Відео

Love the new Interview style format. Ari with her hard hitting questions and Rachel sounding like a celebrity. Great episode.

Hey Ari and Rachel! It is rad to hear Rachel interviewed! She is cool!! I think it's neat how you are moving to interview format. I am a pantser lol. It is cool that Rachel writes series. Understandable that her process differs for different projects. It is def more fun to pants lol. Outlines are guidelines and not firm for my stories. I love writing with whatever comes to mind and not be restricted by an outline. Apparitions Anonymous sounds cool! I bought it on Amazon in Nov or Dec. I can relate. There are many story ideas that I have not finished writing lol. I am sorry to hear that you lost your job to AI, Rachel. You have my support. I too am tired of AI and social media. AI worries me a ton. Social media is something that I check for notifs and occasionally use to read friends' posts but I am not an active user of it. That is so awesome that you are taking classes about video game writing and are getting a certificate! Congratulations! Proud of you!! I agree, success is defined differently by everybody. We all have different metrics for it. I absolutely do not want to be famous and I am a private person so I relate. I don't think I necessairly want to be rich either but agree that money can be helpful. Ugh about that person who said you both were lying about not wanting fame. That is so rude. Lila (sp?) sounds awesome 😊 I am intrigued. She sounds rad. And it is understandable that Rachel wouldn't do an in-person reading. It is nerveracking. Rachel is awesome and you both are great. I like hearing you both talk and would love to hear you both read your works :) Rachel's stories sound cool and I am intrigued. Great episode and interview! Take care! 😊

you guys are so underrated! tots subscribed

Hi Rachel and Ari :D Congrats on 250! You both rock!! I have social anxiety also and I think your feelings are understandable. I would feel anxious if I had to interview someone else. You both make great points on utilizing a script or not using one. I can relate to you both :) I found myself agreeing with both of you :) It makes sense that editing takes a lot of time. You both do a great job with it. Has there ever been a point where you had to edit out a cough or sneeze? Curious b/c I once saw a funny sneeze blooper for a show but also sometimes, I see them kept in. Good points about livestreams. Haha I saw the KoFi page banner show up :) Both of your voices are cool!! I love your podcast and a livestream would be rad!! Haha I prefer to be a pantser. I also am not a big fan of social media (I am really glad that I met you both on social media but ended up disliking it and I would prefer an author site). And yeah, my handwriting is bad, so I prefer to type. Awesome episode! I am super excited for Ari's interview of you, Rachel!! You both are awesome!

Great episode gang! I was nodding my head with the editing. People don't realize there's a lot of technical work that go into these things. I'm so glad you all discovered separate audio channels in zoom. I edit my videogame videos with separate audio channels so I can edit myself out if I say something dumb without sacrificing the audio in the video. QUESTION! I've noticed the youtube channel doesn't do great for numbers but Podbean is doing excellent. My only issue with podbean is there is no way to leave a comment. It just offers to share or download. If you all decide to stop uploading on youtube, do you have an alternative where listeners can leave comments? I feel like that's an important part missing from the podbean platform.

Trying to place Ari's dialect but I can't figure it out. Dunno what it is but it is the coolest voice I have ever heard

Hello Rachel and Ari!! :) Haha it's cool that you both debated about this. The banter at the start is funny :). It made me chuckle. I haven't really used colors for mine. (I do have some color associations for a couple characters though) :). I probably should use colors. It might help with editing and keeping track of my process also. And LOL, I like how the banter has gone on :). Haha the sunrise is orange. It makes sense that orange reminds you of the world. It's a nice analogy for worldbuilding. "I don't write sci-fi so HA!" LOL. I know what you mean, Rachel. Sometimes, I try to look up how to do things (i.e. in Word) but keep seeing results for stuff that I already have knowledge of. Purple is a cool color. :) I like how Ari uses purple as well. :] The colors for your story make sense also, Ari :). I like how the colors come out. It makes sense. We associate colors with various emotions, scenes, etc. :) It makes sense. I do associate colors with some characters. Blue is for Steph because she LOVES wearing Steph and almost everything she has is blue (Steph is one of the major characters in my stories). Green is what I associate with Selina, another significant character. She has a green sword :). LOL I struggle with spelling anonymous too. I can't spell silhouette without looking it up haha. I had to find this spelling via a google suggestion lol. Haha I like the discussion about pneumonia and how to pronounce it. Happy New Year, my friends! I wish you both a fabulous year! This episode is so fun. I love it! :].

Congrats on the huge milestone gang, well-deserved! New format sounds promising, hopefully it all works out. Thank you for 5 years of podcasting and for allowing me to take a small part in it. Excited for the future!

Hey Ari and Rachel!! Happy Holidays to you both! You both are rad, my friends! Congratulations on 10K downloads! I am proud of both of you!! 😊 The new 2025 format sounds cool :). I am sure it will go well. Time zones can be tough to figure out. I can relate. That is understandable. Very cool idea to give a badge. Happy 5th Birthday to the pod!! I am happy for both of you! Rachel and Ari rock! I will look up the poll :D. Congrats on 250 episodes (early congrats) and early congrats on 300😊. Go Rachel and Ari! Take care, Ari and Rachel! Cool episode! Have a nice holiday season! Happy holidays! Rock on! As for topics to cover, perhaps you can have an episode on creating and maintaining a writing habit 😊? Thank you for your consideration and time and hard work 😊 - you both do a marvelous job!!

Hey Ari and Rachel!! Congrats Ari! Wonderful job on completing your manuscript! Go Ari!! I am proud of you! I had another comment earlier but had issues posting it (UA-cam is auto deleting long comments, it seems). Nonetheless I agree with you both that one has to prioritize writing, make time for it, and cut out things that aren't a priority in order to get writing done. I learned that the hard way... I also agree with asking writers for help and being kind and courteous. That goes a long way and is key for life. I agree with what you both said about making notes about what you need to fix, edit, etc. That helps a lot :) Last but not least, it seems like you both print out your work. Do you have printers that you would recommend? Thank you very much 😊. Wonderful episode!

Wow, Ari! After all these years when I sent you that note on Deviantart I'm finally going to have a story to read from you! Very exciting, congratulations!

I'm kind of in a similar situation with my third fantasy novel. I have a first chapter and an ending of sorts/epilogue, but I haven't figured out yet how to connect everything together in the middle.

Hi Ari and Rachel! Awesome episode! I am sure that the episode last year was not bad. I love every one of the episodes I have listened to. I agree about the beginnings. They set up the foundation for the story and I agree that they generally are slow. I enjoy writing them. I concur with you both. The middle is key & strongest. I struggle with them. It is rough. I have rewritten my superhero a couple times due to struggles w/the middle. Good point, Ari. Some definitely rush the ending. It is important to wrap things up but not rush it. I definitely need to make sure my endings aren't abrupt. Like Rachel, I have had times where my story endings have been more abrupt than I thought. Good episode as always! Have a nice day, Ari and Rachel 😊😊!!

Hi Ari and Rachel! How are you both doing? My original thought was that reviews can help one improve future books - like what Rachel said about something to address in the sequel. I also thought that reviews could help one think about stuff they need to work on generally, such as character development or pacing. You both are right though. Some reviews are mean. Some, as you said, might not be the ideal reader and some miss details (the example you shared of a reader complaining about not having enough spice even though the description said there wasn't any is a solid example). I also agree that beta, alpha, and critique partner readers would be much better. Reviews can be helpful, but yes one needs to be careful when reading them. I also agree that negative reviews are not easy to read. They can def. hurt. What you said about Tina Fey's response reminds me of the "Mean Tweets" part of Jimmy Kimmel's show where celebs read mean tweets about themselves. Some are calm and handle it well. Others get angry. I concur with taking screenshots of positive reviews also 😊😊. True. 3 star reviews seem to be the most honest. Lol all good. You do not sound breathless. I am not published. But, I am not sure if I would read them if I do publish. I might not. Awesome episode :D Great points! You both are awesome!

Hey Rachel and Ari! How are you both doing? Happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for you both and your podcast :). I hadn't really heard of the cozy genre until earlier this year or last year. The definition you shared is helpful. I agree though, Ari, it sounds a bit weird how a cozy story does have murders (I too thought that cozy mystery was the only cozy genre lol). On a different note, I think your definition of the late 20th century years is accurate, and I need to read Agatha Christie books. Rachel, your description of cozy mysteries is helpful too and I too am not sure why it's most often a female MC, but your guess makes sense. I didn't know about cozy romances. I too don't know much about romances lol. Cozy romances sound interesting. LOL yeah, I'm not a fan of Lohan either. YES! The Merry Movie Podcast :) I would listen to it :D! Go Ari and Rachel :). I want to read Legends and Lattes! I love superhero stories. But, I want to check out cozy fantasy too. Rachel, you'll do great writing cozy fantasy stories also. You can do it. I always believe in you :) Rooting for both Rachel and Ari :D You both are cool :] Great episode again. Have a nice day :D

If you want to watch a good TV program on Agatha Christie, I highly recommend the three-episode docuseries hosted by Lucy Worsley. At a writers' conference last month, I attended a talk by a screenwriter who has written scripts for TV movies (of which romantic comedy and mystery are genres, but no fantasy) and said they are often a great way for a screenwriter to get established and eventually move up towards feature films. He did also say that Christmas romantic comedy screenplays have the highest chance of getting sold.

Hi Ari and Rachel!! Great episode! Great examples too. I agree that it can helpful to keep track of our writing journey. I can relate to Rachel too. I used to share writing goals and some word counts. But, I ended up feeling bad when I did not write at all or much. I recently restarted a superhero novel that I began in 2016. I last worked on it in 2022 (until this year). But, I restarted it in Sep 2024. I am about 29000 words in. Even though it isn't a great draft and I will have a lot to fix, I feel good and am having more grace for myself. (Especially since it is a 1st draft). I will continue tracking my journey and am feeling especially inspired thanks to this episode. Thank you Ari and Rachel! Take care, friends 😊

The first few seconds of "leave the world behind" brought me here. It felt out of place, and I'm glad to know this is a common thing among writers.

Hi Rachel and Ari!! Scrivener sounds cool! It's neat how you can use folders within it to seperate and store different types of documents. Also cool how you can create PDFs and use ticks to decide what to share. It sounds helpful how it allows you to make notes and colors to differentiate :). Icons too? Awesome! Would you say it takes a lot of trial and error? I should check out video tutorials. The episode isn't messy, Rachel. It is awesome! Both of you brought up really helpful information. Take care, my friends. Much support always. You both are awesome. The episode is good and informative. I use Word but want to try Scrivener. Take care 😊.

I used to use Scrivener for all my books but ended up going back to Word due to my lifestyle. First, I loved using all the Scrivener features which was very easy to understand. I did end up using the corkboard and would have a wall of index cards that laid out the structure of my story. I could see at a glance the title of the scene, the summary and I could move the index cards if I felt one scene was in the wrong location within the story. I was also a huge fan of the word progress bar like Ari because it helped focus me on hitting word count goals for each scene. I also made use of the folders and created a research folder where I uploaded google images of places where I wanted a scene to happen. The photos helped me visualize the scene and write out where the characters would go and how they interacted with the environment. But one of my favorite features was the full screen writing mode. I changed the color from default white background, black text, to black bg and grey text. It looked like a classic MS-Dos prompt but it didn't hurt my eyes and helped me focus on my writing. What ultimately turned me away from Scrivener were a few things: 1. I kept running into formatting and style issues when exporting the file from Scrivener to EPUB. My fonts would get locked and my spaces and returns wouldn't save properly. 2. Scrivener on PC always felt behind the Mac version. I remember I bought a book on Scrivener tips and all of the features the author listed were specifically for Scrivener on Mac. This was frustrating as I was struggling with formatting errors and wanted the features the Mac version had. 3. Lack of cloud support. As someone who is either in the office or on the move, I needed an application that I could access anywhere (my career doesn't really allow work from home). At the time when I used Scrivener I couldn't save it on the cloud and resume work from my mobile phone. I had to go home and launch on my PC. I personally do not run into Word crashing issues anymore because I tend to keep my word files lean and don't add images or tables. (Even on my crappy laptop Word works fine) What I like about Office 365 is that I can write my book from my home PC, go to work, open the web browser of my One Drive and work on the web version of my book, and if I go to the doctor's office I can open my mobile phone and continue writing from there. The flexibility to go anywhere and continue working on my project was more important to me than the cool features Scrivener has. With Microsoft Word constantly backing up my files, I always had an opportunity to open the latest or go back to an earlier version if I didn't like what I had written. Now that technology has changed I might consider going back, but I am super dependent on OneDrive backup and cloud and being able to write on the move. So I'm still not sure if Scrivener can do that for me.

Great episode.

Way to go Ari!! Thank you for getting in Rachel’s face to talk about her book!!!

Hi Rachel and Ari!! I know it's been forever and I'm sorry for not being able to listen for a while. I listened to this latest one and am so happy for you, Rachel! Congrats! I'm proud of you!! My local bookstore doesn't have results for it yet. BUT, I will check with them (I'll email them) :). I hope you both are doing well. All the best to you both! Congratulations again, Rachel! Take care :) Have a great one :) :). Wishing you both a great week also :).

You make a lot of good points. I can relate.

I'm publishing a collaboration book

I suppose my greatest regrets were being impatient when I was young and then becoming a perfectionist later. But, like you said, they may have been the best decisions at that time to help me learn to be a better writer. I had those preconceived notions about what being a writer meant, too. For a while it looked like I was also going to pursue being an artist before I turned to writing. The reason I didn't is because I sold myself short in that regard.

Ooof, going into the weeds with this topic. I'm in agreement with Rachel in not believing in regrets and basically going with the mentality of everything happened because it was supposed to happen. But I do have a regret (and no I'm not going to repeat my reboot story, ha ha ha.) My biggest regret was not reading more and wide when I was younger. I thought that reading other people's work would cause me to steal ideas and not generate my own original ones. As a result, I don't have a thorough understanding of tropes and formulas found in most stories specific to their genre. My writing is very visual focused (cinematic) some would say, and I find that as a result a lot of my intimate dialogue scenes read as boring or melodramatic. It took me 10+ years to get caught up with something I would have had a stronger understanding of if I had read more sooner. Now I feel like I'm playing a game of constant catch up. Catch up on my reading, practice my writing, master structure, etc. Of course, my life probably would have turned in a completely different direction maybe one I would like less than the life I have now. Everything happens for a reason.

I really can't stand it when an author explains a key feature of a character's appearance but not at the start of the book. I have already imagined what the character looks like, now I need to re-imagine it! Recently read a book where I imagined the lead female to have brown hair, about 50 pages in the author said she struggled to control her fire red hair. Well that has now changed the character for me!

Video begins at 8:20

Something we have worked with in our writing is to show appropriate ways a typically problematic trope would have a healthy spin. I wrote an arranged/never met before couple but they were long distance for years before actually getting to meet face to face and deciding to have a physical relationship. One of the story lines my sister wrote has basically a insta love trope but it’s between mind readers so the important get to know you stage wasn’t really skipped as much as it was compressed into a few seconds. We are working on a “love triangle” where the central character is very clear from the beginning she has no intention of being in a romantic relationship with anyone at this time.

The only time I have seen a comparison to something that is totally different spice that works is when they say something like extra spicy lord of the rings or extremely mild game of thrones. I definitely like to know what I’m getting myself into when reading a book.

Oh I looooove this topic! I can handle any spice level and even tried reading some erotica to get some insight behind the appeal. My personal experience is that writing spice is as difficult as writing comedy. It's one of those topics that I personally feel, is enhanced through implied versus explicit. Describing a sex organ penetrating another in juicy detail, in my opinion, diminishes the appeal of the spice. It's spicy, but in a painful and not enjoyable way. Whereas if the writer said something along the lines of, "I would hook (genders) ankles over my shoulders and pull (genders) to the edge of the table." There is a lot of spice without having to go into crass detail. I once read an erotica that described squeezing or pinching a sensitive part of a man's body, and it immediately turned me off to the whole experience. I find that the most satisfying part to a spicy scene is having that buildup of sexual tension. That constant conflict of will they, won't they. Then once the lovers hit that climactic moment, I think it's best to give just a tiny tease of description and then fade to black. Or cut to another POV where sounds could be heard. The minor amounts of description can lead to a very effective use of spice. But there definitely has to be a buildup. Spice without buildup is straight up erotica. I am also against promoting or romanticizing toxic relationships. I can let it slide as long as the character learns and gets OUT of the toxic relationship. But if they stay or want to be in a toxic relationship, that's a no from me. I don't think it's healthy for impressionable people to think toxic treatment is acceptable in a relationship. Either the couple learns how to be nicer and healthier to one another or they breakup. "Its okay that (gender) hits me because I'm so in love with them." NO.

Solid advice. I've tried a few things that he's mentioned and saw results. My problem is doing the steps to overcome the block. I need to get better at engaging myself in freewriting, exercise, hydrating, moving around, writing things out. I think I struggle with writing things with pen and paper because I'm left handed and I never learned a proper technique to write that doesn't cramp my hand. I know it's super beneficial but man... it really hurts to write for long periods of time. Great episode!

I changed the internal formatting in my upcoming book as well as my current book in some areas to make it look more professional internally as well as reduce the page count, though people who've already bought the first will notice a difference now (or the original publisher's version, which had a smaller size). I actually prefer pronunciation guides in the back because I feel putting them up front could distract readers who may simply overlook it. But that's just me.

Oof, am wounded by the different book sizes, specifically the width. (God that sounds so wrong.) The issue with the size of the book is cost. The larger the book, the more expensive to print. I hadn't planned on making a print version of Narco Hotel because I am (coincidentally) ALSO ANNOYED that it is thinner than A Bitter Winter. Ha ha ha. I guess my books should be a mandatory word count from now on, can't mix n match novellas with novels.

When I first started writing I thought I could get discovered and at least a hundred people would download my free short stories and I would get at least twenty five reviews/ratings. However, after writing for about ten years I get excited if I get a download notification even though I am pretty sure no-one is reading my work. I don't think it is that our ideas or ability get worse, they definitely get better, we just realise the bar is so much higher than we originally thought.

You guys are doing great work

Glad you mentioned origin stories or characters in different scenarios as I have a novella that has been out for a while but I have re-edited and am going to re-release with a new cover. As you have to pay for it, I was going to write a short story for free set before the novella with the same characters. In the book the characters talk about other smaller missions they have been on, so plan to pick one of those and write it. Let's hope it gets people into the story and boosts sales!

My use of Goodreads is pretty basic. I don't do any of the challenges. I just keep track of what books I want to read and am reading, as well as rating/reviewing those I have read.

Hello old friends. Far from Deviant Art you have come.

My signature is the only cursive I remember too.

Long time no comment! I'd like to add on to these great self-editing tips with a few of my own. This advice will cater specifically to new authors using WORD. Also, I will include non-editing tips that are vital. 1.) 100% agree with read aloud in word. The word female voice has also been improved. She now adds inflection and emotion while reading. The male voice has not been updated yet. 2.) If you're working in Word and not on physical media, USE TRACK CHANGES. Track changes may make your manuscript look messier but it will also help you keep track of your editing. For example, it recently took me 4 weeks to re-edit one of my older titles. If I hadn't used track changes and took a break, I would have to remember where I left off in order to resume. Track changes will also help you decide whether the edit you made was warranted or something that got caught in the whirlwind. You can reject the changes and move onto the next. Going one-by-one with each track change will also allow you to re-read and either tweak or accept the changes you've made. Super useful for long manuscripts. 3.) If your manuscript is over 80k words and you have long chapters. I recommend breaking up the chapters into separate word documents. I know that sounds crazy but hear me out. If you're a new author, the first time you receive your manuscript marked up in red from an editor, it's daunting. You will feel like it will take forever to get the editing done. However, if you break them up into chapters it will be easier for your mind to process the information and make your edits at a consistent pace. Seeing 4 pages of edits for 1 chapters versus 200 pages is a huge difference mentally. NON-EDITING TIPS: - I do not recommend using Google Drive. I know it's free, but I've found that the longer your book is the more google drive struggles with an enormous amount of edits. Maybe this has changed over the years but I really do not like google drive for editing. Get word and take advantage of... - ONE DRIVE backups! I've read online from too many people crying about losing their precious manuscript because they were writing their document on a drive that failed. Why go through that grief? Put your manuscript on OneDrive, enable autosave and sync, and throw a copy into a backup drive or external. One Drive let's you edit from your cellphone because your document becomes available on all Microsoft Office enabled devices. If you have a personal PC, a laptop you bring to work, a mobile phone, all of these devices can be enrolled in OneDrive and sync your manuscript. Stuck at the grocery store or doctor's office? Open onedrive on your phone, open the word doc, and edit away. Have some free time at work? Sign into your onedrive, sync the files (or edit them on the web) and edit from your laptop. Keep backups. Use the cloud, use physical media, do everything you need to do to ensure you have a document to work from. There is nothing more heartbreaking than losing years of work and over 80k words due to hard drive failure. I've been there, done that. Use the cloud, use backups. If you have no choice and have to use google, then use google. I don't recommend it but it will work in a pinch. - If you're ready to publish, make sure you keep track of what version of the book you're printing. Therefore, use dates rather than titles to keep track of what version you're on. E.G. 2024-5-29_Book_V2. This way you will know at a glance which document is the most recent. You may find yourself revisiting older documents or creating multiple versions. Make the date prominent and keep the books in their own folders so they don't get confused. My pain words are: So, Well, That, She, Looked, Stood

I haven't tried flash fiction, but I have written micro memoir.

Great topic!

I've certainly had to deal with people asking when Beneath the Deep Wave would be completed, and there were times where I feared I might never finish it. Thankfully, it's finally coming out in late August! Side note: writing/editing can occur after publication sometimes too. Even famous authors have done that; it's comforting to know that.

Ugh. When I was unpublished and a teenager, I could bang out an 40-60k draft in two weekends. As an unpublished adult living at home, 2 years. As a married published author? 3-4 years. Ughhhh.... and the word count hasn't increased, it's gotten less! My own personal experience with writing is that real-life, especially "adulting" is full of urgent distractions. Need to cook dinner, vacuum the house, do an intensive project at work, attend an important meeting. So many things demand our attention right away and once we've given that attention it drains from our brain energy pool. Once work is done, the last thing I want to do is expend more energy brainstorming how to get myself out of writer's block. What seems to work for me is to have a specific time that I'm going to commit to writing. It means that on this day, I will skip playing video games or watching movies in favor of getting some writing done. I will happily sacrifice leisure activities if I'm at a section where I feel particularly inspired. But when I'm going through writer's block and I've had a hard day at work, it's almost impossible to muster the energy to write. Sometimes I can but oftentimes I just want to go home and veg out. Anyway, thanks for covering the topic. Reminds me to get my butt back in gear.

Reminds me of the third of Orwell's writing rules, which is to always cut a word out if it can be cut out (though his sixth says to break any of the first five rather than say anything barbarous).

Fascinating discussion. Thanks for providing this.

Good discussion, ladies. I think sometimes we forget how difficult childhood is.

Oh man, this topic is calling me out. Perfectionism is definitely a state of mind that needs to be programmed. I see so many writer's online complain about having their story ideas stolen by movies. When they explain how long they've been writing this one book, they say 10+ years. Then there's other writers who say, "Is it a mistake if I follow the POV of the villain? I don't want to mess up!" I think it's important to stress to newbie writers that perfectionism is the enemy of progress. The more you worry about having the perfect plot, the perfect character arc, the perfect grammar, the perfect writing style, the less and less likely it is you will ever finish. I say this as someone who struggles with this and is constantly trying to undo my natural perfectionist programming. All new writer's need to learn to accept that their first draft is going to be 100% trash. Too many writers are obsessed with just getting it right the first time and it's not a realistic goal. We can only improve by making mistakes. Just because you hate your first draft doesn't mean you need to trash it and start again from scratch. There are exceptions to the rule but for the most part it's definitely a keep going no matter what. I'm personally trying to accept the philosophy of "it's better to be done than perfect." I've found I've been much more satisfied with my work by being finished rather than obsessing over the quality of my work. Tweaking everything until it's absolutely perfect has brought me nothing but misery. I'd rather write twenty mediocre books than one perfect one.