The R.M. Landry Podcast

Episode 1

RM Landry gets nerdy about craft without ever sounding dusty. He frames his writing process as a mix of seat-of-the-pants intuition and a root-cause-analyst’s appetite for cause and effect: he sets plausible conditions, then follows the messy human dominoes. He talks about character surprises — the delicious moments when a line or decision appears that even he didn’t predict — and uses a concrete example from Anastasium to show how family echoes can explode onto the page. He’s candid about whom he actually roots for (Ana, not Joe) and why: Ana’s arc of trauma to rebirth — a Phoenix Rising, as he puts it — gives him emotional investment and drives the narrative stakes. He also explains how varying choices (light branch vs dark branch) create texture and avoid cliché, and how intuition fills the gaps when multiple paths seem believable. The tone is conversational and wry, like a chat over coffee where craft talk meets existential musing and occasional self-aware chuckles.

Takeaways:

• He switched from nonfiction and technical writing to fiction after a NaNoWriMo whim, when an opening scene whooshed into his head.
• He writes as a pantser, literally by the seat of his pants, letting characters surprise him and derail his neat plans.
• His craft borrows cause-and-effect thinking from quality root cause analysis to set believable chains of choices and consequences.
• He admits Joe becomes unpleasant while Ana grows into the story's heart, a phoenix-like transformation that stole the narrative.
• He says fiction helps him explore human complexity and invite a little compassion without excusing truly rotten behavior.
• He closes informally, inviting listeners to ask about creativity, process, and the writing industry so they can poke his brain.

Keywords: RM Landry podcast, RM Landry interview, fiction writing process, how to write fiction, pantser writing tips, NaNoWriMo advice, character development techniques, creating believable characters, cause and effect storytelling, root cause analysis in writing, writing character arcs, developing protagonists, Anastasium novel, Ana protagonist analysis, exploring existential themes in fiction, transitioning from nonfiction to fiction, technical writer to novelist, writing by the seat of your pants, Phoenix rising character arc, podcast about writing craft