S21 Ep4: Taking a Machete to Creative Blocks with Premee Mohamed

"My characters would be wandering around the field with me going like, hey, I just found a rare orchid." -Premee Mohamed

(This post went live for supporters on March 21, 2025. If you want early, ad-free, and sometimes expanded episodes, support at Patreon or Substack!)

(recorded February) In this episode we welcome prolific, brilliant Premee Mohamed, a Nebula and Aurora award-winning author to talk about her new book, One Message Remains.

. We explore the process of creating clean first drafts, the chaos of deadlines, and the balance between creativity and productivity. And why the cat needs a job.

Premee shares the challenges of producing multiple works in a year and the strategies she employs to keep her creativity flowing. We cover outlining techniques and the importance of not being precious about the writing process.

Transcript

Links

• Premee Mohamed
• One Message Remains
• Premee's Patreon
• Psychopomp Press
• Tor.com
• Hugo Awards
• Aurora Awards

Evergreen Links

• See all books from Season 21
• Like the podcast? Get the book! I Should Be Writing.
• My newsletter, The Hot Mic, and the community of Fabulists over at Patreon. Supporting either of those will get you perks like access to the discord, exclusive content, and early, ad-free episodes.
• Socials: Bluesky, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate
• Theme by John Anealio
• Savor 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!

In case it wasn't clear: Mur and this podcast are fully supportive of LGBTQ+ folks, believe that Black Lives Matter, and trans rights are human rights, despite which direction the political winds blow. If you do not agree, then there are plenty of other places to go on the Internet. —

"Taking a Machete to Creative Blocks with Premee Mohamed" is brought to you in large part by my supporters, the Fabulists, who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon or Substack!

Some of the links above may be affiliate, allowing you to support the show at no extra cost to you. Also consider leaving a review for ISBW, please!

CREDITS Theme song by John Anealio, art by Numbers Ninja,and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon. March 24, 2025 | Season 21 Ep 4 | murverse.com "Taking a Machete to Creative Blocks with Premee Mohamed" by Mur Lafferty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0