The Wordy Pair Podcast

In this episode, we are starting off with a discussion on using music to inspire your writing, with our usual helping of digressions!

We talk about "The Turnaround," a technique common in certain types of writing that can make your writing more exciting if you do it right.

Then, we cover our thoughts and techniques for writing action scenes, as well as some other fun stuff!

Media mentioned: Information was kept away from most of the Umineko voice actors (contains Umineko spoilers!!!!!):

http://tinyurl.com/y4csxdhc

Our works mentioned:

The Good Guy:

https://a.co/d/ibc1reP

Old Forests and Older Things Within:

https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com/2022/12/old-forests-and-older-things-within.html

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

(Rudy)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠⁠⁠⁠

and

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn⁠

Today we're diving into the quintessential modern children's story series: Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren (yes, we get her name wrong somehow through the whole episode).

Pippi's stories are positive, imaginative, and chaotic--very different from earlier children's tales. We touch on Grimm's Fairy Tales and have a short digression into the Wizard of Oz books and their abundant nightmare fuel.

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

(Rudy)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠⁠⁠⁠

and

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn⁠

Kind of a potpourri episode this week.

We weren't quite ready to talk Pippi Longstocking, so we decided to talk a little about some of our works. We start out with a bit more on Justin's The Good Guy, then we cover:

Book Covers on a Budget

Origin Stories and the World Outside Your Story

Hard Science and Avoiding Perpetual Motion

...and more!

We discuss our works:

Jade Cargo https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com/2023/10/jade-cargo.html

Cash Marly https://open.substack.com/pub/muppy/p/cash-marly-and-the-white-child

The Button Man https://muppy.substack.com/p/the-button-man

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

(Rudy)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠⁠⁠⁠

and

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn⁠

An episode starting with two very different perspectives! Justin and Rudy have very different methods when it comes to preparing for writing a story, and they hash out their differences in this episode!

Other topics we touch upon are:

Different Kinds of Mystery Stories

The Disappearance (and Importance) of Physical Media

Avoiding Stagnation

and Justin's From-the-Hip Jump into VTubing!

Featured story is Justin's Happigo Bloodeye:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/309073

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

(Rudy)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠⁠⁠⁠

and

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn⁠

In today's episode, we talk about how to deal with distractions when you're writing. We suggest a bunch of methods to make sure you're getting stuff done!

We have a little interlude about Maurice LeBlanc and Saul Panzer, then we talk about adding layers of complexity and excitement to stories. Rudy and Justin have very different ways of doing this, so the discussion is all over the place!

We also mention a Half-Blind Review we did of Alien: Covenant, which is hilarious, and I don't feel like I'm bragging when I say that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtBMC_KwNKE

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

(Rudy)

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

and

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn

There are a lot of people who are still really low on the author tier list (like us) and lots of people who somehow manage to be lower. Join us as we go through Larry Correia's hilarious alphabetical list of author tiers!

Follow along at:

https://monsterhunternation.com/2014/07/24/the-official-alphabetical-list-of-author-success/

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

(Rudy)

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠⁠⁠⁠

and

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn

Episode 4 has us talking about our influences as writers, and a bunch of sidetracks along the way!

Plus! An extended ode to old works, and best of all, many of them are free!

Stuff mentioned:

Outopos

https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com/2023/04/outopos-short-story-about-3100-words.html

Quest of the Vampire Lords (part 1!)

https://muppy.substack.com/p/quest-of-the-vampire-lords-part-1

Dawn of Discussion (Half-Blind Review)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko8-ydecoPQ

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠

(Rudy)

⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠⁠⁠

and

⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn

Today our two indie authors Justin and Rudy discuss the wonderful source of idea seeds that are story prompts, and the upsides and downsides of using them.

Then, we share the little bit that we know about conventional publishing, along with some tips and ideas in unconventional publishing!

We mentioned Iron Age Media for short story prompts, so here's that: https://ironage.media/

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠

(Rudy)

⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠⁠

and

⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn

Today we cover the most dreaded topic of all writing: MUH THEMES! Themes are important for analysis but too many writers deliberately (and clumsily) insert way too much theme in a lot of places.

Then, we talk about inspiration and taking cues from your favorite authors! There are some who say there are really only like ten stories in all the world. We don't go along with that, so we talk about why not and discuss some stuff we've found inspiring and also some things we've read that were inspired by other works!

Also a bit of discussion on writing "for the algorithm," what that means, and what we think of it.

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠

(Rudy)

⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠

And follow us on Twitter at:

⁠https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu⁠

and

⁠https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn

Justin and Rudy talk worldbuilding in the face of a Workshop that produces Games being a jerk about its extremely derivative world that is Dark and also Grim.

Then we review The Last Theorem, a book by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl. Rudy has read it, and Justin hasn't, leading to a hilarious Half-Blind Review!

Check out our fiction at:

(Justin)

https://muppy.substack.com

(Rudy)

https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com

And follow us on Twitter at:

https://twitter.com/NinjaMouseChu

and

https://twitter.com/Rudolph_Kohn