Jerry and Rich dig into craft and momentum this week. Jerry radically rewrites Chapter 1—cutting 1,356 words to “start in the action” at the will-reading—and shares how he’ll weave those cut beats back in through interviews with conflicting POVs.

He also fixes a key scene using spatial sequence synesthesia (SSS) the right way and talks golf, APBA football, and why “body at the end of Ch. 2” now lands faster.

Rich is ~75% through his Snowflake-to-scenes outline (≈45 scenes) for Novel November, estimates an ~80k mystery, and even puts down his first 400 words (aiming for 2,000/day). He also brings a few gems from life at the library: lost AirPods sleuthing, a Medicaid look-back story, and a wheelbarrow tire that went boom.

Meanwhile, Jerry’s “Card Catalog” writing app levels up: a streamlined Story Bible with AI context via OpenRouter (hello, librarian “Rose”), per-book character assignment, and next up—plotting that flows right into drafting. Tool talk includes WaveMaker’s typewriter mode, Dave Chesson’s new self-pub course, Scrivener/Atticus, ProWritingAid/Grammarly, and why “start late, end early” just works.

No spoilers for the work-in-progress—just nuts-and-bolts process, tools, and laughs.

00:00 Cold open, theme, & A-Team on in the background
01:30 Weekly stats & why Jerry cut 1,356 words from Ch. 1
05:15 “Start late, end early” scene surgery (and moving clues into interviews)
10:40 Faster body reveal & fixing SSS (spatial sequence synesthesia) authentically
14:40 Jerry’s DIY “Card Catalog” app—AI Story Bible, OpenRouter, per-book casting
24:30 Tool talk: WaveMaker, Scrivener, Atticus, ProWritingAid, Grammarly
27:00 Rich’s 45-scene outline, 2k/day goal, first 400 words down
36:30 Library life & tech tidbits: AirPods tracking, look-back lesson, tire blowout
45:30 Golf 83, APBA football, and schedule for the week
1:03:30 Goals: halfway through edits; Rich’s Novel November push

writing podcast, indie author podcast, mystery writing, editing scenes, start late end early, scene craft, Snowflake Method, outlining beats, NaNoWriMo, Novel November, story bible, synesthesia in fiction, spatial sequence synesthesia, Scrivener, Atticus, ProWritingAid, Grammarly, WaveMaker, Dave Chesson, Kindlepreneur course, OpenRouter, AI writing tools, custom writing app, author productivity, APBA football, golf, library stories

#WritingPodcast #IndieAuthor #MysteryWriters #Editing #SceneCraft #SnowflakeMethod #NaNoWriMo #StoryBible #AuthorTools #AIforWriters

• WaveMaker (typewriter mode)

• Scrivener, Atticus, ProWritingAid, Grammarly

• Kindlepreneur / Dave Chesson – new self-publishing course

• OpenRouter – for Jerry’s AI librarian “Rose”

If this helped your writing week, follow the show on Spotify and drop a quick rating.
Questions or topic requests?

• Jerry: [email protected] • jerryevanoff.com

• Rich Kacy: [email protected] • Bluesky: @KacyHimself