The Writ Wit

In this episode, the two Matts celebrate Matt David's long-awaited return, advertise a zoo housing writers of various kinds, misspeak and dig ourselves in deep, deep holes, and talk about the suspense/thriller genre and how to write it. How many subgenres are there in the thriller genre? How can a writer build good tension? What are the ways the characters can remain constantly on the edge? What the heck is "romantic thriller" and can we please get some examples?! We discuss it all, racing down the street in a high-octane chase, and talk about the works of Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, and Clive Cussler. (it seems a lot of suspense/thriller writers have surnames beginning with a hard "C" sound. Maybe that's the trick?)

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

Also, the jungle-sounding track at the beginning is "Inca Empire" by Derek and Brandon Fiechter.

In this episode, Matt David has one more week left before his glorious return, so Matt Donald invites the other Christina of the show Christina Franklin to do another episode in his absence. There, we try our best to work around baby noises in the background, reminisce on recording the episode yesterday before we had to re-record today, congratulate Matt Donald for encountering a guy in an online game with a username named after Megazoic's main character (true story), and talk about inspirational works. What are the best ways to inspire people? What are the different types of writing one can use for such an endeavor? When is it inspirational and when is it just preachy? And seriously, how in the world is someone's username on an online game named after a Megazoic character already?! We discuss it all, with spirit-lifting voices to truly encourage our listeners, and talk about Redeeming Love, Left Behind, Eyes of the Past, and Megazoic again. 

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

Special thanks to Christina Franklin for helping out with this episode.

In this episode, Matt David is still taking care of personal matters we mentioned in Episode 43, so Matt Donald brings Christina Eilert back again for another episode. We sell a product that lengthens or constricts story length, get caught up with semantics about certain monster characters, compare significant others to Hugh Jackman, and talk about horror and why it's so pants-wettingly, scream-bloodily, teeth-chatteringly hard to write. What makes an effective scare? How broad or specific of fears should horror writers cater toward? What other emotions other than fear are good ones for readers of horror to feel? How is Christina not permanently psychologically damaged after the prank her husband did to her once in the shower? We discuss it all, looking over our shoulders in dread the whole time, and talk about Jaws, Frankenstein, Jurassic Park, and Van Helsing for some reason.

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

Special thanks to Christina Eilert for helping out with this episode.

In this episode, Matt David is taking a break due to stuff we mentioned in the last episode, so Matt Donald invited Christina Eilert back on the show to do the next episode in our set of "why is [blank] so hard to write?" We bring back a favorite character from a previous skit, get interrupted by a dog a few times, get a surprise call near the end and have the caller participate, and talk about romance and why it's so dang difficult to write. What are the traps romance stories often fall into? What makes a romance good and healthy, and what makes it destructive? What are some of our favorite fictional romances? How much did Matt Donald say he'd edit versus how much did he ACTUALLY edit? We discuss it all, with hearts in our eyes and butterflies in our stomachs, and talk about Outlander, The Office, Friends, and Harry Potter.

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

Special thanks to Christina Eilert for helping out with this episode. Also, the mystical-sounding track that plays at the beginning is "Runaway" by Sergey Gol

In this episode, the two Matts take a whole different turn due to several tragic, unforeseen circumstances that have hit both of us in the past week, keep some tissue boxes on the ready just in case, still joke around a bit because that's who we are, and talk about grief and how to best write during it and about it. What are the best ways to describe grief, now that both of us have recently experienced it? What are the best ways to channel one's own grief while writing? How can people deal with their own grief in other, non-writing ways? How the heck did Matt Donald get drunk off of chocolate milk once WITHOUT it being spiked? We discuss it all, with a more somber tone than usual, and pay our respects to William Seivert, Allen Hall, Penny the Cockatiel, and Dani the Golden Retriever. May all of you rest in peace.

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

In this episode, the two Matts host an open-mic standup gig, confuse the term "Florence Nightingale effect" for something else, watch a crap-ton of shows during a break, and talk about comedy and why it's so gosh-dang hard to write, like we're somehow experienced to talk about such a thing. How can one make comedy come naturally to them? Are there any hard-and-fast rules about what's funny and what's not? How can one refine their humor techniques? Why is Matt Donald's audio ever-so-slightly grainier than usual, despite using the same microphone and audio setup as always? We discuss it all, while wiping away tears of laughter the whole way through, and talk about Ultraman again, older versions of Megazoic again, Horizon Zero Dawn, and standup specials on Netflix and Hulu.

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

SPOILERS for Horizon Zero Dawn from 14:40-17:40

In this episode, the two Matts advertise an instant-author-experience sweepstakes that's totally not a thinly-veiled excuse for Matt Donald to rant, learn a little bit about Shakespeare's role in the history of the English language, edit in bits from the future during the editing process, and talk about epilogues and how to best use them. What can an epilogue bring to the conclusion of a story? When is it an epilogue and not simply the falling action? When are they necessary, if ever? How long would Matt Donald have gone with that purple kumquat joke if Matt David hadn't incessantly told him to shut up and stop? We discuss it all, capping off this series of episodes like a good epilogue should, and talk about Harry Potter, the works of Tolkien, and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds for some reason.

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

In this episode, the two Matts realize the recurring pattern of favoritism present in our opening skits, wonder if books should have blank pages specifically meant to be cut out for origami, talk about Matt Donald's StarFest venture that was recorded before it happened (spoilers: it went well) and talk about ancillary materials in books, such as forwards, appendices, fanfics, adaptations, and such. What is the best way to insert these into books? What makes them good rather than unnecessary? What can be learned from other examples of these? Will Matt David ever let Matt Donald talk, even though he didn't have much to say about this? We discuss it all, with an explanation of how we did it in the back pages, and talk about the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, J.K. Rowling, and Matthew Donald. Hey, that last one sounds familiar...

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

In this episode, the two Matts relax at a pub and play a simple and completely accessible game of Mischancism, recall all the various other professions they tried before settling on writing, save the world from a giant space-face, and talk about interludes and how one might weave them into the narrative of their stories. What exactly defines an interlude? How different should they be from the rest of the story's structure? When are they necessary, and when can they just be replaced with a perspective change? How many interludes can Matt Donald force into the episode just to beef up the episode's runtime? We discuss it all, with a pace and focus as straight as an arrow, and talk about Man of Steel, Iron Man, BIONICLE, and an older version of Megazoic that our listeners undoubtedly haven't read nor have any idea of what we're talking about when referencing it.

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.

In this episode, the two Matts sing praises to a legendary writer who wrote a 50k-word story in less than ten minutes, gush about dinosaur anime, slowly build up hype for the final Megazoic book, and talk about writing prologues in the first of a set about outside-of-narrative sections in stories. Are prologues really necessary most of the time? When do they add meaningful content? When would they be the most useful to the narrative? Will Matt Donald recover after his random coughing fit at the end of the episode? We discuss it all, after thoroughly explaining the origins of the fantasy universe before the story even begins, and talk about Lord of the Rings, Ultraman, Sim Theme Park for some reason, and Megazoic: An Era's End, soon to be released! (foghorn sound effect)

Have any feedback or questions for our hosts? Email us at [email protected]. Also you can purchase Matt Donald's book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, or its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here. If you'd like, of course.