I Should Be Writing

By Mur Lafferty

"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 total... more

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325325 ratings

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FAQs about I Should Be Writing:

How many episodes does I Should Be Writing have?

The podcast currently has 475 episodes available.

I Should Be Writing episodes:

April 12, 2023[ISBW] Indestructible or Destructible?
S19 Ep15
Recorded solo, April 10, 2023

The Picasso quote that I mangled: "We artists are indestructible, even in a prison cell or a concentration camp I would be all right in my own world of art. Even if I had to paint my pictures with my tongue on the dusty floor of my cell."

It's hard to feel invincible, but we are. Remember that.

The word I was looking for to equal contagonist was Mirror Character, who is a lot like the protagonist but interferes.

AITA letter referenced ("I am a train enthusiast..." what is it with these guys and their vehicle obsession? First this guy, then the "pilot" guy...)

Links

The Hot Mic

Socials: Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate

Support via Patreon!

John Anealio on Bandcamp

I Should Be Writing tea blends

Support local book stores! Station Eternity, Six Wakes, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition and more!

OR Get signed books from my friendly local store, Flyleaf Books!

April 10, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 15 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
14min
March 22, 2023[ISBW] Little Challenges
S19 Ep14

Good News Good News

Station Eternity gets a second printing!

Chaos Terminal can be pre-ordered!

Team Rejection Count: 32

Books in the Wild

Mr & Mrs Witch by Gwenda Bond, Death Watch by Stona Fitch, Arca by G.R. Macallister

Congrats to the Nebula Award nominees

Main Topic: Challenge Me, Challenge You

Going beyond the routines now and again to keep the good habits strong

Revisiting The Morning Pages routine (from The Artist’s Way)

Links:

The Hot Mic

Socials: Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate

Station Eternity is OUT by the way.

Support via Patreon!

John Anealio on Bandcamp

I Should Be Writing tea blends

Support local book stores! Station Eternity, Six Wakes, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition and more!

OR Get signed books from my friendly local store, Flyleaf Books!

March 9, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 14 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
39min
March 21, 2023 [ISBW] Peeking At the Inner Critic
S19 Ep13 Epiphany time! The inner critic isn't as strong as we make them out to be! This one is classic recording, no livestream.
March 7, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 13 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
12min
March 20, 2023[ISBW] SB Divya Talks the SF Event Horizon
S19 Ep12

Good News Good News

Station Eternity gets a second printing!

Chaos Terminal can be pre-ordered!

Team Rejection Count: 30

Main Topic: SB Divya is here!

Divya stops by to talk about her new book, MERU

Diving into the science and physics about the universe, plus some genetic engineering

Talking with experts who can fill in the knowledge gaps for your story

Breaking the story rules can be easier in fantasy than in science fiction

Links

https://sbdivya.com

https://twitter.com/divyastweets

March 2, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 12 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
55min
March 10, 2023[ISBW] Gardening Your Writing Life
S.19 Ep.9

How quickly does a succulent grow? Does a writer grow any faster?

Links:

The Hot Mic

Socials: Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate

Station Eternity is OUT by the way.

Support via Patreon!

John Anealio on Bandcamp

I Should Be Writing tea blends

Support local book stores! Station Eternity, Six Wakes, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition and more!

OR Get signed books from my friendly local store, Flyleaf Books!

February 22, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 09 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
15min
March 09, 2023[ISBW] Realism isn't good narrative
S.19 Ep. 10 Good News Good News

Station Eternity gets a second printing!

Chaos Terminal can be pre-ordered!

Team Rejection Count: 26

Main Topic: How believable does fiction need to be?

Talking about similarly/same named characters

The decisions that go into making a story

New Lord of the Rings? Sigh.

February 23, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 10 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
25min
March 08, 2023[ISBW] Breaking the Rules
S19 Ep11 Which rules must I break, and why can't beginners break rules too? Bad news, your teachers were right. Links:

The Hot Mic

Socials: Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate

Station Eternity is OUT by the way.

Support via Patreon!

John Anealio on Bandcamp

I Should Be Writing tea blends

Support local book stores! Station Eternity, Six Wakes, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition and more!

OR Get signed books from my friendly local store, Flyleaf Books!

March 1, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 11 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
13min
February 24, 2023[ISBW] Green M&Ms and Adverbs
S19 Ep08
Good News Good News

Station Eternity gets a second printing!

Team Rejection Count: 19

Podcast transcript (zip of pdf, docx, txt files)

Main Topic: Are Adverbs Really That Bad?

About that writers advice that says “get rid of adverbs”... it goes deeper than that

Pay attention to your work, and your sentence structures

Shake the story up by making your characters want something; small or personal can be better than epic and world-shattering

Jason Pargin TikTok

Links:

The Hot Mic

Socials: Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate

Station Eternity is OUT by the way.

Support via Patreon!

John Anealio on Bandcamp

I Should Be Writing tea blends

Support local book stores! Station Eternity, Six Wakes, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition and more!

OR Get signed books from my friendly local store, Flyleaf Books!

February 16, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 08 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
30min
February 17, 2023 [ISBW] 34 Minutes
We are sponsored by Scribophile! Check out their writing classes here!

I did a Google search (uh, AFTER I recorded this,) and found that the writer I reference in this podcast is Eugene Schwartz. You can read more about his method in this post.

His magic number was 33, but I'm keeping mine at 34 because he was a copywriter and I write fiction so they're one minute different. (It's like being one louder.)

Getting bored is important to creating, except that technology has not allowed us to be bored for at least the last 15 years.

I also consider my upcoming milestone birthday.

February 16, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 07 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
17min
February 15, 2023[ISBW] Words to Throw Away
S19 Ep06

We are sponsored by Scribophile! The best place to find a writing community and join a workshop just added writers' classes, giving them another reason they're one of the best places online for writers. Check out their classes, or just to find a writing buddy, beta readers, or form your own crit group!

Good News Good News

Station Eternity gets a second printing!

Team Rejection Count: 19

Main Topic: There are No Wasted Words

Do you really need that many words before you get to the real story?

“In media res” isn’t always the best way to start the action/story

Ask questions of your characters to get going

Free writing can loosen the words/ideas

Playing with character names

Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe

All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (Edge of Tomorrow is movie adaptation)

Links:

The Hot Mic

Socials: Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate

Station Eternity is OUT by the way.

Support via Patreon!

John Anealio on Bandcamp

I Should Be Writing tea blends

Support local book stores! Station Eternity, Six Wakes, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition and more!

OR Get signed books from my friendly local store, Flyleaf Books!

February 9, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 06 | murverse.com
Copyright 2023, Mur Lafferty | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
...more
36min

FAQs about I Should Be Writing:

How many episodes does I Should Be Writing have?

The podcast currently has 475 episodes available.

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