Turn Your Wish Into Story Fuel with Brownell Landrum

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Quote from Turn Your Wish Into Story Fuel with Brownell Landrum, How To Write the Future podcast, episode 208

Turn Your Wish Into Story Fuel with Brownell Landrum 

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“I researched over 70 different scientists. And so it was really, really fun to go into that exploration of what are the sciences of wishing.” – Brownell Landrum

Do you know what sciences we use in making a wish? When blowing out the candles become more than a birthday moment?
In this captivating How To Write the Future podcast episode, titled “Turn Your Wish Into Story Fuel with Brownell Landrum” host Beth Barany interviews storyteller and inventor Brownell Landrum where together they discuss Brownell’s novel where she shares the science exploration behind making a wish and how she researched over 70 scientists calling it a “cosmic whack-a-mole.”

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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?

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

ABOUT BROWNELL LANDRUM

Brownell Landrum

Brownell Landrum is a storyteller, speaker, inventor, and change catalyst. She’s the author of over a dozen books, including The Art & Science of Wishing and the upcoming The Art & Science of Wishing at Work. She got curious about the sciences involved in wishing while writing a novel entitled A Love Story to The Universe. Brownell combines her corporate and entrepreneurial background and logical, business-oriented skills with a compelling storytelling style. The motto for her stories is “Lose yourself in the fiction… Find yourself in the truth.”

Site: https://brownelllandrum.com/

Here’s the link to Chapter 1 of the Art & Science of Wishing

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/qfhl9a3m8v

Link to Part 1 of A Love Story to the Universe

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/a4s6x8lwk5

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brownell.landrum.author

X: https://x.com/BrownellLandrum

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brownelllandrum/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brownell.landrum

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@brownell.landrum

Transcript for Turn Your Wish Into Story Fuel with Brownell Landrum 

Welcome and Premise 

BETH BARANY: Welcome to How to Write the Future Podcast. I’m your host, Beth Barany. I am an award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist and a book coach for science fiction and fantasy writers. I run this podcast because I love talking to people about wonderful new ideas, and my whole premise here is about how can we bring our new visions of how we could be in the world and with each other into our story. So I have a special guest with us today. I’m very excited to introduce you to her, and we’re gonna have a conversation that I’m sure is gonna be wide ranging and full of interesting, fun things. I would like to introduce you to Brownell Landrum. Brownell, please introduce yourself and, and welcome to How to Write the Future.

[00:43] Meet Brownell Landrum 

BROWNELL LANDRUM: I’m excited to be here. I, I, I love your show and I love this whole realm. So I, obviously, I’m a writer. I write fiction and nonfiction and, and so the latest thing is I like the idea of how can fiction, which I think is part of what your message really is, is you’re writing the future. Can you write something that’s fiction that actually manifests in the future, in reality, right? And helps us envision another future. And so, and that. Kind of what I did. So I’ve written, I get into, my novels are kind of in the realm of, kind of in a metaphysical kind of realm. So like, I came up with the trilogy, a little over a year, a year and a half ago.

That’s this epic reincarnation, mystery and love story about a famous couple from history who’s brought back today to fulfill a prophecy, you know, that kind of big, epic adventure. And then I have a, another book that I came out with after that that’s semi autobiographical that I’m sure you’re gonna ask me about.

And then I have a nonfiction book that’s new, so I cover a lot of ground.

BETH BARANY: That’s so wonderful. 

[01:38] From Novel to Wishing Science 

And let’s talk about a semi autobiographical novel called how The Art and Science of Wishing, is that the right title? 

BROWNELL LANDRUM: Actually the novel’s called A Love Story to the Universe, and then that spun off on a nonfiction book that’s called The Art and Science of Wishing. So that’s, that’s kind of how it all worked, is like, and, and you’ve probably been there. That, you know, I was writing this book and I was writing it kind of in this fantasy world of what I call upstairs, you know, and these guides that are up in this other realm and they’re looking at these humans going what are y’all doing?

And how do we get, how do we corral these humans that are doing these crazy things? And so I was writing this book, and, and that’s a whole nother thing that I can get into as far as if you wanna know more about how that story. And then, but I, it’s written in sort of four parts. And the fourth part got into, the, I was creating this realm of wishes and wishing, and I had these wish fairies that were, you know, seeking out wishes and how do you sort wishes.

And they had this huge realm, I called it Astraya. And like, and they, so they go find wishes and then figure out who deser, you know, where they go and, you know, the whole world of wishes and wishing. And then, and one thing that’s so interesting about science fiction, right? Is like, there’s science and then there’s fiction.

Well, I kind of, I kind of bridged that gap, in a, in a unique way, I think is, so I was doing world building, right? And, you know, I’ve seen your show, when you’re talking about the world building and how you have to make some decisions about what’s your world. And I’m having to decide what’s the difference between a wish, a prayer and a goal, you know?

And so I’m, I’m getting my brain on this topic, and then while I’m writing this, I am, sometimes I’m kind of weird and I listen to science lectures to help me fall asleep. So when I can’t fall asleep, I listen to science lectures. 

[03:18] Researching Wishing Sciences 

And, one night I was listening to a lecture on neuroplasticity, and it made me wonder, I was like, wait a minute.

Is there science in wishing? And that led me into this huge, like, I call it a game of cosmic whack-a-mole ’cause these sciences just kept popping up everywhere. and that led me to write The Art and Science of Wishing, which is, nonfiction. And I researched over 70 different scientists. And so it was really, really fun to go into that exploration of what are the sciences and wishing.

And, did you know that every time you make a wish you engage over a dozen different sciences?

BETH BARANY: I did not know that. So are, is it because we’re using all different parts of our brain and biology and physics and chemistry?

BROWNELL LANDRUM: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. There’s so many different anthropology, right? With, with rituals, because usually ritual wishing comes around a ritual, whether it’s blowing out candles on a birthday cake or, you know, seeing a time on the clock or something like that. So it just got really, really fun looking at the different sciences, and that’s what led me to, to write the. It’s kind of like, you know, the, the, if you look at some of the episodes like of the Simpsons and then they predicted things that happened in the future, you’re like, this, this, this idea of wishes. And then I was like, wait a minute. How do we, how do I learn from that? How do I apply the science to that? And then how do I bring that into the world to create a better future? Right? So that ties into your whole theme is like, because the theme of my novels is Lose yourself in the fiction. Find yourself in the truth.

BETH BARANY: That’s beautiful.

[04:48] Testing Wishes in Real Life 

As you were working on your nonfiction book, did you notice this operating in your own life? Or did you make some experiments on yourself around wishing and then go, oh, look, look what I manifested, or any kind of things like that?

BROWNELL LANDRUM: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, because the way I look at, it’s like I’m very clear, I’m a storyteller, not a scientist, right? And so, and when I meet people that are scientists or people who are listening, that might be scientists, I’m like, I respect you. If you got questions or concerns or improvements or any, you know, corrections or anything like that, I’m, I’m all ears.

And and so I feel like, like I, maybe I’m more like one or two steps ahead of most people because I’ve done the research, but I’m still kind of learning as I’m going through this. And when I was first writing it, like I said, the the fiction book, the A Love Story to the Universe, I was making wishes myself and I was like, wait a minute, this is an unusual way to make a wish.

Is that, what’s the impact? And it led to this kind of question of what would happen if people stopped wishing. You know? And, and that’s that kind of the fantasy world, right? Is that there’s a crisis on earth where the main character stops wishing as she, she flips the script on wishing, and then all of a sudden there’s chaos upstairs because what would happen, and it’s happened before in history. And so they have kind of these experiences where, you know, there could be a whole system shut down.

And and so that’s kind of the. Jumping off point is what would happen if we, if we lost it? And then, and so that was part of the exploration. And then the next part of the exploration is what would happen if we started wishing together.

BETH BARANY: Which we kind of do in our collective rituals that we do, through religion, through sports, through song, through performances. You could even call all of those collective tools. 

BROWNELL LANDRUM: I talk about the four responses to a wish. And they’re “yes,” “no,” “wait,” or “something better.” And so when you ask like, am I experiencing this? Yes, there are things that I’m experiencing it and learning my own process of the sciences, to apply the sciences to the wish and watching my own world expand.

And one area I think you probably really like is, I, in fact, I’m getting ready to do a Ted Talk. And I’m super excited. 

[07:03] Writing Rituals and Brain Modes 

I’m gonna be talking about this and I’m gonna be talking about something called the Default Mode Network. And as a creative person, you know what that is, right? You know, when we get into this mindset and we’re trying to come up with something, it’s hard but when then we go wash the dishes or take a shower like Aaron Sorkin, you probably know that his thing is when he can’t, when he is in writing mode, he’ll take seven showers a day sometimes just to get into the default mode network. So it’s just fun stuff, you know, the science is fun.

BETH BARANY: I like washing the dishes and I also like walking. Walking is key to my writing ritual and then sometimes it’s self-talk. So walking and talking before I sit down to write.

BROWNELL LANDRUM: Right. And then sometimes if you’re writing and you get stuck, right, sometimes those little breaks, and what’s happening in the brain, it’s turning off one part of your brain and turning on another part and that’s what the default mode network is. So you think, oh, I’m zoning out. And especially if you start out with a wish.

So I think here’s a ritual for your writers is start out with the wish. What do you wish for this book? What do you wish for this story? What do you wish for your audience? What do you wish for your characters? And write from there. And then all of a sudden you’re gonna see it’s gonna turn on something called the reticular activating system, which is going to be looking for those stories.

And then the default mode network happens in a different level of the brain that says, okay, well, I’m not thinking about it is when the ideas come and then you have to capture ’em when they do, right?

Because sometimes they go and come and go and then we’re like those middle of the night ideas. We need to, you know, write down or voice record is what I use.

BETH BARANY: Yeah, I was gonna say voice recording is great. Writing them down. I have a lot of pencils and notepads by my bedside ’cause pens don’t always work. And a pencil will work even if you’re like lying on your back trying to write upside down. Yeah. And getting into the habit of capturing your ideas as they come.

That’s great. I love those questions. They are core to anytime I’m stuck in the editing process, I go right back to those questions in terms of: What is this story really about? What does my character want? What do I want as an author? And what do I want my my readers to experience? And what are they reaching for? So those are such great, great core questions. 

[09:10] Prolific Output and Writer Tips 

So understand, you’ve got the novel that led into the nonfiction book, and then you said there’s another, is it a fiction that you have after that?

BROWNELL LANDRUM: Before that, that’s the big epic reincarnation, mystery, and love story. It was a trilogy. I’ve written over a dozen books, so it’s like, well, which one? ‘Cause I do have a, a Tetralogy, which is four books of a more like a love story, but it’s, it’s a metaphysical, you know, going into past lives, and then the fantasy of this, of that.

And then the most recent one it’s called We Meet Again and it’s a trilogy. And then who knows what’s next. 

I’ve written a bunch of screenplays. The couple of screenplays that I’m, I’m halfway in the process of writing. One’s a, a young adult, kind of adventure kind of thing and it gets, you know, it all gets into the mystical and metaphysical and things like that. So it’s, it’s fun.

BETH BARANY: I love how creative you are too in working on scripts.

[09:57] Whats Next and Free Resources 

So when you are, uh. and about in the world. Do you offer any goodies or freebies or anything that people can go, Ooh, I want that. So people, can sign up for, do you have a newsletter people can sign up for?

BROWNELL LANDRUM: Yeah, I’ve got, you can read the, the, the A Love Story to the Universe is written in four parts. So the first part, I can give to your listeners, for free, and if you wanna read the first chapter of The Art and Science of Wishing, I can also offer that. So.

BETH BARANY: Oh wonderful. Yeah, be sure to give me the link for that. So we’ll be putting that everyone in the show notes and people can find you @brownelllandrum.com. Right?

BROWNELL LANDRUM: That’s right. I’m the only Brownell Landrum, so I’m on all the social media and I’m gonna be building my YouTube channel. Look for that because we’re gonna be having some fun things with what I call cosmic wishes. And, it’s gonna be really, really cool. So, please, please stay tuned back.

[00:10:46] Writing the Future Closing

BETH BARANY: I love that. Well, as we finish up, I love to ask my guests this question outta the blue, but not so much, which is when you think of how to write the future, what does that make you think of?

BROWNELL LANDRUM: It makes me feel like there’s a responsibility to deliver something that has enough meaning and purpose. Like I talk about cosmic wishing needs to be peaceful, positive, and purposeful. And if it’s purposeful, then you can actually guide people toward a better future and more positive future.

BETH BARANY: I love that. I love that. Well, thank you so much Brownell, for coming on today at How to Write the Future Podcast. And I just wanna say to everyone here, write long and prosper. Bye. 

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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. 

 

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