VODKA O’CLOCK 1550
JOSH NEFF TALKING ABOUT NANOWRIMO & WRITING

AMBER LOVE 07-DEC-2015 Now you can sponsor Vodka O’Clock and AmberUnmasked.com through PATREON. Just go to Patreon.com/amberunmasked (pledging will be changing from per episode to per month!)

Returning to the show is JOSH NEFF who you’ve heard so often he has his own name in the AmberUnmasked tag cloud. Also, don’t forget I have a hub of this year’s NaNoWriMo posts =)

Download on iTunes, Stitcher, or listen here.

This episode is another extra long one where Josh and I get into some nitty gritty details about writing. We talked about mysteries and crime fiction in particular regards to red herrings, plotting, pacing, “show-don’t-tell”, and how different TV shows approach solving cases.

Cats! (Because of course) And other distractions that keep you from writing like Grace and Frankie marathons on Netflix.

CHANGES IN PRODUCTIVITY

Josh did better than last year’s NaNoWriMo because he attended some IRL Write-Ins and also took his writing on the road when alone at a coffee shop. His cat Oberon would otherwise demand a lot of attention if he were home. Plus, the comfort factor — get home after work and just wanting to be in jammies and sloth the night away.

Taking necessary breaks: find out how we spent our time intentionally not writing.

MYSTERIES & CRIMES!

We talk about finding the right murder weapons and how to handle them in the plot; how to avoid today’s technology solving all the problems; plotting crimes that don’t happen under surveillance cameras. And please, can we move on to other things besides lethal peanut allergies?

REVISIONS

Josh took a different kind of approach to NaNoWriMo by writing short fiction, poetry, scenes, and remixing fairy tales. He’s hopeful that he can pull it all together into a cohesive novel.

First drafts – telling yourself the story. Do you toss the entire rough draft away? Sounds bonkers, but some people do that.

You finished. But now what?

INSPIRING STUFF ABOUT WRITING

Josh and I talk about being motivated by authors like Stephen King and Chuck Wendig, even when we don’t enjoy a book of their but love how they craft and keep going. Some links are below for blogs that have resources we like.

One of the areas I mentioned where I try to spruce up my own writing is to add body language descriptions. I learned a lot about that from Joe Navarro’s books and interviews. (also a past VOC guest, ep 1232)

In a previous episode of VOC, Elsa Henry discussed not relying on visual descriptors, something that she always found challenging because of partial blindness. Recognizing ableism in your writing is another way to see how you can revise sensory details. Instead of always talking about how scenes and characters look, talk about other ways they exist: how they feel to the touch, smell, sound, etc.

Music, playlists, background TV noise… what works for you while you’re working? I began compiling a playlist for this novel on YouTube.

Josh shared tips on what you can do when you get bored with where your characters are in the story.

Our take on the infamous debate regarding “said”.

LINKS:

Dr. Lyle’s forensics blog for writers https://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/

Joe Navarro http://www.jnforensics.com/ 

K.M. Weiland helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com

Chuck Wendig’s TerribleMinds.com

Austin Kleon http://austinkleon.com/

Josh’s blog Goblin-cartoons.com

Twitter and Instagram: @JoshuaMNeff

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.