Podcasts, Projects, Transcript
[Transcript] ISBW S17 Ep2: Turn It Off!
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Turn It Off!
I Should Be Writing S17 Ep2
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
writing, people, writer, parasol, thought, collaborative effort, ditch diggers, talk, stream, yesterday, listening, turn, work, book, falling, patreon, world, watching, voyager, vet
SPEAKER
Mur Lafferty
Mur 0:32
It is I Should Be Writing number 553. Also known as season 17 episode 2. This one’s gonna be hard. If you’re listening to this in the future, hope things are better. I’m not going to talk a lot about stuff today. Only, I’m going to talk about how we’re creative people and how this stuff like the attempted coup on the Capitol yesterday, how that affects us. Some people well, I’ll get to it later. Like I said, this is hard for me. It’s also hard for me, because I’m still having trouble with my preferred streaming software that I’m paying for. And for some stupid reason, instead of testing it, I went ahead and worked up a new theme to make it look good and then tested it. And it worked about as well as it has the rest of this week. So that’s why I’m back here. With my, the caricature designed by my daughter. And it’s purple. It’s solid, I think. Yeah, so this is January 7th, I think. Yeah, January 7th and we’re just kind of all reeling from the attack on the Capitol yesterday. Four people dead. A lot of dismay at the response of the Capitol Police. A lot of our elected representatives, like them or not, now a lot of people don’t like politicians but they are who we send to Washington to represent us, in danger. Yeah, so it’s, talking personally, like I said, I’m not gonna talk about it too much. I am not a journalist. Stuff like this is the reason why I could not be a journalist. I found it. I mean, I started out in sports journalism and I had trouble separating my emotions from what I was writing. Because I mean I was a big UNC fan and I like to report on UNC. But I still had to have that journalism separation. And then when I went into the journalism school, I started covering other things and I’m like, you know what, I really don’t think I have what it takes to walk up to somebody and go so your husband just fell into the sausage maker and died. How does that make you feel? Or whatever equivalent that is. I don’t have it in me. I’m not a political pundit. I don’t have a whole lot to say except for, it was shocking. It was terrible. If you want to do a little bit of laughter, I can laugh about it. Yesterday I was writing a lot. I had a deadline two days ago and didn’t hit it. And I was really thinking I’m going to get it done on Wednesday. I’m gonna get it done. And I structured my day. I wrote in the morning, I grabbed a quick lunch. I put on pants and I took the dog to the vet and I sat in the car. And because, you know, pandemic, I can’t go into the vet so they take my dog away. And I wrote while I was in the car. So proud of myself and then I was listening to a live stream, not watching on the way home, just listening. And I got home and I went upstairs and I started talking to my husband and telling him. Here’s what he said about the dog. She’s gonna need, she’s got a broken tooth, she’s going to need to stop. And I’m glad I worked around the budget to start budgeting for vet stuff before it happens. And I’m proud of myself. And he just sat there and looked at me. My husband’s a quiet guy. And he’s very, he’s a quiet guy, he’s a kind guy. And he just listened to me babble about the freaking vet and then when I was done, he said, you have no idea what’s going on do you? I’m like, no, I just went to the vet and dog broken tooth. He’s like you have no idea what’s going on.
Mur 5:07
So that’s my kind of funny out of touch thing but it’s actually what I wanted to talk about today. Because once I checked into CNN and saw what was going on, it was just deer in headlights for the rest of the afternoon. And I watched the news, sort of stunned. And my keyboard. I was actually in here, my keyboard was in my lap. And I was like, poised to keep working on my script. And the words weren’t coming. Finally, my editor is actually in the UK who’s like, they’ve had their own major problems. So it’s like I feel bad saying, you know what my country’s falling apart. I don’t think I can hit this today. But that’s what I said and they were very understanding. Then this morning, I just decided I’m going to mess around with my stream. I’m going to work in the guest room slash studio. Got to take a shower, got to get some food, do some laundry. I need to refocus. So I’m still not writing. The thing was I was saying to, I was telling my husband, I’m like, I’m feeling right now like, I can focus on the work, I can do my writing, I can work on my podcast and my streams and escape pod. Or I can look at social media and news. I can’t do both. And that’s like, on a good day. Some, it’s just when days are bad, it’s like, just staring. And when days are good, it’s like, oh, I’m gonna read this thing and follow this person and see what’s down that rabbit hole and almost like falling into TV Tropes.
Mur 7:22
And that’s why I start, I mean, it’s been like over a year that I’ve stepped away from social media on a regular basis, I still post but I used to be a very heavyTwitter user. And I just couldn’t do it because the distraction and the mental, the emotional toll. It was fun. And it’s become much more of a not fun but informative tool. And that’s why I entitled this one turn it off. Partly because I love the music in the Book of Mormon, but also because if you have to get stuff done right now, I’m going to recommend, if you’re anything like me, I know you may not be, but you’re gonna have to disengage in some way or another when you gotta get work done. If you got to be creative. If you’ve got to focus on something. You have to step away and at least for me, it’s like I when I quit smoking back in 1996, I couldn’t just like taper off, because you can give me one I’ll find a reason to have two. I had to quit cold turkey. I’m a cold turkey kind of person. It’s either yes or no. And so when it comes to this kind of stuff I need to turn it off entirely. This morning, this sounds so hypocritical and I’m sorry, but I’ve kind of In the past couple of years morphed from podcasts to ebooks or audiobooks when I’m consuming. It’s hypocritical because I still create podcasts which means I expect slash hope someone else is going to consume it.
Mur 9:36
Then again more people are listening to podcasts than ever before, so I did my part. Still. I wanted to listen to something that I didn’t need to hold on to every single plot point. Like a long narrative so I decided to start listening to podcasts again and I all this morning I listened to The Office Ladies, because if you know anything about me, you know I’m a huge fan of The Office. I’ve discussed narrative structure in The Office a lot with, either here or sometimes on Ditch Diggers. Matt does not like to talk about craft on Ditch Diggers, but if we bring up The Office he will slide into narrative structure with me. He’s a good friend like that. I’m going to catch up on chat right now. The Faldor is here. Good evening the Faldor. Good to see you. Poor pup, dental stuff is no fun. The thing I got from the vet is that her, it’s chipped and the root isn’t exposed. We’re gonna pull it out because you know dogs. It’s like if it’s cracked it’s just gonna keep, it’s cracked or it’s broken it’s just gonna keep breaking. But it’s not, the extraction is not scheduled for another couple of months so they’re not too worried about her right now. In two months you can say poor pup because then I’ll be a wreck because I hate dental stuff. And I still hate dental stuff when it’s other people and they’re not freaked out about it, I’m still freaked out about it.
Mur 11:17
Yeah Fyrerider, wild that a few hours of not being online means super out of touch. Yeah, I missed a lot in that, like 12 to 3pm slot yesterday. Tish says good title. Yesterday was my day of distractions. Today I am making up for lost time, yeah. It’s so hard to push that fear away and focus. Yeah it is. It really is. I was watching the EA podcast stream last night and I love it Alasdair and Margarite. Alasdair and I talked weekly, pretty much, just to sort of check in and see how we’re doing. We’re both freelancers and lots of stuff going on and so we kind of ground each other. And Alasdair is very good at making sure that I’m taking care of myself. You know, make sure you’re hydrated. Make sure youre eating protein, make sure you get a nap. And if I start to fall apart even if I’m behind on stuff he’s like, you take time off. You need to recover, you need to reset. And I’m like, but I’ll be that much further behind. He’s like, yeah, but when you start again, you’ll be solid. But I was watching their stream last night and Alasdair says you know if you’re in the US today, you know turn off the news and join us here. And I’m thinking I love you like a brother dude, but I can’t. Because stuff was still going on. You know, today it feels easier to disconnect because there’s not active threat happening. At least, not that I’ve heard. As I said, I have been disconnected. Been listening to The Office Ladies all morning and messing with stream software.
Mur 13:15
Good afternoon Parasol. Hey Kaykimmie. Hey Friggsdaughter. Good to see you all. I’m very glad you’re here. We’re talking about turning stuff off and separating from things when the outside world is too much. If you need to separate to get work done then do it. Another reason I started listening to The Office Ladies is, I mean one reason why I love that show is the writing is very, very solid. There’s just amazing stuff in there. And the acting is amazing too. There’s scenes where especially Jenna Fisher and John Krasinski go through a number of emotions just on their faces. And like there’s one scene where you can actually see Pam make a decision and it’s not super obvious but you can see. It’s really subtle and well done. But I like it because of the writing. And there’s, they have a lot of writers and directors on to talk about how they decided on some things and put together stuff and I realized that listening to someone else talk craft for once was really good for me. Even though this is like TV craft which, from what I hear is not very similar. I don’t know if Margaret’s lurking right now. But my friend Margaret does TV stuff and she taught us on the Book Burners team, how to sort of work together as a team to create a plot. Where I am so used, actually everybody else on the team, we were all so used to we sit in our little rooms and write our little books. And the only outside commentary we get is like, the editors going maybe you should go in this direction or change that. But no like, huge collaborative effort. And I honestly don’t know if I could work like that again. I had a wonderful team. We were so solid and it was a dream. You know, it’s one of those.
Mur 15:32
The first time I took my daughter to an amusement park, it was all off-season and slightly raining. But not raining enough to close it down. So I’m like you know there’s no lines. We’re just going on any ride we want to. And I’m like, I’m afraid I’m giving you the wrong impression of what it’s like to go to one of these parks. Cause you’re never going to experience this again. I felt that way about working with the Book Burners team because we all got along. We jumped on each other’s ideas and leapt off into different directions and everyone was respectful. And that was really great. I have heard that that was a rare, we had rare chemistry And so knowing that we had rare chemistry and I still did struggle. And I’m not saying this as a, anything bad about any of my co-writers. I know this is a me internal thing that having other people push and pull what I consider my plot, I would get uptight. And I knew that wasn’t right because this was a collaborative effort. So I didn’t say anything but my insides would just kind of be going urgh. And I would, you know, I thought wow if this was a combative group I would not last long. It would be awful. You know the idea of working on film or TV is very exciting. But I know there’s no one writer experience.
Mur 17:18
I remember, I don’t like talking about him now, because he’s not the best person in the world, but when Joss Whedon had a writing credit on the first X-Men movie. And apparently he got, there was one line he wrote that stayed in. And it wasn’t even delivered very well. I think it was the, you know what happens when frogs get hit by lightning? The same thing thats happened to everything else, or something. But yeah, so I don’t know if I could do such collaborative effort. But it’s really interesting to hear how others do. I’m trying to write an email and a phone prompt for myself to call my reps and then separating today. Good idea Fyrerider. The line Storm gives to Toad is cheesy as heck. Thank you Parasol. Yeah, it was, I think, in Whedon’s head, it was delivered in a different way and that’s why he thought it was work. Which is also another thing, it’s like, when you’re a writer, you have a way you think the story should be told. And when you put it in the hands of countless other people. This is why it’s very hard for writers to admit to giving up control when they sell film rights to their books. Because it’s hard to think about your work in another medium, but it really is different. The other mediums because they’re… First it’s a collaborative effort, you’re going to have everybody from costuming to make up to casting to the actors to the editors to the directors. I mean, all of those people are going to put their fingerprint on this project. And I mean, nevermind the fact that it’s film and whatever the camera can say more in five seconds than you know, I can put on three pages. If it’s done right. Or if I’m very long winded. So you have to remember that. But it’s also just the fact that it’s a big collaborative effort.
Mur 20:01
And I don’t even remember what got me on this topic. But if you ever sell film rights on a project first, enjoy the free money and remember to put some aside for taxes. Secondly, remember, it’s probably not going to get made. We’ve talked about, I’ve talked about options before and if you have any specific option questions, let me know in the chat. I don’t mind talking about them. I’ve experienced a couple but also if it gets made, and I’ve never gotten to that that level, but I know this from talking to other people you unless you’re lucky enough to have input like the guys who make up James SA Corey. They’re heavily involved in The Expanse. Lucky them. Super jealous. Unless you’re that like that or as powerful is that lady in England who has enough power and money to maintain some control. You have to give up a great deal of control and be at peace with that. Catching up on chat. Hey Stephen. Thank you for subscribing. I still have the Santa alert. Yeah, but thank you for subscribing. I’m gonna try to catch up with chat now. My friend Malcom has asked if I want to co-write something. I’m equal parts excited and apprehensive about it. Well Thefalador, first that’s awesome. Take it as the compliment it is. Co-writing might be a little different because that is much more of a give and take thing and not group effort. You also may not be as selfish as I am. So definitely don’t give up an opportunity. I mean if I had an opportunity to work with the team from book burners again, I would probably take it. They’re all brilliant people. They’re all very humble. We did admit at one point that each of us secretly thought we were the weak link in the chain. You know, Brian Francis Slattery thought so because he was the non genre writer. Margaret thought so because she was the TV writer. I thought so just because I don’t have a high opinion and I do humor. While you know Max Gladstone and Brian do like detailed, literary amazing stuff and I’m like I’m telling the funny saying things over here. But yeah, if you, if this is a friend that you think you can work with creatively then go for it. Definitely.
Mur 23:03
Parasol, it bothers me when Roddenberry or Lucas get full credit for everything or all the blame. There’s so many other people who contributed to Star Wars and Star Trek. Yeah, that’s true. I think when something… It is true but also those were entire worlds created based on one main foundation. And you know, well certainly Roddenberry, he’s not around anymore, didn’t give… Well actually, I don’t know, I don’t know the history of Star Trek and I don’t know how involved he was even up to next gen but he did lay the foundation but you know, I don’t know who came up with DS-9. Or Voyager, or discovery or lower decks, which is my favorite thing right now. Thefaldor says it bothers me when people boycott something due to one person involved. Yeah, that thing is tough. It really is. That lady is actually in Scotland says Thefaldor. I’m sorry, I’m not sure, I don’t keep up with where she goes. Or where she lives. I just know that she’s over there somewhere. Oh, hey, Ceit, good to see you. That was always the thing that sounds horrible to me. If you sold the rights thinking it was free money and they make it and you hate what they make of your work. Yeah, that’s the chance you take. It’s free money. It’s absolutely free money you did nothing for. I mean, yes, you did the work at the beginning, but you did the work. You got your advance or you got your royalties, and then you know, you move on and then somebody comes up behind you and says, Hey, you know, here’s 5-10,000 dollars. You don’t have to do anything except for sign this paper. Oh, that’s pretty. I mean, who’s gonna say no to that? Actually, I know somebody who did say no to a lot more than that. Actually but that was because she could not retain control about one character. And I really can’t blame her.
Mur 25:21
Hey Doitthehana. Oh, I’m sorry if I completely ruin that but thank you for the follow. Good to see you. I’m so down for anyone who wants to give me money to make terrible films based on my books. Just FYI. Okay, Thefaldor I’ll write that down and I’ll let people know that if you want to take a story and just do whatever you want to it Thefaldor is who you call. Lower decs is top tier. You have excellent taste. Yeah, I’d heard mixed things about it, and so had my husband and it took a while for us to, you know, just give it a try. And he said it got better after the pilot. I thought the first episode was hysterical. I mean, you know the line I got to hold a heart just says so much. The stream is looking great by the way. I say that as someone who used to get paid to sit all day and do green screen things. Thank you, that means an awful lot considering how much I’m struggling with software right now. I’ve still not had… Well, I hope it’s understandable that yesterday I did not have the time or energy to do what I’d hoped to do which is start working on my, turning to stream from Christmas to New Year’s stuff. And now the idea of having an overlay with celebratory fireworks seems off somehow. Little bit. So yeah, we’re back on that. Good job, Mur.
Mur 27:12
But since we are on the topic of movie or options, if you have any questions, let me know. I don’t mind talking about it. I have experience. Limited experience but experience. A lot of what I know is what I’ve heard from other writers, which helped a lot. Because knowing how many people who have amazing books that have never made it to the screen really put my world into perspective with the idea of, yeah, here’s some free money, it’s probably not going to get made. So you enjoy the free money, and you keep going. I mean, Old Man’s War, that series, beloved, by John Scalzi. Best Selling. Never got made. It’s been optioned. I think it’s consistently optioned. I don’t think it’s ever been out of option. But it’s not been made. And I think about stuff that was optioned years ago, that we still haven’t seen. There’s the Three Body Problem. There’s the Broken Earth series. That was a big announcement. But I don’t know, I haven’t heard anything about that. Of course, pandemic slowed down Hollywood so it’s hard to say. And also, I think the Chinese director or the Chinese producer involved in the Three Body Problem just got killed. These are dark times folks. Hold your loved ones.
Mur 29:06
You just give me a topic and I’ll take it down that dark path. That’s where my mind is right now. I’m so sorry. What I’m trying to say is there’s… You don’t have high expectations. Because there’s so many things that have been optioned that never get made for a variety of reasons. That’s another thing. It’s like, when I’ve heard Hollywood is yes, yes, yes, yes. No. While publishing is no, no, no, no, yes. I know a screenwriter who, when he sold his first book, he kept waiting to be told that it wasn’t going to be published. Because you know, that’s what it is with movies. It’s like, at any stage, it can be canceled. It makes you think Hollywood throws around a lot of stupid money. Stupid money. Yeah, stupid money. But once you sell something, unless something extraordinary happens. And that’s: you never turn it in or your editor leaves or, you know that they would still probably publish your book. They just wouldn’t support it very well. No experience there. But there’s the… Yeah, brain’s turning off today. Hey, Steven, what do you got? Like betting, buy up a lot of things and then sit on them and see what will pay back. Exactly. Yeah. So stuff can be cancelled at any level. And with books, it’s like you’ll get rejections until you get an acceptance and then you know, your book will probably come out. So it was just funny hearing that this screenwriter friend of mine was just baffled that publishing works this way. Thefaldor says Mrs Faldor is a costume maker on some of your favorite films. She worked on her first feature two years ago. Nothing she’s worked on in that time has been released. Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s the, so many people getting paid for stuff that never actually happens. That’s, I kind of wonder if someday someone in Hollywood is gonna wake up and go wait a minute. Yeah, like that old Far Side cartoon where one cow just stands there and says, wait a minute, this is grass. We’ve been eating grass. Somebody in Hollywood is gonna wake up and say, we have been throwing around money for absolutely no reason. Why? So I hope this happened. Actually I don’t hope it happens because then authors won’t get as much free money. I made more money on the option for The Shambling Guides than I did on the advance. And in a lot shorter timeframe. So certainly can’t turn that down or say it’s bad. It’s just you know, when you step back, it’s like wow, they spend a lot on stuff that never actually happens. What other industry does that? I suppose a lot of manufacturing and people who invent things. I suppose they do.
Mur 32:56
Anyway, big tangent. Nobody has any questions about film. So I’m going to go over stuff. I went over this in November, actually in October for NaNoWriMo. So I’ll just touch on it again because the title of the episode is Turn it Off. And we’re talking about if you’re very distracted by the news and terrible things happening and you need to get work done. I recommend the thing on your phone turns the ringer off. Do not disturb. Silence. Putting the phone in another room. Turning the phone off entirely. I don’t go that far. I’ll admit I don’t go that far. But you know staying off the sites. If you belong to a slack of good friends and you think that’s all they’re going to talk about. Maybe I’ll just step out for the day. If your co-workers are talking about it maybe say hey guys, I need to focus on this work we’re being paid to do. We don’t want to be like Hollywood, do we? Pull that out, see if that works. Let me know if it does because that’d be really funny. Not that I think Bridgerton was bad, I really enjoyed it and want to read the book now but imagine being the executive trying to get it made. What specifically do you mean Parasol? Do you mean the period clothes and stuff involved or do you mean trying to get the diversity through? I’m not sure. Oh, all the sex. Yes, I have heard that it’s got a lot of sex in it. I’m a shy person for the most part. I think you have to go in there knowing you’re going to do that. As I said, I was listening to The Office episodes and found out that John Krasinski’s Jim from the office, his first onscreen kiss was the end of season two when he kisses Jenna Fischer. And it was her second onscreen kiss and they were very nervous to do it. And that’s just, you look at people on TV and you think oh well they know what they’re doing. They’re very experienced and maybe not. So I think you’d have to go into the job knowing what you’re going to be doing.
Mur 35:30
I heard there was an actor from, I want to say Outlander. I can’t remember it. It was a TV show I hadn’t seen but knew it had a lot of sex in it, who actually asked her family not to watch it. Because of all the sex that she was doing in it. But you know, I don’t have the acting gene at all. Or do you mean, even as a writer? You can write the scenes but you can’t see them acted out. I don’t know. Writing sex scenes, it’s hard. Maybe that’s a show I should do if I can not be embarrassed for all that time and still keep this podcast clean. Because it is not an easy thing. Hang on a sec. Ceit is referring to something and I’m not, I missed something. Oh, I see the thing that sounded horrible would be somebody be making something else of your work and… I guess you’re talking about, are you talking about terrible news? I guess that’s what you’re talking about. Sorry. It’s hard to keep up with chat right now because I don’t have it on screen that’s really easy to read. Because I was real good with prepping. Referencing the news thing, thank you Ceit. Yes, just going, nope I don’t want to talk about it. Walking away. That’s, that’s I mean, you got to do what’s best for you. And if somebody else is going to get offended by it, that’s their problem. If you’re polite and say you know, I can’t engage with this because I have to put my brain to other things right now.
Mur 37:32
When the tech called me about the dog yesterday, after I got home, I had had a question for the vet and she was calling me to tell me the vet had answered my question. She was like oh, how are you? Even though we’ve just talked. You know, it’s that polite phone thing. I’m like, well, um, you know, country’s falling apart. And then she just kind of laughed nervously and kept going and I’m thinking does she not know? Or she just awkward because I didn’t do the socially required thing of ‘fine’? I don’t know. But I mean you know she’s having to deal with animals. And going in and out of the rooms all day. And I’m pretty sure she did not have the access to the news that a lot of us did. Then again, perhaps someone did and told everybody else. I don’t know. Well I was worried I wouldn’t have anything to talk about and I did. So, thank you. Haven’t gotten any questions since Tuesday. So we’re going to skip that. My plan is to do… If you’re coming in late, or I guess if you’re listening to this later, I’m going to be editing yesterday’s and today’s podcast. No, Tuesday’s and today’s podcast and starting to put them up for Patreon and the regular feed tomorrow. Patreon gets it first. If you’re a Patreon supporter, you get early access to stuff. I’m going to be working out the workshop, which I’m really excited about. It’s a small kick in the pants workshop where I send people prompts and then 30 minutes later, we meet in the discord to talk about what you wrote. It’s not a full story workshop. And you don’t have to read. You only read if you want to. But I’m excited about it because I think it’s a good way for me to help out, for other people to work with story prompts and for everybody to get some work done if you’re feeling kind of blocked. Because we’re on month 11 of WTF world.
Mur 40:06
Oh, thank you Parasol, Rick Brennan created Voyager and Deep Space Nine. Had to Google it. Appreciate it. A lot of workspaces tried to stay apolitical, too. Though, I think that has made the discourse worse over time. Yeah. Because as we discover, things become more and more political as you know, you live your life. If you’re somebody who the laws and the politics are directly affecting in a bad way, your life is political and it becomes something that’s very important. And being apolitical is impossible. My office has to stay non-political as well, and I work in a federal government office. That makes a lot of sense Underpope. That’s got to be tough. If you’re in DC, I hope you’re doing okay. Either mentally or whatever. I know, there are a lot of federal offices around the country. My stepfather worked in one just down the street from here. Anybody in DC I’m thinking about you. And you know, there’s been stuff in other other cities. So I hope everybody’s staying safe. And wearing your mask. It’s a pandemic. We can’t forget that. Bleh. Ah, Sacramento, okay. Cool. Michael Piller co-created both with Jerry Taylor on Voyager. One of those great writers who changed the TV landscape but without being noticed. Yeah, I feel like I need to learn more about TV writers, but I wouldn’t know where to start. But then again, it’s not my industry. I don’t know. I just don’t.
Mur 42:14
Yes Ceit, I grew up in rural North Carolina. So I know exactly what you mean about being outnumbered. And I had the temerity to have a democratic sticker on my car when I was in high school. Then my car got vandalized. Good times. And people say, oh, you’re from the mountains. It’s so pretty up there. And I’m like, yeah, it is. And that’s all it’s got. It took me a long time to get comfortable going back home on a regular basis. And I own land up there now. Wonder what I’m going to do with that? Its my family’s land, so I don’t want to just sell it. Yyeah, anyway, we’re getting into inside Mur baseball kind of thing here. And where the hell is blaseball? It’s been like two and a half months. There’s a hurting country here. Hurting world and we need fake horror baseball. Seriously. Murworld says Stephen. Yes. Nobody wants to go there. It’s dark and scary there, especially right now. I mentioned the Patreon that is a thing that is happening and being a little bit revamped this year. Also, the other thing that’s not Patreon specific, but I’m going to be giving a try is I’m going to be doing a live write in and I forgot to announce this. So I hope you’re free this afternoon at two o’clock. I’m going to quit the stream in a bit, take a break and then I’ll be back. But we’ll be doing a live write in so you can drop by and hopefully turn everything off and get a little writing done. Because that’s what I had planned before things fell apart. There’s discussion about who created what in the chat about Star Trek but I’ll let you all talk amongst yourselves.
Mur 44:29
I’m gonna try the live write at 2pm eastern time today. And then at three, because I haven’t had enough in the microphone, I’m going to be recording Ditch Diggers with Matt. Finally, again. We’re doing another Ditch Diggers, finally back at it. Matt’s been working on his day job, which is computer game writing. And he’s got a second book in the Savage World series and he’s got his book, Bump, coming out this month. I need to get a copy of that. Yeah, Bump is coming out in January, I want to say 21st, whatever Tuesday is around the January 21 time is the Mexican wrestling middle grade book and called Bump. That is the book of Matt’s heart. And I’m very excited for him. So I encourage everyone to check it out. Also, I have gotten Matt to agree to a live stream of Ditch Diggers. I’m going to shoot for once a month, we’ll see how that works. So I’m going to be trying to plan something with him. Trying to solidly schedule something with him. He’s already agreed to doing it. Now we have to schedule it. So hopefully he’ll help me out with that this afternoon. Yay Ditch Diggers! Thank you Underpope. I’m excited. Tell him we are cheering him on. I will Kaykimmie. I will tell him he’s being cheered on by the fans. know he’s been stressed out and I haven’t wanted to, you know, push him too much. But this is our baby. And I like to get it back on the rails. I just made a train and a child comment. Or metaphor. Tell Matt, we say hi. Okay, Faldor. I will. I’m looking forward to doing a live stream with Matt. Hopefully, technology will agree and not fall apart. Yay, mixed metaphors. It worked. Okay. Thank you, Steven and Underpope.
Mur 46:57
I guess I’m going to take a break now. And if you want to watch me write, I don’t know why you would. But I’ll be back and writing in about half an hour. And if you’re listening to this later, I’m going to try to keep to the Thursday afternoon two o’clock schedule and see how that goes. If people like it. I will continue. I know Tish does a live write in on YouTube, but that’s very early. Very early. I wanted to ask how that’s going for her but I don’t know if she’s still around. But yeah, if you want to write then come on by. And I am going to request if we get visited by some rando who does not understand even though the topic of the stream will be live write in, minimal talking. Anybody in chat who can tell people that’d be good. Hey, Tish. It’s going good new subscribers thanks to me. Oh, thank you! Good. Do you have a big crowd for your live write ins? And any advice you got, I’ll take. Yes 5am Central Monday through Friday. You are hardcore Tish. I don’t even. Wow. What time you go to bed? That’s what I want to know. Wow 5am. And 5am to be on camera. I couldn’t do it at 8. I’m an AM writer. Okay. Good. I’m not even sure what time of day I prefer to write in. Usually it’s the time of day 30 minutes before I have to leave to go somewhere. You know, I would screw around all day and then realize that I had a half an hour before I had to go get my kid from school and then I would write a whole lot. Which is why I’ll say again, oh, thanks for subscribing Ceit. Appreciate it. Which is why I say again, that if you’re waiting for the perfect time where you’re not doing anything else to start your writing career, it’s not going to work. Because if you can’t write when you have 30 minutes, you can’t write when you have eight hours. Trust me on this. It takes the discipline that it takes to write when your life is very full. It takes the same discipline to write when your life is very empty because you will find ways to fill that time. Yes, you will. It may be Twitter. It may be laundry. It may be binge watching something. Maybe washing your mailbox, which I have done before. The mailbox was white and mildewy in my defense and gross but yes, I have procrastinated my washing my mailbox. I have. It may be children, yes. Well that’s legitimate. I don’t think taking care of children’s procrastination. That’s legit. You know I also didn’t say it like it may be food. You need to eat, you need to take care of children. That’s a thing that happens and often when people have newborns they’re just like I’m never gonna write again. I’m like no you will. They will sleep at some point, I promise. That’s an impressive level of procrastination to wash one’s mailbox. Yes, I’m very proud. I really am, quite proud. But I’m going to take a break then and put this podcast to bed.
Mur 50:54
If you want to find me online, it is murverse.com or I’m on Twitch as mightymur. Patreon mightymur. You can watch this on YouTube after the live fact on Mur Lafferty. There’s one ‘r’ in my name. Some people put two. I don’t know why. And support the Patreon, you can get into the discord. You can join our writing kick in the pants. Yeah, that’s what we’re calling it. Writing kick in the pants thing. Turn stuff off. Take care of yourself. Remember that as much as you want to remain informed there’s probably nothing you can do right now. And sometimes self care is the best thing. So if you need to turn stuff off. Because, you know, you should be writing.
Remember you can support the show at patreon.com/mightymur, jemi.app/mightymur, or ko-fi.com/mightymur.
I Should Be Writing’s theme music provided by John Anealio. You can find more about him at johnanealio.com.
Art by Numbersninja and transcription by FyreRider.
ISBW S17 Ep2: Turn It Off! by Mur Lafferty
is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
