a podcast about writing, work, and friendship
We are going full-clickbait with this question in Episode 49, which you can listen to here, or on your favorite podcast aggregator.
We answer that question, and then turn to a discussion of what we’re loving about this podcast and our friendship. Finally, we finish up with our recent branding decisions – new colors and typefaces. We hope you like it, but let us know what you think!
Episode 47 is up, and we’re talking about when you know it’s time to move on, and why quitting isn’t always a bad thing. Listen and check out the full show notes here, or in your favorite podcast app. And let us know — how do you feel about letting go? What are your favorite resources for tapping into intuition?
This week, we spend some time checking in with each other on our writing, and answer a couple of listeners’ questions about whether or not we’re doing National Novel Writing Month. Then, we wrap up with a discussion of a speech by Ursula K. LeGuin and what it could mean for writers with day jobs. Check out the episode and full show notes here, and remember to rate and review (and subscribe) in your favorite podcast app.
Comment your own writing update here on this post!
We’re wrapping up our regular shows for a few months to take the summer off! We’ll still release a new interview each month, and we cannot wait to share those with you — they’re really delightful, and chock full of pep talks — but we won’t be doing any more weekly episodes until September.
We’re also ending the writing prompt series for now, but will keep thinking about other ways to share. Let us know if you have ideas!
Finally, we check in with how we are doing about our goals and what our summers are going to look like. We’d love to hear your plans for the summer, too.
You can see the complete show notes here, as well as listen to the episode. It’s also available wherever you get your podcasts (except Spotify. We’re not big enough for Spotify).
We like to keep you in touch with what’s going on with our guests, so here’s an occasional update from us. We love publicizing our community’s work – which includes yours! – so if you’re a listener or reader and have something for us to publicize, let us know!
A couple months ago, in Episode 23, we interviewed the fantastic librarian and filmmaker Ashley Maynor, and she mentioned this wonderful film she made about her grandmother.
You can now watch that film online here, which we are so excited about. I loved re-watching it today, years after I first watched it around 10 years (!) ago, and I hope you enjoy seeing it for the first time.
Episode 28 is short in duration but rich in news and content. We give a shout-out to two listeners who listed us in their favorite podcast lists (LitandPie and Audrey J Martin). Thanks again for that!
Then we talk about a new occasional feature that we’re calling “You can do it, too,” all about margin-writers we’ve been reading about, who’ve used their day job in their writing or who talk about their day jobs.
And finally, we’ve got a What’s Working Now/Everything’s Terrible.
And maybe pneumonia and some howling cats.
Full show notes here.
This week, I love my day job. Why? It’s SUCH a great distraction. I finished my rewrites on Saturday, working through the plot issues I talked about in episode 22, and sent it off to a couple of readers. I found the query letter I worked up for a workshop and as a plotting exercise last year, and it turns out it’s pretty good. Then — against all advice — I opened up my manuscript on my e-reader to give it a full read through to get a big-picture look.
There’s a reason the advice all says to let your work rest for a week or more. In the space of five hours — the time between sending off my MS to some readers and reading the first page of my book — I went from “I FINISHED MY BOOK!” to “EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE FOREVER.”
So thank goodness for my day job. Monday morning, I pulled up the book I had queued to index, and one of my business partners passed another one to me, so I’m busy. With things that have nothing to do with my book, and things that keep me too busy to touch my book. Also, 3 of the 4 of us in my family are sick (I must be psychic), so I’m definitely cutting out any non-essential work. And right now, my book is non-essential.
I’m still writing, though, following the advice from next week’s guest to touch the work every day (y’all are going to LOVE her and that episode). It’s super-hard for me to get back into a routine when I’ve let it slide, so I want to keep up my early mornings. I’ve started working through Ursula K. LeGuin’s Steering the Craft, with an eye to a short story I started last spring. Today, I haven’t done anything but this post, but it counts.
And now, back to my day job.