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
Plug: Playing for Keeps, Geek Fu Morning Show
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8 Responses to ISBW #81 – Pre-writing writing
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New from the Murverse- ISBW Special #46 – Stonecoast Writer’s Residency January 31, 2012
- ISBW #230 – Feedback January 30, 2012
- Short Story Alert- Gimme Shelter January 27, 2012








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.
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
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!
[...] wanna hear what my voice sounds like? Head on over to the I Should Be Writing website and download episode #81. In it, Mur plays my voice mail asking for advice for writing when you have little time to do [...]
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.
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.
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.
[...] the “I should be Writing” podcast a few weeks ago, Mur Lafferty talks about pre-writing writing. It’s doing work on your book [...]