Juggling Creative Projects, Live from World Fantasy Con, How To Write the Future podcast, ep 230

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Quote from Juggling Creative Projects, Live from World Fantasy Con

Juggling Creative Projects, Live from World Fantasy Con, How To Write the Future podcast, episode 230 

“I recommend doing is getting with some friends, going to a cafe or maybe even, I know some people, they take the train, and they go not too far outside of where they live, and they may get a hotel somewhere and write creatively. If you don’t have the money to do that, just maybe go somewhere that you don’t normally go that’s a good place to write, and that may can help stimulate some creativity.” – Jenée Darden

In this How To Write the Future podcast episode titled “Juggling Creative Projects, Live from World Fantasy Con” host Beth Barany records this special episode from the recent World Fantasy Convention and discusses with guests how they juggle multiple creative projects.

Guests include author Valerie Estelle Frankel, fan fiction writer Erica Frank and journalist and radio presenter Jenée Darden. Together they share how to handle deadlines, why one of them writes for fun with no pressure of deadlines, how one is learning to leave work at work and enjoy being creative in their writing for pleasure. Tune in to hear their personal stories and listen what advice resonates for you.

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES

Valerie Estelle Frankel: Award-winning author, educator, and pop-culture scholar https://www.valeriefrankel.com/

Jenée Darden: Executive Producer/Host, Sights & Sounds, KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area https://www.kalw.org/people/jenee-darden

Support the podcast! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

Get the workbook: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Join the Edit Lab! https://bethbarany.com/editlab

About the How To Write the Future podcast 

The How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers. This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 230 Juggling Creative Projects, Live from World Fantasy Con 

Juggling Three Projects 

BETH BARANY: I’m coming to you live, although this is pre-recorded, from the World Fantasy Con. And today, I want to talk to you about juggling multiple creative projects.

Right now, I’m juggling three projects. A TV show where I’m writing short stories, a fantasy story that I wrote this year that I’m starting to revise, and book five in my Janie McAllister mystery series. 

How do we do it? I don’t know. 

If you’re a longtime listener of my podcast, you know I love timed writing. So that’s my big tip. And I have some special guests today who are going to give you some tips, other attendees here at World Fantasy Con. 

[00:37] Five Minute Timer Trick 

So here’s my short tip. Set the timer for five minutes. Give yourself a few words prompts as prompts. If you can’t come up with anything, ask your loved one, which is what I did tonight. I texted my husband, “Give me three words.” 

He gave me three words. I wrote about a paragraph. And even though I’m at the con, I got some writing done.

It was so fun. So I’m going to pass it along. 

[00:59] Meet the Guests

I’m going to have my special guests introduce themselves. And as you know, I’m Beth Barany. I’m a science fiction and fantasy writer, teacher, coach, podcaster. I have this podcast because I believe we can shape the future with our stories. So let’s make it a good one. All right. Hang tight. I’m going to pass you to the next awesome guest. 

[01:22] Valerie Frankel on Deadlines 

VALERIE ESTELLE FRANKEL: Hey, I’m author Valerie Estelle Frankel. I am the author of 105 books, vefrankel.com, and I write analysis of Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, whatever’s hot this week, and off I go. 

All right, getting started back, you know, a million years ago, I did take a while to get going and need motivation, so I would… guilt myself. 

The rule was before I went to bed, I had to do a two-page session and then later in the day, another two-page session.

Because if I said an hour-long session, I was just going to goof off on the internet. But saying in Times New Roman 12, I have to keep going until I have hit page two, that was measurable and clear and something where there was a definite limit.

I was allowed to goof off on the internet because I do so much mythology research and so on that I feel like my arms cut off if I’m trying to write without the internet. But again, there’s no substitute for getting to the end of those pages. 

And now, obviously with 100 books, writing has become very, very standard. It’s my default. I do feel guilty if I am, say, recording a friendly podcast instead of sitting here finding a way to do my writing all night.

And as for multiple projects, I just have to prioritize. All right, I feel like writing this book, but this book was due to Publisher two weeks ago.

But Publisher will forgive me, and this book is about a movie that is coming out two weeks from now. And then a few weeks after that, it will be obsolete. Nobody will care about it.

So I’m just going to have to pick my priorities. Oh, now my students want all their papers graded. I’m going to have to pick my priorities and know what the deadlines are because this one has to meet this deadline, and this one has to meet this deadline. And that’s how the world works. 

So keep on writing any of it, all of it. It all counts. It all adds up. It all will make you a writer. 

BETH BARANY: Awesome. 

[03:31] Erica Frank Picks by Mood 

ERICA FRANK: Hey, I’m Erica Frank. I pretty much write for fun. I write fanfic and gaming projects and a couple of newsletter fanzines, and I always have a dozen of them to work on every one time. 

And writing for fun means I don’t have any deadlines to work with, which means no pressure, but also I always have a dozen things to do and no way to prioritize them. 

Sometimes, I just…pick what feels good today. Sometimes, I’ve been getting into gaming with tarot cards. So I will do a tarot card draw for what do I work on today? Or what do I do with this project today? 

And it’s not interpreting the cards the way you would with a normal reading, but look at the card and say, Okay, King of Swords, let’s move forward boldly with this one. And switching up between fiction and nonfiction and tech projects. 

Just get something done.

Anything is better than nothing. You can edit later. You can’t edit a blank page. 

[04:31] Jenée Darden Switches Mindsets 

JENÉE DARDEN: Hi, my name is Jenée Darden. I’m a journalist with KLW, 91.7 FM in the Bay Area. We’re NPR Station, and I cover arts and culture on my show, The Sights and Sounds Show with Jenée Darden. 

So I juggle a lot of projects. Also, in addition to that, I’m a poet as well. And I write some of my poetry- actually, much of my poetry. It’s speculative. So I have a lot of speculative mixed, blended in with serious issues, more personal issues. 

But how do I juggle multiple projects is a really good question because I’m using my journalist brain, which is, which is, you know, writing real news. And so that’s different than writing creatively. So I guess it’s kind of like putting myself in a different mental space. It’s almost like having different personalities as a writer, I guess, if you will. So I’m learning how to leave work at work when I’m writing and being creative and then doing things that I like for pleasure. 

I’m also too doing more of kind of like just going away to places, just doing little staycations or contacting some friends and say, let’s just go write at a cafe. So I have to really put in the effort to write creatively, and for me, because my brain is using so much creative energy to write professionally, if you will. 

So yeah, something I recommend doing is getting with some friends, going to a cafe or maybe even like, I know some people they take the train and they go not too far outside of where they live, and they may get a hotel somewhere and write too, creatively. And if you don’t have the money to do that, but just maybe go somewhere that you don’t normally go, that’s a good place to write, and that may can help stimulate some creativity. And as far as help you separate whatever’s going on in your personal life or whatever’s going on in your creative life. 

So I hope that helps. 

[06:17] Wrap Up and Next Steps 

BETH BARANY: So how did you like those tips? Did any one of those tips resonate with you? Which one are you going to take with you? 

Maybe listen again, take down some notes, and just pick one technique to use on helping you focus and get to work on your creative projects. All right, that’s it for this week, everyone. Write long and prosper. And that is the lights of Oakland behind me.

 

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ABOUT BETH BARANY 

Beth Barany

Beth Barany is an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. They help novelists write, revise, and publish stories that matter—blending practical craft guidance with a big-picture commitment to imagination, meaning, and possibility. 

 

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites: 

 

Author site /  Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

 

Connect with Beth Barany 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BethBarany

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Email: Beth@BethBarany.com

CREDITS 

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