Chuck and Josh sit down to talk about challenging yourself and increasing your productivity.

Hosts: Josh Hayes, C. Steven Manley

00:00 Opening remarks

-Discord server is up!

https://discord.com/invite/t96CVRD

-Keystroke Coffee is live!

https://keystrokemedium.com/product/keystroke-coffee/

08:30 Weekly update—Shut the Hell Up! Edition

Josh: Still working on the first Tranquility novel before it goes off to the editor at around 100-120k; the longest single book Josh has worked on. Working on a new project and attempting dictation starting out ideas and ready to attempt dictation. Started with ‘pre-work’ and became drafting.

Kevin J. Anderson’s On Being a Dictator: Using Dictation to Be a Better Writer (Million Dollar Writing Series)

https://amzn.to/39Lo8C7

Olympus recorder being used

https://amzn.to/2JLGasN

Chuck:  Working on Jack Dark #2 and avoiding COVID-19.

21:15 Main Event— LIVE! Challenging Yourself

-Chuck’s biggest hurdle is distraction and he’s cut away distraction like entertainment links, and using the Freedom App.

https://freedom.to

-Locks up the first half of the day for writing.

-Gets frustrated easily but trying to go with the flow.

-Getting caught up on chasing the latest ‘shiny’.

-Josh working on multiple projects increases his productivity as well as reading every day.

Reading Robert McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting

https://amzn.to/36Ny8Zv

-Trying to do iterative outline drafts to understand the point of a scene while writing dialogue.

-Aaron Sorkin’s scene process.

-Dictation as a great way of working out both sides of an argument.

-Reading Sgt. David Bellavia’s House to House: A Soldier’s Memoir for mining ideas and ‘feel’.

https://amzn.to/3lQdNHn

-Reading Jack Carr’s Terminal List: A Thriller

https://amzn.to/36LzDYc

-Index shooting.

-Breaks a lot of the storytelling rules.

-Taking your ego out of the equation and figuring out what your readers want.

-Josh paneled a military science fiction for SFFCon and a podcast with Mark Lefebvre

http://markleslie.ca

-Feedback for creativity and productivity.

-Being motivated by a community of readers and authors.

-Ex. Chuck stopped his Storyshop podcast because of lack of ideas and feedback.

-Using a ‘virtual office’ to motivate you to write (peer pressure).

1:01:10 Closing remarks

Coffee and Concepts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRuoHj6opw0

Writer’s Journey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydLaFFntB4Q

Storytelling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYRzwuQeK9Q

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