The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Breaking the flow in writing and how it’s an annoying downward spiral

* Reading Dungeon Crawler Carl and being totally jealous of Matt Dinniman

* Borrowing the mood and vibe of existing scenes from other stories

* Bill spoils The Count of Monte Cristo, then performs a story that’s just as brilliant

* I drop a pair of philosophical bombs that will be forever debated by scholars for the ages:

* Is the best motivation for writing a book “Just because you want to”?

* Are we actually writing to express ourselves, or are we writing to connect with others and therefore share an experience with other humans?

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Disclaimer: Please don’t respond to this episode to argue with me about AI. I have zero interest in arguing it and will ignore that sort of thing. We are neither pro nor con on AI in this episode, though my natural need to see the glass as half full does try very hard to see possibilities of good. Instead of making arguments for or against emerging technologies, we are instead mainly exploring the issue on a philosophical basis, and everyone knows that philosophical discussions are infuriatingly devoid of actual conclusions and instead end with the philosophers saying, “Nothing can be known!” and then going out and getting drunk.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* What kinds of readers are there in the world? I think it’s more than most authors usually consider. Which readers are there for connection with the author’s intent, versus who simply wants the story?

* Do we write for commerce, or because we want to? (Can’t it be both?)

* Is AI a creative tool or a lurking threat? We explore some options on both sides.

* Is it possible that AI will — after some sure-to-be turbulence in the meantime — actually purify the intent of art … meaning something we create simply because we want to create it?

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Art isn’t something made by one person. Art, including books, is a collaborative medium, and depends on the reader almost as much as the author.

* We attack our frequent whipping boy: literary vs genre writing

* Inserting pop culture and personal references to our hearts’ content

* Here’s a theory: Writers should be amused by their own work. Makes it better for readers, right?

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Emma and I are finally back in the groove of writing after a long time away … and what the transition back into flow feels like.

* Working with editors and soliciting feedback … and ultimately, who are you writing for?

* Revising a completed draft and rearranging/adding scenes after the fact … and why the idea of ever doing that gives me (Johnny) chills.

* Plotting intuitively vs. overtly

* Writing and publishing as you go … sort of like what Sean and I did with Fiction Unboxed back in 2014 (on Kickstarter, before author Kickstarters were cool).

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* WE RETURN! AGAIN! Remember how on the last episode, we said, “WE RETURN!” and apologized for being gone for two months and then I said, “We’d promise not to do it again, but we absolutely will?” Well, turns out I know us well. So we started the episode by giving updates and talking about how the end of last year was weird. THIS TIME WE’RE ACTUALLY BACK. Maybe.

* Bill’s been writing and talked about the elusive “writer’s high,” which Emma and I both said we were working hard to get back, then talked about how hard it is to find that flow state again. Damn you, Bill.

* I’m impatient with worldbuilding. I didn’t realize until Emma talked about how long it takes to build worlds.

* Why live events are the best kind of book research and business work you can do as an author … kind of like less-shitty focus groups.

* We closed with the idea of being stubborn and writing what you want, as opposed to scoping the market and deciding in advance to write something that will sell. It’s all artists up in this motherfucker, so guess which way we leaned on that one?

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* WE RETURN! Sorry it’s been like 2 months since we recorded last. Life got in the way. We’d promise not to do it again but we absolutely will.

* Big creative leaps across the board since our last recording! Mike published his “memoir in verse,” Second Half. Bill’s still writing the story that’s been in his head forever. Emma was absent this week, but … yeah, I’m sure she did stuff, too.

* After hearing the all-over-the-place way Bill’s been writing, I couldn’t help but compare it to the COMPLETELY OPPOSITE way that I work, and am currently working with Sean Platt’s and my forthcoming Unicorn Heathens. I have to go from A to Z. Nothing changes orders. Ever. We talked a bit about process linearity, but then dove into …

* I’ve gotten into songwriting, in addition to book-writing. The story of why and how is here. But it’s interesting how the two are similar, and how I’m finding myself completely comfortable with writing song lyrics at the same time as I’m brand new and uncomfortable. It’s interesting.

* The clip of Bob Schneider talking about the song camp and how awesome I am is on this episode of his podcast with Clint Wells. The interesting part begins at time index 18:15.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* I’m currently recording the audiobook of The Artisan Author (check it out here before it ends, if you’re a writer) — stories of recording foibles abound.

* Mike and I talked about the nebulous ideas of “the need to express oneself” and “refilling the creative well.” Both sound pretentious … and both are very real.

* I shared a “keeping track of the story” metaphor I haven’t talked much about before … that of “raking everything constantly back to the center.” (Stephen King doesn’t rake. He sets off bombs.

* And finally, I buried the lede with Mike by casually mentioning my return to the Unicorn Western story world — something I thought he knew, but that was instead an underwhelming announcement.

This week’s episode isn’t actually an episode of the ODBC! I thought I’d share it here, though, because I think faithful One Drink Book Club listeners would enjoy it.

Back in the long-long ago, I used to be on one of the first major self-publishing podcasts … early enough, in fact, that we simply called ourselves “The Self Publishing Podcast.” It was me and two fun, irreverent partners: Sean Platt and David Wright.

And guys, we had SO MUCH FUN on that show. It wasn’t just us, either; it was the audience that made it fun as well. We had a great community … and doing the Kickstarter for The Artisan Author (which is still going for just a bit longer, by the way) got me thinking about that old show and community. So I pitched Sean and Dave on doing a single “reunion episode of SPP” … and this is it.

OH! And if you’d prefer the video version of this show, it’s here.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We opened by talking about my thinking about the “college” portion of my current Kickstarter campaign for The Artisan Author. The short version is that college is cool and we should all watch more 80s movies about it. (Or, rather, the short version is that you should check it out here before it ends, if you happen to be a writer.)

* Do kids still read? If yes, how and how much do they read? And do they (as well as adults, really) take IDENTITY from their reading?

* Bill took us down a weird rabbit hole wherein he’s reading only parts of his favorite book out of order … and how the dissection ruined it, but not for the reasons that sound obvious as you read this sentence.

* Which led to a fascinating chat about how all kinds of art are collaborative, meaning that the creator can’t control at least half of the experience … which depends on what the reader/observer/listener/consumer brings to that art. This one was such a cool thread that it will be our topic for next time!

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Mike, who just finished a poetry book he’s been working on, said he didn’t feel excitement or happiness on finishing … just sort of done. We talked about the “finishing the project” vibes and the oddity of it, seeing as I feel the same.

* Reliving the writing and editing of my very first book (The Bialy Pimps), I regaled the others with stories of how self-indulgent the first draft was, and how I fixed it.

* When is it true that theres’s “too much of the author in a book,” and how can you tell?

* I then dropped a BIG OL’ BTS EXCLUSIVE: A story about The Bialy Pimps’s early draft and exactly what I removed because it was so personal, it made for terrible reading. You’ll hear a scoop I’ve literally never shared before, about those early drafts, what I cut from them, and the true of this particular writer’s earliest working days.