’ll bounce back. I’m not mourning anything. Oh, I got distracted by chat. I’m not supposed to do that. Dang. Sorry threw myself off. Yes, the 35,000 word mark. Yes, sorry, sorry. A lot of people, and this is where a lot of beginners will go and start a new book, because they think I’ve written myself into a corner, I realized this sucks. I’ve got a brand new idea that’s so hot. And what you need to know is this is what happens. This is going out to play in the snow, and then starting to get cold. The snow is still there, it’s still awesome. But you’re kind of getting cold so you think maybe I should go inside. Metaphor breaks down because you should go inside or else you’ll get hypothermia. But here in writer world the goal is to finish. Gotta finish the book. ‘really the only rule. A lot of the other rules we say don’t have to be followed if that’s not working for you. We get starting and finishing, that’s kind of the important part. And so you have to let yourself know that your book is going to suck at some point to your eyes.
Mur 9:19
Which is why it’s really good to get some distance before you do an edit. I read today that yesterday was Blue Monday. It’s been a myth. I think it was a PR stunt that yesterday was the most depressing day of the year. The third Monday in January. But I think it was a myth done by a PR company to get people to buy gift packages, not gift packages, travel packages for January. You know, oh it’s dark, it’s dreary, it’s cold, go to the Bahamas! So while it’s a little terrifying knowing what effect advertising has on our common psyche, it is an interesting thought because January’s depressing for me. I’m a big, big lover of Christmas. I try to keep it mostly inside because I know that most people I know are not. I mean, they’ll enjoy it, but I’m the person that gets happy when I see the Christmas stuff come out in October. Yup, that sounds like typical capitalism crap. Yeah it is. I mean, it’s both inspiring as a writer and terrifying to know these things that have gotten into our psyche. You know, Santa is coat is that red because of coke. It’s the same read as Coca Cola and that’s how Santa is drawn now.
Mur 11:11
We have new people in the chat. Hello Labrat. Hello Pablo. Hello Devo Spice. But here in Writer World. Yes, I did say but here in Writer World. Man, I’m really… brain is not braining well today. I knew this would happen because I wrote a whole lot yesterday. A whole lot. Hey Underpope, good to see you. I’m trying to think of the other truth bombs I need to drop. That was part of the Blue Monday thing. I needed to talk about the post project sadness and I figured I’d bring up other things. And I’m not trying to bring people down, but you’d rather have somebody point out that down that path you’re walking is a hole. So look out for that. Instead of just maybe they’ll be happier if they don’t know about the hole until they fall in. But then it’s not my fault. My metaphors need help today but you get what I’m saying. I just want you to look out for the holes. Devo Spice, do you get post album let down? Because I’ve been talking about I finished a novella yesterday or today, very early this morning, and been feeling a little post project tired and sad. The insomnia is also part of that. Yes, Sario it is nice to know that others are where you are. Let me do a shout out for Devo Spice. I do. Happens with every project including my most recent video. I’ve been in a funk for a few days now. Oh no, I’m sorry. Every time I try to do a shout out for you I start typing Devo Spice and forget that you’re in here under the Fump. Billy Boy says, modern day Valentine’s Day celebrations were created by Hallmark greeting card company to sell more cards during that time of year. Yeah, I think that’s true. You got to remember whenever somebody like points out the sexism or racism or homophobia or something in a work, people almost always retort with, it’s just fiction. But look at the world around us and how it’s shaped by our advertising, our favorite stories.
Mur 14:15
I still can’t get over the fact that Khaleesi was a very popular baby girls named after Game of Thrones started being televised. And thing is that wasn’t even her name, that was her status or title. Devo Spice if you want to test the… Hang on let me see if I can do something. Talk amongst yourselves. I gotta figure something out. I need to figure out how to give somebody permission to post a link. So yeah this morning I did get proud of myself with all the words I’d written. Hey Kalita. Good to see you. Thanks for dropping by. I hope everything’s going well with you. Devo Spice, see if you can post your link to the Mandalorian in the chat. I think you should be able to. The Fump, aka Devo Spice, just posted his… It was a Wu Tang Clan parody? I’m sorry. I don’t know enough about hip hop to know when you’re parodying something, unfortunately. Yeah, I am pretty good. Just finished a novella this morning. Wrote about 10,000 words in two days, a little bit too much. Yes parody of Method Man by Wu Tang Clan. Yay! I finally figured out how to get you to do a link. So if you want to see a funny Mandalorian parody song, check it out. Hey LiBurwell. Post project blues is everywhere. As a software tester, release leads to a mild depressive feeling and that’s also when I usually get sick. That is true. Yeah your body kind of does this ‘I’ve got to stay strong so we can finish this project’. And then when you are done and you can relax the immune system is like okay, I’m taking a break. I don’t care about the rest of y’all. Yeah, thanks. It’s probably greatly a coincidence but, you know, Charles Schultz did die a couple of days after the last Peanuts ran. And he was an old man, but you got to wonder if he tried to stay alive long enough to see the final Peanuts go, or he finished drawing it. I can’t remember if it was the last couple of days from the last one being published or the last one he wrote, but yeah he died soon after one of those times.
Mur 17:32
So yeah the body works as hard as it can and then it stops because it can’t go on. Even if you’re talking about writing or any kind of creativity stuff. I’m making a mess. I think the last truth bomb I will drop, and this is one of those things that you can look at and either be happy or sad about and it’s your choice, I would recommend being happy about it since you have a choice. But most of the insecurities you’re feeling right now, wherever you are in your career, won’t go away. Somebody will always be the green grass on the other side. Someone will always be the one let into the party while you are not. Someone will always be achieving more than you are. And so you could look at them and think, why isnt my life or career whatever doing that, instead of looking at your own and seeing, here’s where it’s good, and here’s where I can work on making it better. I had a weird discussion with a friend who, I can’t remember all the details but essentially he was letting me know that he was jealous of something that I had going on while I was sitting there being jealous of his projects. The good news is, everybody feels like you do. The bad news is, it’s not gonna go away so you just need to get used to it. Oh Sario says according to Wikipedia, Scholtz died the day before the last strip ran. Okay. Kalita says, I feel as if the insecurity has gotten worse. Oh no. I was way more confident when my writing was actual trash. Well that’s the whole you get to that level where you can identify good things and you realize how much more you have left to learn. Whereas people who don’t know anything about what you do probably think it’s easy.
Mur 20:06
Like our outgoing president who thought that the healthcare system would be a cinch to fix. And then a couple of months later literally says, “Who knew it was so complicated?” And everybody in Washington went “Me. I did.”. So, yeah, the more you learn about the complexities of different things, you can feel like even though you’ve improved, you have less confidence than you did when you knew nothing. I have gotten pretty good with baking sourdough. I feel like a sourdough hipster, because I was doing it before the pandemic, but actually saying those words out loud, makes me feel like I really need to go get some moustache wax, and possibly some suspenders with short pants. Trying to think of the local hipsters. I don’t know. I don’t know what anybody looks like these days because of the pandemic. So, yeah, I’m a sourdough hipster. But my husband got me the book Flour, Salt… What is it? Flour, Salt, Water and Yeast or something. It’s a basic bread baking book. And then there’s reading into what happens whether it’s the natural yeast and sourdough or the yeast you put into the bread, what happens in that case, and how the humidity and the temperature of your kitchen matters so much, and how you can tell whether something’s not proofed enough. I’ve just been guessing. I’ve just been following the recipe that King Arthur Flour put out. But pretty much I’m like, “Okay, two hours have passed. It’s puffed up, let’s put it in the oven.” And so I felt confident about my ability. I was even going to enter it into the State Fair year before last, 19, but that’s when King Arthur Flour got contaminated or recalled or something. And they wouldn’t allow anything with King Arthur Flour in it to be at the fair. And yes, I could have lied. But I’m not that kind of person.
Mur 22:49
So I had real confidence in my bread but now I know I don’t know crap. Don’t know anything about bread. It’s really hard. So I feel you, Kalita. The more you know, the less you know, that’s my wisdom. We all have long hair now says Frigsdaughter. Yeah, last night a friend of mine, I think it was Gwendebond? I can’t remember. It was like a group of us at the bar and I can’t remember which person posted it, but it was from ConFusion last year, which is where I was exactly a year ago. It’s an excellent con in Detroit, in January, but highly recommend going to it when the world gets back to normal. It’s one of my favorite cons. I was looking at what I told my husband was the high watermark on my hair, which is where the dye started. It was much, much higher a year ago. Wow, I keep thinking the next thing I’m going to talk about is this and that just goes away. Very tired. I got some salon dye to do my own hair says Fyrerider. Yeah, I bought a couple of just over the counter cheap teal bottles of dye, just to freshen this up, which on camera it looks like it needs it again. I guess that’s why I’m not a professional. It’s been a hell of a year. Yes it has. It really has. Hey KayKimmy, good to see you. Hope you’re doing well. I really had one more thing I was going to talk about. What the hell was it? If it comes to me, I’ll mention it.
Mur 25:05
What have I been playing of late? Do you mean like- Oh, hello. Hi, I’m being visited by a very loud dog. Okay, yes, yes you found me and I’m okay. She just barged in here, then came around the desk and poked me with their nose and then she left like she’s taken roll. What have I been playing late? Video games, I’ve been playing Hades, a lot. Thank you. Somebody just came and shut the door for me. Yeah, I’ve been playing a lot of Hades which has more nuance and excellent writing to it. I mean I knew it won some awards but I just kept looking at the run around and hit things with a sword kind of thing and didn’t know how much depth is in that. I poke in on Animal Crossing every once in a while, but it’s not, it doesn’t have the same hold on me at once did. Those snow boys? That was a negging experience I hope they never do again. Does anybody play Animal Crossing because I lucked out in the first time I made one. Hey Siblerose. Thank you. I’m pretty happy with the overlay. It’s nice and simple. So yeah, the snow boys. It’s their winter edition. If you haven’t played Animal Crossing I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about it but one of the things is whenever there’s a new seasonal event, there’s a whole bunch of crafting recipes you can get to make seasonal stuff. And in the spring, there were these eggs, everywhere. They really overdid it on the eggs. You could be fishing and get an egg that way. You could be popping balloons, which is usually treasure or money or something, or items but pop a balloon and get an egg. Shake a tree and get an egg. I mean there were a lot of eggs. The gimmick for winter was there’s two snowballs on your island. And when you run up to it, you can roll it up and then you roll up a second one and put it on top of the first one and the snow boy comes to life. And if you’ve done it perfectly, the snow boy is very happy with you and gives you a present. Either a giant snowflake or recipe. I don’t know, because I only did it once and then I realized that not only does the snow boy gradually melt over four days. I mean, they made this thing sentient and then you got to watch it melt and die. But if you don’t roll it up just right, the first words this thing starts to say have to do with negging you. It’s like, “Oh well, you know you tried your best with me and if 90% is what you’re happy with I guess that’s okay, but I’m not giving you a snowflake.” And maybe it’s just the fact that I was done with the year, that on top of everything else, I was being negged by snowman.
Mur 29:03
No, that’s not nice. So that drove me, literally drove me to play less Animal Crossing. Because I’d run past one of those inviting little snowballs that I’m supposed to roll up and make another frosty and just get annoyed. The snow boy is a wee bit passive aggressive. Indeed. So Devo Spice has been playing Paper Mario: The Origami King. I haven’t heard of that, that’s neat. So not a lot of that. I played Skyrim for a little while before getting into Hades. Got back into Skyrim. I love that world. Although at some point, I usually end up not caring about any of the quests, and instead just buying as much real estate as I can. And then moving my family among them and then losing my things in the houses because I can’t remember at which house I put this very rare and important magical staff. So that’s how I play. I also got Kentucky Route Zero for Christmas. Looking forward to that. And the Stardew Valley expansion, the newest update to Stardew Valley is out, and I’ll be playing that with my daughter before she goes back to school. I’m really looking forward to that. I think we’re going to play a race to get married, kind of play through. See who can get married the fastest. Only problem is, the two easiest people to get married to, you get big friendship points if you give them something good on their birthday and so by default it’s easier to marry somebody whose birthdays earlier in the year. Easier to marry someone quickly. So yeah, we’re gonna be doing that. Probably this afternoon. Probably on the stream. I haven’t streamed a game in a long time. Kalita says it’s so funny, but I think way back when I remember you saying maybe on facebook how you had to put in so many hours writing before playing. I feel like this is when it first came out. Yeah, it was probably Twitter because I’m not on Facebook but yeah at some point I literally bought myself a little plastic chest with a timer on it, and I put my switch in there every morning so I could get work done. And strangely enough that worked. But also I had a friend who was looking at the turnip prices a lot with me and trying to get all the KK Slider songs. And then I realized that once they lost interest and started playing something else, I realized a lot of my fun was playing with other interested people. And I didn’t find a lot of those, which is stupid because it’s so big but everybody has their own style playing. I have friends who still play but care about it on a different level, I guess. Also, I had one really big payday with turnips. And after that, I could afford anything in the game and so it stopped being a challenge.
Mur 32:55
Then again, the snow boys offered a challenge and that just made me mad so I don’t know. Kalita are you playing anything fun? Is anybody playing anything fun? The best part about Animal Crossing was having a zoom birthday party for a friend of mine and we were on zoom on the computer so we could see each other and chat but we were all visiting each other on the islands in Animal Crossing. And one guy had not heard of Animal Crossing he hadn’t seen it and as we’re talking about turnips, and what else? I can’t even remember what bizarre Animal Crossing things we were talking about but he was so fascinated that he literally went out. He left the Zoom party to go out and buy a switch to get Animal Crossing. And I think he found one and this is when they were really hard to find. Golf is a distinct thing that can be huge fun if you have the right partner. Indeed. I got Calico after watching Stephen play it and it is delightful. That’s cool. You don’t have to whisper Kalita it’s okay to say you’ve been playing Cyberpunk if it’s fun. Have they fixed a lot of those issues? LiBurwell has been playing June’s Journey Match Three game. Mystery stores in the post World War One era, interesting. Siblerose has been playing a stupid amount of Minecraft. Sario’s been playing Graveyard Keeper. I played that for a little while and then I stopped. Graveyard Keeper is interesting. It’s like, think Stardew Valley in a graveyard. You’re just there to build out the graveyard. But that also means you have to, people just drop bodies off and you have to get them and build a coffin for them, and plant them, or inter them, before the body rots too much.
Mur 35:17
Dog is mad. Fyrerider plays Planet Zoo. KayKimmy I’ve been using a ridiculous number of phone games to avoid stress and responsibility. I think pretty much everybody gets a buy right now. It is not an easy time. Kalida I didn’t see a lot of the most major issues because I’m playing on PC. There are some. I could talk all day about the issues I have with the game but the moment I’m entertained. I give it a 6.5. Well you know, if it’s entertaining you then that’s what matters. Hey Todd. Todd’s been playing Diablo 3. Awesome. So yeah, this has turned into I should be writing but I’m gaming instead. So that’s what we’re offering. I’m sorry. I’m just making myself laugh. My brain is still mush. I’m sorry. So has anybody come up with- Oh, that’s right. I think I remember what I was gonna say. I think I remember. I came up with, not necessarily a resolution but a mantra for 2021, and I didn’t even realize I did it until I put a name to it. Kind of like I didn’t know I was writing Fred Saberhagen fanfic when I was a kid because I had never heard the word fanfic before. I’ve talked about it before so I won’t go too far into it but basically my mantra this year is just show up, because that is the hardest thing by far is just showing up. You know, getting dressed, and your yoga mat out, getting your shoes on and out the door, sitting in the chair and shutting up everything else except for your word processor. That is the hard thing. Showing up is the challenge. And so I figure if I can just show up, then the rest of it will take care of itself. And so that’s my mantra for 2021. I’m trying to get into a better schedule by just showing up. Trying to keep healthy and writing regularly. Siblerose says we are totally not wasting time on video games ever. No, brains need recovery time and games are often a good way to do it. That’s true Sario. I actually did a news article in The Escapist, before they went pro GamerGate, on the benefit of games and the brain. And a friend of mine had had an aneurysm back 2010 I think I’m not sure. No, earlier than that. Anyway, he’d had an aneurysm and it was a long time for him to recover. And he told me that one of the things his therapist had him doing his role playing. He was playing D&D. Because the… I can’t even remember the details but that was good for his brain. That was a good ability for his brain to work on.
Mur 39:14
So, I’m a fan. But, you know, most people know that. Also I think good ideas from games, especially in the narrative ones. Just show up, great mantra. Thank you Underpope. Labrat I’m borrowing just show up to run alongside my usual Just keep swimming. You know you don’t have to borrow it, you can have it. It’s all yours. We’re all about the sharing here. If my mantra works for you, that’s cool. I don’t mind. I think it’s funny that I guess I have confidence in my abilities because I acknowledged that I’m struggling with the actual arrival to whatever I’m doing. Which, you know, is also known as overcoming procrastination. But that’s the struggle, not the work involved. Psychiatrist I know uses the Star Wars RPG to help his schizophrenic patients learn social skills. That’s interesting Underpope. Yeah, I think the safe role playing atmosphere is really big for helping people learn new things. And learn how to communicate in social situations where if they screw up well, just try again. KayKimmie says my mantra this year is the Mountain Goats’ ‘I’m going to make it through this year if it kills me’. Yes that is the mountain goats and that’s an awesome song. He’s local to me. I can’t remember his name. I don’t know him.I saw him at the John Hodgman talk a couple of years ago. Hodgman had a joke about Watership Down that me and my friend laughed at. And we were the only ones. And I thought it was really funny. It wasn’t fake laughter. But he did dedicate the rest of the show to those of us who have read Watership Down, so that was fun. That was a pointless, pointless tangent, but like I said, brain not braining, it’s pretty much tapioca in there. Very smooth as Jason Mendoza on The Good Place says. My brain is very smooth. That’s an awesome mantra. I’m taking it. You do that Ansela and I hope it works for you. They’re in the late show the other night and of course they were playing something new. I was really hoping for that song. Yeah, usually when they’re doing tours like that, they’re promoting new stuff.
Mur 42:29
Last name Darnell. That’s what I remember. Sorry, just popping into my head. Yeah they played a local summer Fourth of July event that goes on in Durham every summer. And I didn’t recognize all the song songs because they were all peppy and he says some of his fans actually ask for old favorites, but he doesn’t like to play them at a daytime Fourth of July festival with a lot of kids around. Which is fair, because he’s got a lot of darker songs. Fun fact, if you enjoy comic books and you enjoy Serenity and Firefly, there’s a Shepherd book story that you can get. And it’s one of those things that tells it very cleverly in reverse to where you see a scene, and you make your own decision on how the character got to that point. I guess Momento started it. You assume how the character got to that point and then they do the scene before or a couple of years before. The book starts with Shepherd Books’ death. It’s been over 10 years so, sorry, spoiler. The book starts with his death in Serenity and then you get this whole story because he was one of the people that we didn’t know why he had like Alliance clearance and other things. He had a lot of mystery in his backstory and we got it all. But when they finally get to his childhood. This story of his childhood is essentially… Damn it, now I can’t think of the word. What is the hasth thou considered the tetrapod I think it is. It’s a story about how music was the only thing keeping him going when he was a young kid and talks about his stepfather abusing him and stuff. It’s a very powerful song, and that’s where the comic book writer got the idea of Shepherd Books childhood. I mean it was like almost exactly the song drawn out. He’s listening to his records and the headphones are on and stepfather gets mad. It’s an interesting and powerful book and if you’re a Mountain Goats fan and a Firefly fan, then you know you can’t lose.
Mur 45:19
Man, I’ve been going for 47 minutes and I haven’t fallen asleep once. Go me. So as this is a podcast about writing, does anybody have any writing questions? Or do they want just a buck up little camper? Oh yeah, we did our first kick in the pants workshop the other day. We had a little bit of Discord problems and then we had not a huge turnout, but it was fun and I took some notes on how to make it better. So, next time will be even better. I don’t have the next time scheduled. I kind of want to do two a month. So just if you’re a Patreon supporter at the $7 or higher level then go ahead and just keep an eye on the email. Backup little camper sounds good to me. Okay, Todd. Buck up little camper. We’ll beat that slope together. That was an obscure, Better Off Dead quote but buck up little camper, because things are rough. But it’ll change, hopefully for the better. But we just got to remember nothing ever stays the same. So you can do it. I have a lot of faith in you. Back in the before times you were going to the nebulas and schmoozing around and networking and you got this. How long do you wait after finishing a novel or novella before you do the editing or rewriting. People usually recommend a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of days for a short story but a couple of weeks for something longer. For me, I turned it in and know that my editor will take a couple of weeks to get back to me and then hopefully by then I’ll be able to take his comments and thoughts and be able to edit it with more distanced eye given to me by time. So, if you’re not contracted and you’re just trying to write a longer project and get a good distance from it I would say three weeks to a month is a safe time. Then you can go back and you won’t feel all raw because you just finished it and it won’t feel like a newborn baby to you that you can’t change anything. Can’t even clip a nail or else it will die. So, not that you have to cut newborn’s nails. Not right away anyway.
Mur 48:19
Good to see you Fyrerider. Thanks for dropping by. Have a good day at work or good afternoon, I suppose. But give it a little bit of time, you need that distance. You’ll be surprised more problems will jump out at you when you get that distance. And you’ll be able to appreciate your stuff more. You know the things that you were unsure about or didn’t think much about when you wrote and then you read them as a reader you think, “Oh, that’s pretty clever”. Or “That’s funny.” Or that makes a lot of tension so that’s another bonus. Yeah, that’s another bonus to giving yourself some distance. I was talking to a friend of mine who offered to read part of my novella for me. And I said, I would like to get to a point where I finish a project and can let somebody take a look at it for me before I have to desperately turn it in. That’s another reason why the mantra for this year is show up. Because if I do that, if I show up, then words will get done. And I don’t even have to worry about what words, I just show up and then the words happen. I know there’s work in there. I’m not completely lying to myself. But yeah, I’m gonna have to end the stream soon because my brain is just not working right now. I’m very sorry. If I do show up and I get writing done every day, then the projects will get done. That’s one thing I’m still have a little bit of confusion in my goal setting class. Because you’re not supposed to make a habit a goal. But I know that if I managed to achieve my personal goal of writing on a regular basis, then the other goals will take care of themselves. I will get the book written because I established that habit. So maybe I’m looking at it the wrong way, I don’t know. But I still think show up is a pretty good short way of going about things.
Mur 51:15
I am really tired and I’m going to end the stream. I’m very sorry because I’m just not with it today. I hope everybody is doing well. I hope you are wearing your mask and staying safe depending on how things go tomorrow. Hope you’re getting writing done. And if you’re not getting writing done today, then get writing down tomorrow. Thank you Kalita, I will. I just need to get a good night’s sleep. If you want to see my stuff, it’s at murverse dot com. If you want to catch this show live, then you can see twitch.tv slash mightymur. And you can see all my stuff. I have books. I have other podcasts. I got blogging things going on over at murverse dot com so you can learn most of what you need to know about me over there. If you want to talk to me on the social medias, I check in on Twitter, every once in a while. Folks are saying for me to get a nap. I may do that. My goal was to get some gaming done this afternoon but we’ll have to see. So, stay safe. Wear your mask, get some writing done and we’ll all do it again tomorrow. And then on Thursday, I’ll do another show. Hopefully I will be very awake and with it. You can support the patreon at patreon.com slash mightymur where you will get access to the archives and our Discord. And at certain levels, you could be killed in one of my books. Someone with your name, or you can join our kick in the pants workshop.
You can support I Should Be Writing at Patreon, Jemi, or Ko-fi.
I Should Be Writing’s theme music provided by John Anealio.
Art by Numbersninja and transcription by FyreRider.
January 19, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 5 | murverse.com
ISBW S17 Ep5: Dropping Truth Bombs by Mur Lafferty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
