Episode 27 - The Scariest Episode Yet

In this episode we go through the 100 books everyone should read before they die, show you how to write in the dark, and debate if transmedia storytelling is a good way to promote your work. We also take a walk in the dark and look at our favorite scary stories and how to write horror.

Works in Progress

[00:00:41] John wrote 4600 words in the last seven days on his current work-in-progress, which is a personal best. He wanted to see if he could write enough words in one day to pull off a NaNoWriMo.

Mike submitted his 500 word story Rotgut to MashStories. Mike also worked on his NaNoWriMo story. He created a Story Grid spreadsheet and has 35 scenes for Zero Ward. He's going to add 10 to 15 more scenes for parallel plot threads. There should be about 75-100 scenes all in. He may have cheated and typed 500 words but won't count them toward his total word count in November.

Eric is working on the rewrite for Don't Wake Up. Finished a few new chapters. He has been listening to the computer-read version of Road of Fire during downtimes. He discovered a few things he wanted to check out, and when he did the research he found the foundation of his story wasn't built on solid historical research. He got really nervous about that. This prompted him to dig deeper into research, but his focus should be on the rewrite work for Don't Wake Up.

What's happening online

Librivox

[00:04:57] Librivox is a site for audio books in the public domain. It runs like an open-source project, where volunteers read a public domain book and create their own audio book. There's no rating system, because they want to encourage anyone to contribute, but there are some pretty bad recorded versions of books.

Source: Weird World of Librivox

100 Books

[00:06:09] 100 books everyone should read before they die

The book list is quite diverse. Mike has read 18 and seen another four in movie form. John had also read 18 of them and started but not finished another 2.

The Martian - based on a true story?

[00:08:04] There were a few people on Twitter making fun of themselves, their friends and their grandmothers because on seeing Ridley Scott's film The Martian, they wondered if it was based on a true story. While a human being has never set foot on another planet, the accurate portrayal of science was strong enough for people to ask.

Twilight made worse

[00:08:44] Stephanie Meyer has created a gender-swapped version of Twilight's 10th anniversary. The fans, they do not like.

My Writing Process

[00:09:20] Mathias Lafeldt's Writing Process talks about a lot of things we've discussed on the 'cast. He uses these and this is a nice rundown of how he works.

The Pilot's Pen

[00:10:18] For those times you'd like to write a thought or bit of dialog in the middle of the night, there is a pen that lights up called The Pilot's Pen. This pen has an over-bright LED in the tip illuminates what you're writing.

Reading Spotlight

[00:12:56] John is reading Shift by Hugh Howey.

Mike finished Pale Queen Rising by A. R. Kahler. He started a book John recommended in Episode 18 called Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank.

Eric is reading The Deadly Playground 1914: The Barrington Quintet Volume I by Robert Carter.

Scribophile - Critiques

This week we've been reading a story called Entomohphobia by podcast listener Lou Yuhasz. He posted it up on Scribophile.

Lou's story reminded Eric of The Contortionist's Handbook by Craig Clevenger.

Tech Focus

[00:19:08] In transmedia storytelling, authors create social media presences for the characters in their work. An example of this would be The Muppets, who each have their own Twitter accounts and tweet as if they are real people.

Sources:

• Fictional Characters on Social Media: Should Your Brand Have One?

• 'Social Fiction' Brings Characters to Life via Facebook and Twitter

• Which social networks allow profiles of imaginary people or fictional characters?

Social media accounts are a lot of work. This would be tough if you weren't a team of marketing folks. This would be good for character development.

Craft Talk - Writing Horror

[00:26:00] The biggest part of horror is what people can do to one another. The monster is us.

• Hot Zone by Richard Preston

• Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon

• The Stand by Stephen King

• The Long Walk by Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman

• Now It Can Be Told by Philip Gibbs

• The Thing on the Doorstep by H.P. Lovecraft

• What are the Best Short Scary Stories on Quora has some fantastic and scary short stories, especially The Russian Sleep Experiment.

• Goodread's Scary Book List has a number of lists of different horror books.

NaNoWriMo

[00:36:52] John seems to be bailing on NaNo. Mike is planning.