Our forbearing Hosts/Authors Steve Diamond and Larry Correia so love our listeners that they will even hold their noses and wade into the Twitterverse to dredge up more bad writing advice to mock and ridicule for your amusement and edification.
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This week’s episode is sponsored by Stephanie Osborn’s Division One: the Bounty Game
In Agent Omega’s worldview, certain things simply were not possible.
And the claim of this tall, imposing alien woman calling herself Myclestra, that she came from another universe, was impossible. Worse yet, Myclestra claimed to be a bounty hunter tracking an evil shape-shifting perpetrator who wielded real, powerful, world-shattering…magic. Not simple cantrips, but wizardry that could destroy a world…or a galaxy.
But as terrible as her perp was, it was the gigantic sword slung over Myclestra’s back that was the true threat to everything Echo and Omega strove to protect. A five-foot-long blade, forged from the heart of a neutron star, crowned with a hilt of fabulous gems and precious metals. A sword literally haunted by a spirit that could be the end of Galactic civilization in the entire Milky Way…and more.
Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3BAhNY1 (affiliate link)
Don’t downplay the “selling my sexuality” line. Remember the “gamergate” phenomenon was started in reaction to a game developer who’d been forced to sell sexual favors to get her game reviewed. The “scandal” was really the journalists closing ranks to ensure they weren’t punished and it could continue. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this was a real call for help that agents (and, as we found during #MeToo, seemingly the biggest “feminists” are a big part of this) are pressuring female authors to exchange sexual favors to get representation. I don’t think it’s true, or a good public image, to assume it’s a marketing call that she’s willing to do it.
If someone is struggling to dig themselves out of writer burnout, Becca Syme has some really good resources. Becca is a writing coach (yes, I know, but have patience here), and her focus is on strengths: not just how we work or what we do “right” or “wrong,” but why. She has a book on burnout and some episodes on her QuitCast (freely available on YouTube) that can help. It’s a “Writer, know thyself!” kind of resource.
As far as word counts go, I don’t set daily word count goals; I set scenes per writing day per project goals, then track word counts so I know I’m making progress. I write far, far more when I set scene/day goals than word count goals. But I always know how many words I’m getting in, how many words I need in order to hit project deadlines, how many words long each project should be, etc. There’s no more useful metric for progress than word counts, but it’s not how I set my daily goals.
Was there some reason that there was 10 minutes of silence after the end of the episode, at least on iTunes?
Yes
It’s not a GOOD reason, but it’s a reason….
When I go through an episode the first time, I clip small bits that have the potential to be used for the stinger at the end of the episode and stick them on the end so I can choose the best when I get there. In this particular case, I had a rogue one hide out five minutes past the end of the episode- I was busy doing my day job, working on stuff for the next swag shop opening, and trying to help boost the signal for Larry’s In Defense of the Second Amendment book (Pre-order now! https://amzn.to/3Q1IIjR) so I had to rush to get the episode done at all.
The funny thing about word counts is, I’m just beginning so I’m not yet setting goals, but I do find if my short stories aren’t around 4-8 kwords, they’re missing stuff. And the ones that hit the 8k end are also the ones where I’ve got two separate threads going.
The one that the first version was only 3k, turned out to need major PoV surgery. After surgery, it was about 4k.
The current one, I’m about 3.8k in and have about three more scenes, so it will probably be about 4.5k-5k, but I know there are spots that need more, so it will probably grow to about 6k in the end, which fits the pattern, since its a 1.5 thread type story. (Thread B is a character has gone full human missile. Main thread is the rest of the characters trying to figure out what happened and head it off before someone gets reduced to irregularly sized cubes.)
So even though I’m not specifically working to word counts yet, I’m still finding them an incredibly useful measuring stick.
So what you’re trying to say is that crowd sourcing for wisdom via randos on the internet isn’t that wise? I’m shocked! I need to lay down for a little bit…
That said, it turns out many (most?) “professional” advice isn’t that good either. For every BYU Creative Writing class taught by Sanderson there’s probably half a dozen like our local college’s Creative Writing course. That one is taught by someone who has one published work credited to their name, and they are the editor not a writer. For extra spiciness, if you look at reviews of the book the number one complaint people have is bad editing.
That’s a rambling way to say, thank you Larry and Steve for taking the time to give good advice.