Attention writers: You’re missing out.
If you aren’t already listening to Mur Lafferty’s, “I Should Be Writing: The Podcast for Wannabe Fiction Writers,” you need to drop what you’re doing and go listen.
In every episode, Mur talks about the writing process, problems every writer faces, and how to solve them.
The unstoppable Mur was gracious enough to invite me on her show to blab on endlessly about writing, crystals, muscle cars, and the original idea behind It Happened One Doomsday.
Honestly, I think the best part of the conversation happened after we stopped recording:
We talked about how so many creative people get discouraged because they don’t realize that their struggles are universal. I told Mur that what she’s doing with her podcast is incredibly important. And that’s so true.
By the way, since this podcast came out, I’ve gotten plenty of questions about the MONSTER acronym I use to create monsters in my stories.
It’s a handy tool for thinking your monsters completely through. Here it is:
MONSTER — 7 keys to terrifying creatures
MIND: How smart is it? What senses does it possess?
ORIGIN: Where does it come from? What is it called?
NEED: What motivates it? What is it after?
SKETCH: What does it look like? How big is it? What color is it? How does it move?
TAKE ON: How can the heroes fight it? What hurts it? What scares it?
EAT: What does it eat? How does it eat?
RELATIONSHIPS: Loner or a pack? Belong to someone? Obey someone/thing? Rule someone/thing?
If you find that helpful, there’s more.
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