Mur Lafferty's Blog, page 27

People talk about character and plot and climax, but no one covers how novel structure is needed to put it all together. SPOILERS for A Song of Ice and Fire Series and the Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin.

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February 18, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 14 (Ep 565) | murverse.com | Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Had a personal emergency and was unprepared, so the audience and Twitter questions keep me going!

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February 16, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 13 (Ep 564) | murverse.com | Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Every few years there's a very concerned think piece about the innocent writer who got a six figure advance and blew it all, or sold zero books, or just felt betrayed by publishing, and I am sick of it. If only we all could get articles written about us when we have a bad day at work, or show ourselves unwilling to do basic research into our new profession.

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February 11, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 12 (Ep 563) | murverse.com | Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

"Notebooks: Do You Have a PROBLEM?" is brought to you in large part by by my patrons , who received this episode early, and expanded. You can join us with a pledge as low as $1  a month! 

Ohhhh... pretty notebooks.

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February 9, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 11 (Ep 562) | murverse.com | Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

I have three projects going on right now that need edits, and for the next two months I'm going to be doing this thing that I HATE. So let's go into why, and how. 

Latest Twitch/YouTube stream times:

Monday, 12:30, AMA/Hangout Tuesday, 3:00, I Should Be Writing Live Wednesday, 4:00, Gaming: Stardew Valley Thursday 12:30, I Should Be Writing Live

* All times EST

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February 9, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 10 (Ep 561) | murverse.com | Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

I talk about my books from initial concept all the way through to the end, both Six Wakes and my current WiP.

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You Need A Budget FTL Apex Writers Cat Rambo's Writing Community I Should Be Writing Ink Stained Fabulists Community Catch the next LIVE show on Twitch or YouTube! February 2, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 9 (Ep 560) | murverse.com Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

I'm thrilled to welcome my good friend and Very Smart British Person Alasdair Stuart to the show to talk about, if we can weaponize language, how do we use it for hope?

"Your character must want something, even if it's a glass of water!"

Characters must always have wants, but it takes a bit more work to think about what they need, and more importantly, when in the story for them to address those needs.

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January 26, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 7 (Ep 558) | murverse.com | Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

I look at two productivity methods and am entirely flummoxed by the two that seem at odds with each other: the 10X Rule that suggests if you shoot for 10X your goal you won't necessarily make 10X, but you'll very likely get much more than you would have had you, say, gone the compound method talked about in Atomic Habits and The Compound Effect where if you get just a little bit better every day then you will see real results.

January 21, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 6 (Ep 557) | murverse.com Copyright 2005-2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

  I'm talking about truth bombs that a lot of beginning creative types don't want to hear, but I figure, I'm just telling you, "Hey, in the road up ahead there's a hole. Most everyone hits the hole and it jostles them. I wanted you to know it was there."   That was my hole metaphor. I thought it was good despite sleep dep.  

January 19, 2021 | Season 17 Ep 5 | murverse.com | Copyright 2021, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License