I Should Be Writing

By Mur Lafferty

Arts Literature

What's I Should Be Writing about?

The podcast for wanna-be fiction writers

4.5

272 ratings

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[ISBW] Fire Up the Idea Mac...

07.30.2021

As a device-addicted person, please know this podcast is not from some high and mighty mountain, but somewhere right beside you in addicted-land. I got up this morning and put my tablet AND switch inside my lockbox. Too much to ...

I Should Be Writing episodes:

07.30.2021 [ISBW] Fire Up the Idea Machine As a device-addicted person, please know this podcast is not from some high and mighty mountain, but somewhere right beside you in addicted-land. I got up this morning and put my tablet AND switch inside my lockbox. Too much to ...
07.27.2021 [ISBW] Tobias Buckell and the Author Stock Market So happy to have Tobias Buckell back to the show to talk about how careers aren't necessarily a straight line! Twitch news:Streams are canceled for the near future because I'm taking some time off for vacation and birthday and stuff. ...
07.21.2021 [ISBW] To Be Nice, Or Not? I've been hammered with good and bad news this week and I'm kind of shell shocked. So this is a bit rambling. You've been warned. Don't forget to watch livestreams on Twitch.tv/mightymur! I'm planning a birthday stream, but I don't ...
07.20.2021 [ISBW] OP MCs or Mary Sues Bypassing the fact that a lot of people think that competent women are Mary Sues, we talk about what happens when your characters ARE overpowered, and how to handle their conflicts. Check murverse.com for livestream times and more! I Should ...
07.18.2021 [ISBW] Back from travel: Sundries and Birthdays I'm behind on posting these, but this was right after we got back from our Buffalo trip to see the in-laws for the first time since Christmas, '19. I'm a bit scattered but I'm here!
07.01.2021 [ISBW] The Confidence Game Confidence is definitely a fake it till you make it game. Later we talk grudges and their worth. Join us on the next livestream!
06.30.2021 [ISBW] Self Sabotage I've been trying to figure out why I'm balking at doing my best with everything I do. I think I've discovered some self sabotage behind my fear reactions to things.
06.23.2021 [ISBW] This Is A Test I'm not ashamed to say that I am stuck in my WiP, and I'm asking the audience what they've learned from me to help me get over this hump, because, honestly, it helps to hear it from someone else.
06.21.2021 [ISBW] Who Is the Monster? Why are some writers judged for the monsters they create and others aren't? But it goes beyond creating a monster inside your book.
06.16.2021 [ISBW] Repetition Sometimes the best lessons need to be taught again and again. At least, they do for me, so I'm sharing with you.
06.12.2021 [ISBW] Point of View It was a weird day. I talked about POV and the like. All streams, June 14-19 -- please note nonstandard times in bold: 6.14 (M) 1:00, Live Writing for Extra Life, Audience Participation 6.15 (T) 3:00, I Should Be Writing ...
06.10.2021 [ISBW] Case for Bad Writing "I should be writing" is what people say, but they rarely do it. This podcast is designed to help you get past those blocks, whether it's what your teacher told you when you were a kid, to being totally sure ...
06.07.2021 [ISBW] Mythbusting Look, let's be honest. Finishing a book and turning it in may not feel awesome. It may feel draining and depressing. And when you're told you SHOULD be happy, you wonder what the heck is wrong with you. Spoiler- Nothing ...
06.06.2021 [ISBW] Persistence and Gardens It's a weird thing, realizing that persistence is simply the art of managing boredom. And it's really hard to be bored right now.
06.05.2021 [ISBW] ADHD Revisited I'm reading The Disorganized Mind and trying to think of some new ways to deal with ADHD and how it affects my writing. In other news, I've been thinking about my stream, and how the Monday AMA is not really ...
05.26.2021 [ISBW] Audience Choice Support the Patreon for a longer, unedited version of the show! I took much more of an emotional hit this week than I thought, and so I leave the topics up to the chat. But we also talk self care. ...
05.25.2021 [ISBW] Children, Learn from My Mistakes Well, I have redundant backups, and yet I STILL lost something. So we go over some things to keep in mind when you are thinking about your writing and not necessarily the health of your computer. May 24 - May ...
05.24.2021 [ISBW] The Larpening Last day on Role Playing a writer's life.
05.12.2021 [ISBW] LARPing 2 with Jennifer Udden By popular demand we bring you Jennifer Udden, my former agent, current friend, and freelance editor! We attempt more LARPing but overall just chat. NOTE, my producer usually cuts out the interaction with the live chat to make for a ...
05.10.2021 [ISBW] LARPing a Confident Writer Confidence is one of those weird emotions you can fake until you make it. So if we're pretending to be a confident writer, what else can we pretend to be? We begin the Save the Cat! beat sheet as a ...
05.05.2021 [ISBW] Talking About Money What happens when you start making money with writing? We're talking advances, accountants, the sought for "six figure deal" and more. You may not be making money now, but you probably intend to. So let's talk about what people usually ...
05.03.2021 [ISBW] Why Are Habits So Hard? 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?
04.27.2021 [ISBW] Flawed Characters 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.
04.25.2021 [ISBW] How To Pro We're all imposters, no matter what you think. Trust me. All of us.
04.23.2021 [ISBW] Calling All Imposters! 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 ...
04.17.2021 [ISBW] NEWS and Audience Choice 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!
04.12.2021 [ISBW] Avoiding Cliches It's easy to slip into stereotypes when you are writing someone different from yourself. I have some thoughts on how to avoid that.
04.10.2021 [ISBW] Bad Advice Aside from bringing the Internet down on your head when you say stuff like horror can't be in space, blanket advice is harmful in other ways, too.
04.09.2021 [ISBW] Fear Is Like the Wind or Something 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! ...
04.08.2021 [ISBW] Writing Is Like Running, Except When It's Not Practice and expectation of improvement are similar components between writing and running, but there's a big difference.
04.07.2021 [ISBW] Staying Monogamous to WIP 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 ...
03.19.2021 [ISBW] Mitsakes adn Fialures We are supposed to learn from mistakes, so why are we so hard on ourselves when we make them? Donations benefitting the Trevor Project.
03.18.2021 [ISBW] Delicious Conflict Parfait Conflict shows us how people relate to each other, much better than a bad day will. Conflicts include everything from an injury, lack of sleep, to fights with significant others, rude folks on the road, and then the big one ...
03.12.2021 [ISBW] How, Exactly, Do I Find Time To Write? After 20 years I've finally figured out how to find that elusive time to write. And the reason I never found it before was because finding time, or making time, is more challenging than people say it is. Sure, OK, ...
03.11.2021 [ISBW] Who Do You Trust? There is a lot of contradictory advice on the internet. Even the same articles/lists will have contradictory advice. And when are looking for specific advice, the pithy "Do this, no, wait, don't do this" blog posts are infuriating. So how ...
03.10.2021 [ISBW] Debuting In Covid with SB Divya I'm delighted to welcome interviews back to ISBW with my good friend SB Divya. She's my co-editor on Escape Pod, but her first full-length novel, Machinehood, came out in March! We talk about how that's exciting and what it's like ...
03.09.2021 [ISBW] My Novel's Done, Now What? Once you're done with your novel or story, what do you do? Edits? Submissions? Beta readers? Go to murverse.com for full show notes.
02.25.2021 [ISBW] Novel Structure People talk about character and plot and climax, but no one covers how novel structure is needed to put it all together. SPOILERS for A Song of Ice and Fire Series and the Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin. Get ...
02.24.2021 [ISBW] Audience Choice Had a personal emergency and was unprepared, so the audience and Twitter questions keep me going! Get the extended version of this podcast via Patreon!
02.22.2021 [ISBW] Poor Little Rich Writer Every few years there's a very concerned think piece about the innocent writer who got a six figure advance and blew it all, or sold zero books, or just felt betrayed by publishing, and I am sick of it. If ...
02.16.2021 Notebooks: Do you have a problem? Ohhhh... pretty notebooks. Mentioned: Moleskine Leuchtturm 1917 The Artist's Way Field Notes Passion Economy Podcast JetPens I Should Be Writing Ink Stained Fabulists Community
02.13.2021 Why Do I Hate Editing? I have three projects going on right now that need edits, and for the next two months I'm going to be doing this thing that I HATE. So let's go into why, and how.
02.07.2021 Timeline of a Novel I talk about my books from initial concept all the way through to the end, both Six Wakes and my current WiP.
02.05.2021 Language of Hope with Alasdair Stuart I'm thrilled to welcome my good friend and Very Smart British Person Alasdair Stuart to the show to talk about, if we can weaponize language, how do we use it for hope?
02.04.2021 Characters' Wants and Needs "Your character must want something, even if it's a glass of water!" Characters must always have wants, but it takes a bit more work to think about what they need, and more importantly, when in the story for them to ...
02.03.2021 Productivity (OR Mommy and Daddy are Fighting!) I look at two productivity methods and am entirely flummoxed by the two that seem at odds with each other: the 10X Rule that suggests if you shoot for 10X your goal you won't necessarily make 10X, but you'll very ...
01.23.2021 Dropping Truth Bombs "I should be writing" is what people say, but they rarely do it. This podcast is designed to help you get past those blocks, whether it's what your teacher told you when you were a kid, to being totally sure ...
01.22.2021 Real Talk, Get to Work Had a talk with someone last week that didn't go the way I'd hoped, and I'm forced to start looking at my habits a little closer.
01.21.2021 Weaponizing Language I did want to talk about the power of language again this month, but I did not expect the president to whip his fans into a fury with some very amazing weaponized language, so this topic hit a little close ...
01.13.2021 Turn It Off I found it very hard to concentrate after the events of January 6, so I realized that in order to get work done, I had to do some self care and turn it off. News, social media, the whole world ...

Older episodes

I Should Be Writing

What's I Should Be Writing about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

I Should Be Writing episodes:

[ISBW] Fire Up the Idea Machine

[ISBW] Tobias Buckell and the Author Stock Market

[ISBW] To Be Nice, Or Not?

[ISBW] OP MCs or Mary Sues

[ISBW] Back from travel: Sundries and Birthdays

[ISBW] The Confidence Game

[ISBW] Self Sabotage

[ISBW] This Is A Test

[ISBW] Who Is the Monster?

[ISBW] Repetition

[ISBW] Point of View

[ISBW] Case for Bad Writing

[ISBW] Mythbusting

[ISBW] Persistence and Gardens

[ISBW] ADHD Revisited

[ISBW] Audience Choice

[ISBW] Children, Learn from My Mistakes

[ISBW] The Larpening

[ISBW] LARPing 2 with Jennifer Udden

[ISBW] LARPing a Confident Writer

[ISBW] Talking About Money

[ISBW] Why Are Habits So Hard?

[ISBW] Flawed Characters

[ISBW] How To Pro

[ISBW] Calling All Imposters!

[ISBW] NEWS and Audience Choice

[ISBW] Avoiding Cliches

[ISBW] Bad Advice

[ISBW] Fear Is Like the Wind or Something

[ISBW] Writing Is Like Running, Except When It's Not

[ISBW] Staying Monogamous to WIP

[ISBW] Mitsakes adn Fialures

[ISBW] Delicious Conflict Parfait

[ISBW] How, Exactly, Do I Find Time To Write?

[ISBW] Who Do You Trust?

[ISBW] Debuting In Covid with SB Divya

[ISBW] My Novel's Done, Now What?

[ISBW] Novel Structure

[ISBW] Audience Choice

[ISBW] Poor Little Rich Writer

Notebooks: Do you have a problem?

Why Do I Hate Editing?

Timeline of a Novel

Language of Hope with Alasdair Stuart

Characters' Wants and Needs

Productivity (OR Mommy and Daddy are Fighting!)

Dropping Truth Bombs

Real Talk, Get to Work

Weaponizing Language

Turn It Off

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