We chat about where we are in our novel projects. Christy talks about her slow crawl towards the end of her book. We discuss how synopses can help you clarify narrative arc and how writing friends can help you get out of your own way. Chris explains how his project management expertise applies to crafting a novel. Christy tries to convince Chris to channel his anxiety into a horror novel and encourages him to write down of his messiest emotions to ensure his very complicated series finale does not lack soul.

Shout outs:

• Diana Ma
• Todd Lubsen
• Amanda Kost
• Titus Grupp
• Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
• Isaac Asimov
• The Ologies episode on Teratology (Monsters)
• Stephen King, and especially Misery
• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
• Ms. Tennell, our high school religion, ethics, and philosophy teacher
• Aunt Beth, as always

Links and such

• Chris' Novels: Systemic and Host: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9VDQ8C ⁠
• Christina's website: ⁠https://www.christinascheuer.com⁠
• Chris' Author Website: ⁠https://chrislodwigauthor.com⁠
• Christina's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashmeadowedits⁠
• Chris’ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Christopherlodwig/
• Chris' Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLodwigAuthor⁠
• Christina's email: cscheuer@gmail.com
• Chris' email: ChrisLodwig@gmail.com

We’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. We finally got to chat with Terry Scheuer (Christy’s dad) about his many concerns around writing and editing.

We cover so much ground in this one, it’s like a writing (and editing) 101 class! Have you ever wondered how editors do their work while still honoring the author’s voice and intention? Terry did! He asked us about it. He also had concerns about the definition of “good” literature. Did you know authors make a “promise” to their readers and that readers get very annoyed when an author doesn’t “fulfill” that promise? Well, we talked about that too--as well as how to be creative and innovative while withing the confines of a genre, and why writing a novel is very different from telling a good story at a bar.

Shouts out:

• The Unbeatable Lily Hong by Diana Ma
• Nora Roberts
• James McBride
• John Batiste
• Taylor Swift
• Elliot Smith
• The Pixies
• Sting
• Cormac McCarthy
• Anne of Green Gables
• Anna Karinina by Leon Tolstoy
• Blanchet High School
• Crime and Punishment
• War In Peace
• Moby Dick
• A Separate Peace
• Ethan From
• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Artful Edit – Susan Bell

Links and such

• Chris' Novels: Systemic and Host: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9VDQ8C 
• Christina's website: ⁠https://www.christinascheuer.com⁠
• Chris' Author Website: ⁠https://chrislodwigauthor.com⁠
• Christina's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashmeadowedits⁠
• Chris’ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Christopherlodwig/
• Chris' Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLodwigAuthor⁠
• Christina's email: cscheuer@gmail.com
• Chris' email:  ChrisLodwig@gmail.com

• 
  

In this episode, Chris does himself (and Christy) a huge favor and writes a synopsis of Interface, his work-in-progress. They discuss how creating the synopsis was very clarifying and how it helped him identify and solve problems with character development, plot, and pacing.

Shouts Out

• All the introverts at the Scheuer family Christmas party! (Like, we literally shouted at them)
• Toby Hinnebusch (Rest in peace, cousin)

• 
  

Links and such

• Chris' Novels: Systemic and Host: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9VDQ8C ⁠
• Christina's website: ⁠https://www.christinascheuer.com⁠
• Chris' website: ⁠https://chrislodwigauthor.com⁠ 
• Christina's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashmeadowedits⁠
• Chris' Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLodwigAuthor⁠
• Christina's email: cscheuer@gmail.com
• Chris' email:  ChrisLodwig@gmail.com

The internet isn’t terrible when you ask people to be creative! Chris gives examples of how he has reached out to his social media community and incorporated their feedback into his creative processes.

Chris asked the social media hive-mind to help:

• Come up with the name of a job in the Universe of his latest book.
• Believably describe how mushrooms could make vaccines
• Help make the disease, scab, a believable pathogen in Host

Christy talks about doing research at the Nut Cracker every year. And Chris talks about other things he does that technically qualify as research.

Shout Outs:

• Chris’ readers and followers and Facebook
• Gigi the governess / dog sitter
• Amy Lodwig, Chris’ Wonderful wife and collaborator
• Yogaesh Ramasundaram (Though he didn’t actually give the shout out because this was recorded before Yogaesh’s idea won the day!)
• Mark Hill
• Bethany Kurihara-Olson
• Shannon O'Meara Hamilton
• Christy’s friend Dianna
• Rick Scheuer
• Trevor Scheuer  

Links and such:

• Link to Chris' Novels: Systemic and Host: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9VDQ8C ⁠
• Christina's website: ⁠https://www.christinascheuer.com⁠
• Chris' Author Website: ⁠https://chrislodwigauthor.com⁠
• Christina's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashmeadowedits⁠
• Chris' Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLodwigAuthor⁠
• Christina's email: cscheuer@gmail.com
• Chris' email:  ChrisLodwig@gmail.com

Chris and Christy talk with Sitong Che about her many creative projects, including a fun and challenging story concept she’s been working on. We discuss multiple approaches to getting to know your main characters, how putting characters in conflict can teach you about your story, and some of the differences between performance-based art and stories on the page. We also talk about Sitong’s collaborative process and why both Chris and Christy believe in giving their fictional characters “free will.” (Thanks, Sitong, for that and so many other insights, and for bringing us your story!) This one was so much fun to record and covers a lot of ground!  

Shout outs:

• The film The Secret Lives of Dentists (The Secret Lives of Dentists - Rotten Tomatoes) based on the amazing novella The Age of Grief by Jane Smiley, to which Christy gives a million thumbs up)
• Situational comedies, including How I Met Your Mother and Friends

• 
  

  Links and such:

•  Sitong’s most recent blog post: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YoHKNTI2O_jekGu_tW8aaA
• Sitong’s standup comedy club channel: 【虾图脱口秀】oncall午夜凶铃 (youtube.com)
• Link to Chris' Novels: Systemic and Host: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9VDQ8C ⁠
• Christina's website: ⁠https://www.christinascheuer.com⁠
• Chris' Author Website: ⁠https://chrislodwigauthor.com⁠
• Christina's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashmeadowedits⁠
• Chris' Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLodwigAuthor⁠
• Christina's email: cscheuer@gmail.com
• Chris' email:  ChrisLodwig@gmail.com

Note that there are many potential spoilers for Chris’ new book. If you don’t want to know any of the plot twists, please do not listen to this podcast. If you would like to hear an author struggle mightily in a very normal way, or you would like to see how a book changes from the author’s original conception, this is the podcast for you!

Christy practices some book coach magic to get Chris to think about issues with his current work in progress and helps him work through how to construct the “ticking time bomb” of his plot, which leads us into a deep dive into the psychology and motivations of Chris’ antagonist.  We talk about how, sometimes, a character’s inner life can help create the necessary tension in a plot without having to resort to time bombs and avalanches.

Christy also talks about the class she recently taught and why she thinks character is at the heart of all writing, including narrative non-fiction.

Shouts Out:

• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Links and such:

• Chris' Novels: Systemic and Host: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9VDQ8C 
• Christina's website: ⁠https://www.christinascheuer.com⁠
• Chris' Author Website: ⁠https://chrislodwigauthor.com⁠
• Christina's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashmeadowedits⁠
• Chris' Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLodwigAuthor⁠
• Christina's email: cscheuer@gmail.com
• Chris' email:  ChrisLodwig@gmail.com

In which we start with a slightly strange question that Christy had for Chris: What if we talked about creative collaboration between characters in a story?

Being able to collaborate is a mindset, so can you collaborate with yourself? More specifically, can letting your characters work things out amongst themselves count as a version of collaboration?

Tangents include how the Scheuer family Thanksgiving kid table changed the course of Chris’ book Host, Anya Lodwig’s ability to set up a joke weeks ahead of time, Rogan’s friend Sam who makes good beer, and why Chris will never be famous (hint: it is not what you think).

Shouts out:

• Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner (Watch Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Corresponde... - YouTube)
• George Saunders
• Chris' Old friend Doc Mike
• Matthew Maillette, teen-aged tinkerer (https://www.youtube.com/@matthewmaillette

Links and such:

• Link to Chris' Novels: Systemic and Host: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9VDQ8C ⁠

• Christina's website: ⁠https://www.christinascheuer.com⁠
• Chris' Author Website: ⁠https://chrislodwigauthor.com⁠ 
• Christina's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashmeadowedits⁠
• Chris' Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLodwigAuthor⁠
• Christina's email: cscheuer@gmail.com
• Chris' email:  ChrisLodwig@gmail.com

In which, we talk about the pros and cons of self-publishing – and why creative collaboration is central to the self-publishing process.

We also discuss Chris’s favorite things about being a writer, why it is so important to understand what you want to get out of the publishing process, and why Chris is mad at the whole game of golf.

Shouts out:

• Todd Lubsen
• Carly Jayne (@lovelikesalt on Instagram)
• Angelina Odievich

• Rogan Carr
• Robert Gilliam
• Wool by Hugh Howey (Amazon.com: Wool: Book One of the Silo Series (Silo, 1): 9780358447849: Howey, Hugh: Books)
• The Martian by Andy Weir (Amazon.com: The Martian: A Novel eBook : Weir, Andy: Kindle Store)

Links and such:

• Link to Chris' Novels: Systemic and Host: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9VDQ8C ⁠
• Christina's website: ⁠https://www.christinascheuer.com⁠
• Chris' Author Website: ⁠https://chrislodwigauthor.com⁠ 
• Christina's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashmeadowedits⁠
• Chris' Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLodwigAuthor⁠
• Christina's email: cscheuer@gmail.com
• Chris' email:  ChrisLodwig@gmail.com