ISBW #81 - Pre-writing writing
My daughter, the Pink Tornado, joins me for part of this episode!
Topic: front end work on a novel. Working on Voodoo Pad.
Promos: MOREVI: Remastered - 7th Heaven promo from JC Hutchins and Mur Lafferty
Feedback links: Google Notebook





Arkle | Dec 13, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for reading my e-mail on your show, but I don’t deserve the credit I got. It was actually your idea to have listeners send in NaNoWriMo stories a few podcasts back; I forget which one it was, but it was you saying it that inspired me to write that message.
Chris | Dec 14, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the advice! As it turns out, I’ve managed to narrow it down to only one major and minor since I e-mailed you. I had a feeling you’d say what you said, but I think I needed to actually hear it.
-Chris
LaShawn M. Wanak | Dec 15, 2007 | Reply
Thanks, Mur for the advice! I feel like I’m doing that now. It’s interesting–I feel like I’m writing more now that I don’t have time to squander. I do a lot of thinking in my head and when I can spare a moment to write on the story, I just do it. Thanks again!
J Hite | Dec 21, 2007 | Reply
Feed back on the feed back section and. I was driven away by the same basic thing. In high school I thought I was very good got to college and found out that no one too sci/fi and particularly the fi part of it. And that I was not very good. Wrote my ass off and was poo poo-ed, and kind of gave it up for a while. Started a family and well… Just can’t keep my fingers on the keyboard long enough to get much out now. Children are good at that. Well, I just thought I would share that your story and mine were similar. PS. I loved City Talkers. And, because it is like wining the lotto I have to say I was lucky enough to be the first commment.
Ok I am a geek.
Matthew Wayne Selznick | Dec 27, 2007 | Reply
I’ve become… a little unwillingly… a big convert to pre-writing. So many characters… so many throughlines… it’s become necessary if I want my next book to the be book it is in my head. Outlining, character sketches, research notes, all that jazz — it doesn’t always feel like writing, true, and the momentum is *very* hard to keep up, but I think, at least for some works, it’s necessary. As far as tools: Celtx (http://www.celtx.com/) is a free cross-platform outliner / text editor / Final Draft replacement that is especially nifty if you’re going to, y’know, script your novel for podcasting. For Windows only, Keynote (http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote_main.html) is a really excellent outliner with a built-in rich text editor. Hope this helps people.
RicV | Jan 11, 2008 | Reply
You talk this episode about how you had to go back and do the chore of reverse recording all you character/plot points for your series work. Have you ever tried any of the writing software packages? I look at them and not sure if the cost is justified.