The most recent "Main Character" on Writing Twitter was the woman who flat out said horror can't happen in space. If the story is in space, no matter how scary, it's automatically science fiction.

This means space beats zombies, if you're keeping score.

Now, aside from bringing the Internet down on your head when you say stuff like this, blanket advice is harmful in other ways, too.

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April 6, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 24 (Ep 575) | murverse.com Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

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! Or part of one, anyway. (I wrote one of the Minecraft novels!)

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Practice and expectation of improvement are similar components between writing and running, but there's a big difference.

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March 23, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 22 (Ep 573) | murverse.com Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

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 from a newbie to a pro feels this. But the question is, what do you do when you feel like that?

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Latest Twitch/YouTube stream times (EST):

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March 18, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 21 (Ep 572) | murverse.com Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

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• Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming: Skyrim
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March 16, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 20 (Ep 571) | murverse.comCopyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

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 with the meteor coming to the earth. The worse the day is, the more we learn about the character and what matters to them.

March 11, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 19 (Ep 570) | murverse.com Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

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, "make time" -- but HOW?

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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 do you know who to trust when it comes to looking for advice?

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March 4, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 17 (Ep 568) | murverse.com | Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

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 to have a debut during Covid.

Get the extended version of this podcast via Patreon!

• SB Divya's Home Page
• Buy Machinehood now!
• Escape Pod
• Podcastle (Winner of the 2020 British Fantasy Award in the Best Audio category! Congrats!)
• Escape Artist's Twitch Stream
• Worldbuilders' Twitch Stream
• I Should Be Writing Ink Stained Fabulists Community
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March 2, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 16 (Ep 567) | murverse.com Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

• Dongwon Song's Newsletter 
• Agent Talk (I mistakenly call it Ask an Agent in the audio)
• Fancy water bottle
• Jennifer Udden's Newsletter 
• Absolute Write 
• Snowflake Method 
• Query Shark 
• Becky Chambers 
• Submission Grinder 
• Duotrope 

• Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout
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• Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming: Stardew Valley
• Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

February 23, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 15 (Ep 566) | murverse.com Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License