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  • Episode 228: November Writing Challenge, Part IV - Questions From Beginner Writers

    Episode 228: November Writing Challenge, Part IV - Questions From Beginner Writers
    2024/11/25
    In this week's episode, we conclude our November Writing Challenge with questions from beginner writers. We also check in with our transcriptionist and see how she did with the challenge. Bonus! The transcriptionist's official Writing Playlist: Now I’m in It-HAIM Build Me Up From Bones- Sarah Jarosz Outnumbered- Dermot Kennedy Pain is Cold Water- Noah Kahan Orpheus- Vincent Lima Flight Risk- Tommy Lefroy If I Don’t See You Again- Wyatt Flores Brink of Love- Teddy Thompson The Wire- Patrick Droney Coming Home- Leon Bridges More Love- Sara Bareilles White Flag-JOSEPH TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 228th of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November the 22nd, 2024, and today we are discussing the fourth and final part of our November Writing Challenge, which will answer questions from beginning writers. Before getting into that, we will have an update on my current writing and audiobook projects and our Question of the Week. First up, Cloak of Illusion, as I mentioned last week, is now out. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and my Payhip Store. There was a bit of a processing glitch on Kobo that slowed it down this week, but now the book should be available at Kobo, so if you're a Kobo reader, you can buy it for your Kobo reader or read it in Kobo Plus without any difficulty. Now that Cloak of Illusion is out (and selling very well, thank you all for that), my next project is Orc Hoard. That will be the fourth Rivah Half-Elven Thief book and I am 44,000 words into it (on chapter 10 of 18, which means I'm over halfway through). I very, very much want to have this book out before Christmas and I will be doing my best to make that happen. I am also about 2,000 words into Shield of Deception, which will be the fourth Shield War book (and hopefully will be my first book in 2025). The outline has 31 chapters, which means this will be the longest book I have tackled in a while, so I'm glad I'm getting kind of a head start on it as the secondary project while I work on Orc Hoard. In audiobook news, as we mentioned last week, Shield of Conquest is out at all the audiobook stores (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills), and you can get that at your favorite audiobook store. In other good audiobook news, Cloak of Spears (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is now out at all the audiobook stores and if you are looking for something to listen to on your long Thanksgiving drive or plane trip, I should mention that Cloak of Spears is about 12 hours long, so it will have you covered. 00:02:01: Question of the Week So that's where I'm at with my current writing and audiobook projects and let's move on now to Question of the Week. Question of the Week is designed to inspire enjoyable discussions of interesting topics and this week's question ties directly into what we just talked about: what do you do for entertainment while traveling (whether by car, plane, train or otherwise- podcasts, audiobooks, portable games, that kind of thing)? No wrong answers, obviously. The inspiration for this question, as you might guess, was the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, which for many people was a great deal of travel and finding ways to amuse yourself while traveling. So in answer to this question, Justin says: music- classical, rock, movie scores, and video game tunes. If I'm traveling, I'm almost always driving. Music helps relax and entertain without demanding my attention. Brett says: I read- very often one of your books. You've published 100+ books, but because I've read them multiple times, I may be at 1,000 plus reads of your books. (I got to say Brett has a good taste here.) If I'm driving, I don't usually have any entertainment. Surabhi says: I love reading while traveling. Kindle is a nice advantage, being easy to carry, and I usually have easy to read books to read for traveling, which of course is why I have so many of your books in my Kindle Library. They're simple yet enjoyable to read. I got to say Kindle does make traveling with books a lot easier. I remember in the old days all I had was space for two books to bring on a trip, and so I was trying to pick out which two books to bring. Venus says: Reading and geocaching. Bonnie says: about all the traveling I've done recently is to work and back, usually local radio station and ‘80s music. Juana says: so my dad drove like he was in NASCAR. Consequently, I read books, because I was not brave enough to watch death coming for us. The habit is still with me. Darla says: riding in car listening to Sirius XM, looking at scenery or talking to the driver, driving by myself- listening to radio or CD music and singing. On an airplane, I read hard copy books or ebooks on my tablet, maybe try to sleep. Cheryl says: read the Kindle, but mainly keep an eye on the road, even as a passenger. You never ...
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    33 分
  • Episode 227: November Writing Challenge, Part III - Overcoming Roadblocks

    Episode 227: November Writing Challenge, Part III - Overcoming Roadblocks
    2024/11/18
    In this week's episode, we continue our November Writing Challenge, and take a look at the most common roadblocks writers face. We also check in with our transcriptionist, and see how she is progressing in our November Writing Challenge. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 227 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November the 15th, 2024, and today we are discussing part three of our November Writing Challenge, which will deal with overcoming roadblocks in your writing progress. First we'll have an update on my current writing projects and then we will have Question of the Week, and then we'll get to our main topic of overcoming roadblocks. First up, writing projects. I am almost/very nearly done with Cloak of Illusion. In fact, I would have finished completely yesterday, but I had some unexpected home repairs come up and now that those are resolved, as soon as this podcast recording is completed, I'm hoping to finish up completely on Cloak of Illusion and publish it this weekend. So hopefully when this show comes out on Monday the 18th, the book should be showing up on the various ebook stores. Be sure to subscribe to my new release newsletter as well and you will get a free Nadia short story called Trick or Treat in ebook form. I am 24,000 words into Orc Hoard, which will be the next Rivah book, and I'm hoping to have that out in December as my final book of 2024. My secondary project while I'm working on that will also be Shield of Deception because I am hoping to have that out as my first book in 2025. Hard to believe we're about halfway through the 2020s already. In audiobook news, Shield of Conquest came out this week and you should be able to get it at all the usual audiobook stores, and that is excellently narrated by Brad Wills. Cloak of Spears, as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy, should be out before too much longer as well. So that is where I'm at with my current writing projects. 00:01:36 Question of the Week Now on to Question of the Week, which had a lot of responses this week. Question of the Week is designed to inspire interesting discussions of enjoyable topics. This week’s question: do you buy any hardback books? No wrong answers, obviously. I asked this question because I was reading an article about for many traditionally published authors, hardbacks used to be the primary source of royalties. Nowadays, for many authors, that has been superseded by audiobooks. Since I’m indie, my main source of revenue has always been ebooks. We had many different responses to this question. JL says: I only read ebooks now. I have not bought a physical book in over a decade. Surabhi says: Hardcovers, being very expensive, are a big no-no for me. I’d love to be able to afford hardcovers, it’s always either paperbacks or ebooks. Justin says: If I’m getting paper, I will do my best to make it hardback. Paperback books have a limited lifespan and number of readings in them compared to hardback books. Most of my book purchasing is ebooks but reference works and great stories get the hardback treatment. Mary says: Only if there’s no paperback. Dave says: Ebooks and audiobooks all the way. They’re generally cheaper or easier to read, or with audiobooks I can do other things while I listen. Also as I get older, being able to increase the font size makes it easier to read. I definitely agree with Dave on that, let me tell ya. Jenny says: Can’t afford it usually. My hardcover budget goes to RPG books. I myself do have quite a few RPG books, which is amusing because I don’t actually play the game but I just like looking at the artwork. Juana says: Yes. I have 60+ signed editions of authors I like. Some paperbacks of the Frostborn series (Wonder who wrote those?). That is indeed a mystery. Catriona says: I used to collect hardbacks of favorite authors- buy each new release e.g. Terry Pratchett. But when I moved from Hong Kong to Thailand I got rid of most of my fiction books and bought the Kindle versions. Shipping after COVID was just extortionate! Morgan says: I don’t really buy physical books anymore. My brain is too fried to read so I mostly do audiobooks while I work. I only have so much money, so it is hard to justify buying a physical copy of a book I already have the audio copy for when I know I probably won’t physically read it. Gary says: I prefer hardbacks. When buying new though, I generally buy paperbacks unless it is for reference or one of my favorite authors. I always check though because now the hardbacks are often not much more. Jeanne says: Depends on the book. I would totally invest in hardcover copies of Lord of the Rings, for example. I am currently investing in leatherbound versions of the Word on Fire Bible, which is a step up from the hardcover. Authors I don’t know or who I read for light fun, I’ll get as ebooks. Marilyn says: No, but used to buy only hardback books. Ran ...
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    25 分
  • Episode 226: November Writing Challenge, Part II - Outlining

    Episode 226: November Writing Challenge, Part II - Outlining
    2024/11/11
    In this week's episode, we continue with our November Writing Challenge, and discuss how outlining can be a helpful tool in writing your novel and building a writing habit. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 226 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November the 8th, 2024 and today we are discussing Part 2 of our November Writing Challenge and that will mostly discuss the usefulness of making outlines. Before we get into that, we will have an update on my current writing projects and Question of the Week. We will also close out the episode with a preview of the upcoming audiobook Cloak of Spears, as narrated by Hollis McCarthy. First up, writing progress. The rough draft of Cloak of Illusion is done at about 96,000 words, and I'm about 25% of the way through the first editing pass. I also wrote a short story called Trick or Treat that will be a companion to the book. Newsletter subscribers will get a free ebook copy of that short story when Cloak of Illusion comes out, hopefully before the end of November. So now would be an excellent time to subscribe to my new release newsletter. After Cloak of Illusion is published, my next project will be Orc Hoard, the 4th book in the Rivah Half-Elven series, and I'm about 21,000 words into that. In audiobook news, as you may have already heard, Cloak of Spears is done. That will be narrated by Hollis McCarthy and it is working its way through processing right now. Shield of Conquest narrated by Brad Wills is also still working its way through processing on the various audiobook platforms. So you can get both audiobooks on my Payhip store right now if you don't want to wait. So that is where I met with my writing projects. 00:01:25 Question of the Week Now let's talk about Question of the Week. It's time for Question of the Week, designed to inspire interesting discussions of enjoyable topics. This week's question: what is your favorite book cover (like in terms of the artwork, the design, etcetera)? No wrong answers, obviously. We had a few answers this week. Justin says: For that, I go back to the guilty pleasures of my youth, a teenager on a Burroughs kick at the time, digging for paperbacks in a secondhand bookstore. Savage Pellucidar, cover by Frank Franzetta (the 1974 Ace edition reprint), which I still have stashed away. Franzetta was an incredible artist. I love his Sea Witch and Death Dealer, but we’re talking about book covers here. Savage Pellucidar was the one for me. Mary says: Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon. Then, that cover was a work of art with three detachable bands. Surabhi says: Hard to choose one. I personally love those young adult “Book Tok” book covers: Shadow and Bone, Six of Crows, The Cruel Prince. I don't know. Something about such covers immediately sparks interest in me. Randy says he always liked the Heinlein juvenile covers. Gary S. says: This was difficult for me because I like hardcovers, but I like to take the jacket off while I read so it doesn't get torn. Consequently, I seldom look at the covers. Gary B says: Anne McCaffrey’s The White Dragon. I’ve got a poster/artwork of it and pretty much anything by Michael Whelan. Becca says: Stoner by Tad Williams, pretty much tops my list of favorite covers, then maybe The Dragonstone by McKiernan. Catriona says: Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic. MG says: That's quite difficult to answer, but I have a Return of the King copy with this Alan Lee cover, going to have to go with this. For myself, I think I would go with a hardback edition of The Silmarillion from the late 1990s. I think it was published in ‘99. It was illustrated by Ted Nasmith and the cover image shows Maglor throwing the final Silmaril into the sea in despair for his deeds. If you know the context of that scene, it's an amazingly powerful cover. So that is it for Question of the Week and tune in again for next week's Question of the Week. 00:03:22 Main Topic of the Week Now it's time to our main topic for our second week of our November Writing Challenge. This week we're going to talk about building story structure and how outlining can help with this. If you haven't heard of my November Writing Challenge, the idea is that you write 300 words or a similarly small number every day in hopes of building up a small but sustainable writing habit. I was thinking of NaNoWriMo, where you write 1600 words a day in an effort to get to 50,000 words a month, is well and good for someone like me, where I essentially write a book every month unless something comes up. But for someone starting out, it can be a bit like the sort of crash diet where you lose 5 pounds in a month and then gain 10 back over the next two months as your habits snap back. That’s because you didn't lose the weight through sustainable means, so that is the goal with the November writing challenge: to build the base of a sustainable writing habit. So let's talk ...
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    19 分
  • Episode 225: November Writing Challenge, Part I

    Episode 225: November Writing Challenge, Part I
    2024/11/04
    In this week's episode we take a look at a November Writing Challenge and offer tips for new writers to develop a sustainable writing habit. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 225 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November the 1st 2024 and today we are discussing part one of our November Writing Challenge. Before we get into that, we will talk about my current writing projects- we’ll see where I'm at with that and do Question of the Week (because we did have time for Question of the Week this week). First up, writing progress. I am 85,000 words into Cloak of Illusion, and I am hoping to finish the rough draft next week, if all goes well. I think we'll end up about in the neighborhood of 100,000 words for the rough draft (with possibly 5,000 words either way, see how it goes). I'm also 17,000 words into Orc Hoard. That will be the 4th Rivah Half-Elven book, and I'm hoping to have that out in December before the end of the calendar year. In audiobook news, production on Shield of Conquest is done. It's all paid for and ready, and it's just working its way through processing on various platforms, so it should be available soon. And you get it on my Payhip store right now, if you don't want to wait for the other platforms. Audio for Cloak of Spears is almost done. I should have a file to proof soon, which is very exciting. And then Hollis McCarthy, who did Cloak of Spears, is also going to be working on Ghost in the Tombs and that should be out before too much longer and also Shield of Conquest was excellently narrated by Brad Wills. So that is where I'm at with my current writing projects. 00:01:30 Question of the Week Now let's move on to Question of the Week. Now it's time for Question of the Week, which is designed to inspire interesting discussions of enjoyable topics. This week's question: do you keep a record of the books you have read? Obviously Goodreads is a giant website designed to do just that, but there are other methods, obviously. This question was inspired by one of those other methods. I was at a Barnes and Noble the other day and was bemused by the giant wall of reading journals that you can use to keep track of the books you have read. This elicited quite a few responses, this Question of the Week. They tend to fall into one of two camps, as we shall soon see. Joaquim says: No. No time, at least not for the physical books, even an app supporting barcodes was not successful and was later discontinued. For ebooks it’s different because all your books are available on a list in Kindle/Digital Editions/Calibre (depending on their type). Justin says: No, it would look like bragging. I am a speed reader and don't watch TV. Reading is my primary mode of leisure. JD says: I have never even considered making a reading log. Surely that would be time better used for reading. AM says: I use a dot grid journal to make my own reading log and enjoy customizing what I track and adding some artistic embellishments. It's just a fun offline project for me and it made me self-conscious of what I read when I tracked on Goodreads. Adeline says: not keeping track at all. Doing that at the rate I go through books would just be a loss of a lot of time which could be spent reading. Barbara says: No, I don't keep any record of the books I read. I've been a voracious reader since I figured out what the alphabet was for back in first grade, used to get in trouble in class for reading ahead. I read fiction and nonfiction, although not equally. I have favorite authors, some of whose books I reread regularly. My digital library contains over 2,000 books, most of which I've read and while I think I don't read all that fast, in reality I read something over 700 words per minute. What's worse, I retain most of what I read, but if someone wants to keep track of what he or she reads, that doesn’t bother me at all. Different strokes for different folks, as the song says. Jesse says: If I pick one up I have already read and don't immediately recognize it within a paragraph or two, it is probably time for a reread. Roger says: I buy a book before I read it, so my record is either on my bookshelves or on the Kindle. Kim says: I used to note in each paper version when I read/reread the books. Since ebooks, I keep a spreadsheet of book title and series, author, date read, major characters, reading order, my own personal ranking. Helps me keep track of authors, their series, crossovers, same-universe stories, and when the next books are coming out. I track all of that. Brandy says: It's impossible for me to do so. I reread whole series each time the new book comes out (yes, from the beginning). I’ll often proofread, read for review, read for pleasure, reference, and beta. I'm also a foreign language and capture reader for translation of books. It was recommended therapy to help with linear retention after seizures and was always my main ...
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    20 分
  • Episode 224: Sourcing Ad Graphics

    Episode 224: Sourcing Ad Graphics
    2024/10/28
    In this week's episode, we take a look at the best methods for finding ad graphics for book advertising. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 224 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October 25th, 2024 and today we are discussing the best methods for sourcing images for ad graphics. We'll also have an update on my current writing and audiobook projects. Let's go right to that. I am currently 61,000 words into Cloak of Illusion and am hoping to have that out before the end of November, since 61,000 words puts me about halfway through the rough draft, I think. I'm also 14,000 words into Orc Hoard, which will be the 4th Rivah book, and if all goes well, the final book I publish in 2024. In audiobook news, recording is underway for Shield of Conquest. That will be excellently narrated by Brad Wills, and it's also underway for Cloak of Spears and Ghost in the Tombs, which will be narrated by Hollis McCarthy. I think probably Cloak of Spears will come out first, but we will see how things play out for the rest of the month. So that's it. That is the update on my current writing project. Next month and next week, I want to do a new podcast series for the month of November that I’m going to call Moeller Writing Tips Month as sort of a gentler alternative to National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) for a couple of reasons. The NaNoWriMo organization has had a number of problems over the years, especially recently, so I don't feel comfortable endorsing it anymore. I've also begun to wonder if NaNoWriMo is a bit like a shock diet. If you talk to doctors and other medical experts about weight loss, they say the best way is always to make small, sustainable changes that you can keep up with over time. It's better to lose like a pound a month and keep it off than it is to lose like, 5 or 10 pounds a month in a shock crash diet only to gain it all back once you go back to your own old habits because that kind of a weighty yoyoing is very hard on the body. I wonder if National Novel Writing Month, where you write 50,000 words in a month is like that for a lot of people; it’s sort of a crash diet. For someone like me, Ghost in the Tombs was my 156th novel. I typically can write a rough draft or novel in a month if I don't have anything else come up. So for me, that's normal, but for most people who don't have that kind of experience, I wonder if National Novel Writing Month would be the sort of writing equivalent of those crash diets that might leave you worse off than you were to begin with. So with that in mind, next month I'll start a podcast series discussing gentler ways one can ease into the regular habit of writing. More discussion on that topic next week and next month. 00:02:45 Main Topic: Sourcing Ad Graphics Now onto our main topic for the week, sourcing ad graphics. Before we get into that, a disclaimer. I am not a lawyer and none of what I'm about to say is actual legal advice. You obtain actual legal advice by hiring a lawyer who is qualified to practice in your jurisdiction. It is very important (to continue the disclaimer) to be on firm footing with the copyright of your ad image. If you don't own the image or the right license to use it, you're infringing on someone's copyright and they can respond either legally or through the places where your book is sold. This is less of a problem with ad images than is with book covers, but it still can happen. With that in mind, some of the free stock images sites have restrictions on commercial use or modification of the images. It's a good idea to read the licenses carefully. Some of these sites have often not gotten the appropriate clearances from the models in the pictures, so be cautious of using images with identifiable faces from those types of sites. If you're not familiar with the legal term, a model release is when a model or someone in a stock photograph appears in the stock photograph. They sign a release that gives the rights for their likeness to be used for the commercial image and not all free stock image sites do that. Good stock image sites like Shutterstock or iStock Photo or Dreamstime will clearly state on the image page whether or not a model release has been included. If a model release has not been included, you can't use it for commercial purposes, and though it is not terribly likely, you can open yourself up to legal liability that way. In that vein, be also cautious about Creative Commons sites, since copyrighted work frequently ends up on those sites. This is also true of the free stock image sites, where sometimes people will pirate images and post them there. Also, many Creative Commons photos are restricted from commercial use, modification, and/or the artists require attribution. Tread carefully and make sure you understand the conditions of using images with any of the various Creative Commons licenses. And before we get into further details, ...
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    16 分
  • Episode 223: Five Writing Lessons From The Nintendo Switch

    Episode 223: Five Writing Lessons From The Nintendo Switch
    2024/10/21
    In this week's episode, we consider how the Nintendo Switch does the simple things well, and examine how writers can likewise do the simple things well to write excellent books. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 223 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October the 18th, 2024 and today we are discussing five lessons for writers from the Nintendo Switch, of all things. Don't worry, the analogy will make sense later in the show. Before we get into that, let's have an update on my current writing projects. I am pleased to report that Ghost in the Tombs is completely done and is currently publishing on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and my Payhip store. The links are already live on some of those stores. This episode should go out on the same day as my newsletter, so by the time this episode goes out, the book should be available at all ebook stores. If you are subscribed to my newsletter, you will also get a free ebook copy of the short story Ghost Tablet. So that is one of the many excellent reasons it is a good idea to subscribe to my newsletter. You can find the details how to do that on my website right at the top. My next main project now that Ghost in the Tombs is out will be Cloak of Illusion, the 12th Cloak Mage book. I am 31,000 words into that. I'm hoping to have that out before the end of November, if all goes well. After that, I am 11,000 words into Orc Hoard and hopefully that will be out in December, if all goes well. As I mentioned earlier, the audiobook of Shield of Darkness is out, as excellently narrated by Brad Wills. You can get that at Audible, Apple, Google Play, and all the usual audiobook stores. We are also working on Shield of Conquest right now, and that is being recorded as we speak. Hollis McCarthy is also recording Cloak of Spears and that should hopefully be out before the end of the year, if all goes well. This week, we're not doing Question of the Week because all my time was going to finishing Ghost in the Tombs, but we will be doing another Question of the Week next week, so watch for that on my website and social media. 00:01:54 Main Topic: 5 Lessons Writers Can Learn from the Switch Now let's go to our main topic for the week, five lessons that writers can learn from the Nintendo Switch. So what can writers learn from the Nintendo Switch? A common complaint I sometimes see among newer writers is that all the stories have been told already, and that there are no truly original stories. Why try writing a mystery novel? Haven't they all been told? Why try writing a romance novel? How many different ways are there for a woman to meet a man and fall in love? Why attempt to write an epic fantasy when there's already Lord of the Rings and Mistborn and Shannara? Haven't all the stories already been told? That is a fair question, but it misunderstands the nature of stories. It's as profound a misunderstanding as saying that just because you've eaten one cheeseburger in your life, there is no need to ever have another or saying that since Pizza Hut makes pizzas, there is no need for anyone else to ever open a pizza restaurant or even to sell frozen pizzas. To dispel this misapprehension, let us turn to the Nintendo Switch. It is not unfair to say that the Switch is one of the most popular game consoles in the world and is likely Nintendo’s second best-selling device of all time. The Switch is also significantly less powerful than its chief competitors, the various Xbox and PlayStation models offered by Microsoft and Sony. For that matter, the Switch has only received moderate updates in the seven years it has been on the market. Its internal components are basically those of a decent smartphone from 2017, yet despite that, the Switch has significantly outsold both the Xbox and the PlayStation over the last seven years. It was a remarkable reversal of fortune for Nintendo. The Switch's predecessor, the Wii U, did so badly that the CEO of Nintendo at the time took a 50% pay cut to help avoid layoffs. One thinks American CEOs could stand to learn from this example, but that's a different topic. So to go from that to the best-selling console of the last seven years is quite a swing of fate’s pendulum. So let us then ask the obvious question: why did the Switch do better than its competitors, especially when it was so relatively underpowered compared to them in terms of hardware? The answer is simple. The Switch did the basics, but it did the basics exceptionally well and doing the basic simple things exceptionally well is often much harder than people imagine. The Switch doesn't have a lot of the more advanced features from the PC, Xbox, and PlayStation ecosystems, but it doesn't really need them. The Switch is easily portable. It has a strong library of first-party titles. The loading speed isn't great, but it's adequate. It has Switch Online for all the old ...
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    16 分
  • Episode 222: Story Conflicts

    Episode 222: Story Conflicts
    2024/10/14
    In this week's episode, we take a look at four different types of story conflict, and explore three different ways to add them to your stories. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 222 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October the 11th, 2024 and today we are discussing four kinds of story conflict and three ways you can bring conflict into your books. Before we get into that, we will have an update on my current writing and audiobook projects and then do Question of the Week. The good news is that I am done with the first pass of editing on Ghost in the Tombs and I'm ready to start on the second. This is Episode 222 and if all goes well, I think Ghost in the Tombs will be out shortly around the time Episode 223 comes out. So second-half of October, we're on track for that. I am 28,000 words into Cloak of Illusion and that will be my main project once Ghost in the Tombs is published. I'm also 8,000 words into Orc Hoard, the fourth Rivah book, and that'll be the main project once the Cloak of Illusion is done. In audiobook news, Shield of Darkness is now out. You can get on Audible, Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Chirp, Kobo, Payhip, and all the other major audiobook stores. That is excellently narrated by Brad Wills. Recording is underway for Cloak of Spears and that should hopefully be out before the end of the year. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects. 00:01:22 Question of the Week Let's move on to the Question of the Week. Question of the Week is designed to inspire interesting discussion of enjoyable topics. This week's question: if you listen to audiobooks, where do you listen to them? While cooking or driving, commuting, or perhaps walking? The inspiration for this question was that I was looking at some old sales spreadsheets from 2020 (that was a fun year, wasn't it?) and I was sure the start of COVID was going to wipe out the audiobook market because a lot of commuting was temporarily going away. Except this turned out not to be the case, and audiobook sales overall actually went up during COVID. So clearly I was wrong about how most audiobook listening took place while commuting. We had a few answers to this question. David said: Mostly while I'm home prepping and eating a meal, sometimes I'm in my vehicle enjoying a coffee while I drive somewhere. Sometimes when I go out to eat by myself, I'll listen on headphones. So it’s when my hands are otherwise busy and it beats listening to music or TV. JLH says: I pretty much only listen to audiobooks while driving. While home, I prefer to read. I'll listen to music when I'm at the gym. Tom says: Anywhere and everywhere. Driving car and tractor, at work, when walking (single earpiece only), and when at the gym. MW says: Usually while driving. I prefer reading and drawing to listening, but those aren't an option when driving my car, so a podcast is usually it. For myself, these days I usually listen to audiobooks when making long road trips by myself where I don't need the GPS to navigate. That's because if I'm going someplace I've never been before and need the GPS to navigate, it is highly distracting to have the audiobook and the GPS cutting back and forth between each other while you’re trying to figure out where you're going. That said, long drives to places where I know I'm going happen less than it did, so I generally listen to audiobooks less than I than I did before COVID. That said, in 2023 through 2024 I listened to the new audiobooks Andy Serkis recorded for the Lord of the Rings and was blown away by how good they were. Definitely recommended. So that is Question of the Week. 00:03:21 Main Topic of the Week: Story Conflicts So now on to this week's main topic: four types of story conflict and three ways you can add those conflicts to your story. So as we all know and as I've mentioned many times before on this podcast and on my blog, a story is nothing without conflict. Conflict is what drives the story. There's a story that when he was writing The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien probably would have wound up with a 1200 page description of a Hobbit dinner party if C.S. Lewis hadn’t kind of gently urged him to add more conflict and have things happen to the story. I'm not entirely sure if that's true or not, but the point is quite valid that if you want to have an interesting story, you need a conflict. You need the characters to act and respond to that conflict, and that will help drive your story. Most stories also have more than one type of conflict. You can have internal conflict and external conflict and different kinds of internal versus external conflicts. For example, my novel Half-Elven Thief contains three of the four types of conflict we will discuss. I will mention those when I get to them. So let's look at four classic types of story conflict. #1: Person versus internal conflicts. What does that mean? That means the ...
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    13 分
  • Episode 221: Audiobook Sampler Platter, The Second Course!

    Episode 221: Audiobook Sampler Platter, The Second Course!
    2024/10/07

    In this week's special autumn episode, I share samples from four of my audiobooks.

    Each audiobook is the second book in its series!

    1.) Dragonskull: Shield of the Knight, narrated by Brad Wills.

    2.) Ghost in the Flames, narrated by Hollis McCarthy.

    3.) Wizard-Thief, narrated by Leanne Woodward.

    4.) Cloak of Wolves, narrated by Hollis McCarthy.

    TRANSCRIPT

    00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates

    Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 221 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October, the 2nd 2024 and today we are sharing a second Audiobook Sampler Platter. Back in June in Episode 204, I did not have time to record an episode that week so what I did was I made a quick update and then assembled the samples together of four of my audiobooks, and then patched that together as an episode. People seemed to like that. Once again four months later, I find myself without time to record a full-length clip. So this week, what I'm going to do is put together a second Audiobook Sampler Platter. This time will be 4 samples from the second audiobooks in some of my series, so we will have that coming up later in the show after I offer an update on my current writing projects right now.

    I’m pleased to report that the rough draft of Ghost in the Tombs is done at about 93,000 words. I have also written a companion short story called Ghost Tablet and my newsletter subscribers will get a free ebook copy of Ghost Tablet when Ghost in the Tombs comes out. So now is a good time to sign up for my new release newsletter. If all goes well, Ghost in the Tombs should be out in the second half of October. I'm also 25,000 words into Cloak of Illusion, which will be the 12th Cloak Mage book and that should probably come out in November, if all goes well. I am 5,000 words into Orc Hoard, which will be the fourth Rivah book and I'm hoping to have that out in December

    In audiobook news, I'm pleased to report that after some processing delays, Stealth and Spells Online: Leveling is finally available at all audiobook stores. It's excellently narrated by C.J. McAllister. You can get it at Audible, Amazon, Google Play, Apple, Chirp, Spotify, and all the other usual audiobook stores. Recording just started yesterday for Shield of Conquests. That will be excellently narrated by Brad Wills. Shield of Darkness, the audiobook of that is done and is currently working its way through processing. So that is where I'm at with my current writing projects and now on to our audiobook samples.

    We shall have four audiobook samples this episode from the second book in four of my different series. The first sample will be Dragonskull: Shield of the Knight, the second book of the Dragonskull series (as narrated by Brad Wills). The second audiobook sample will be Ghost in the Flames, the second book in the Ghost series, as narrated by Hollis McCarthy. The third sample will be Wizard Thief, the second book in the Half-Elven Thief series as narrated by Leanne Woodward. The final sample will be Cloak of Wolves, the second book in the Cloak Mage series, again narrated by Hollis McCarthy. So those will be coming up very shortly.

    Before we get to that, I'd just like to say thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful and enjoyable. A reminder that you can listen to all back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week with hopefully a full-length episode. And until then, here are our four audiobook samples.
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    20 分