Embrace the dread.
“…bloody minded enough to love the dread”
Dread is the shadow side of caring about the work.
Two goofballs who happen to have doctorates
About the Goofballs
Ben & Mike's Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing Adventures is a podcast about the making, not the made. Two writers sit at the desk and compare notes on fear, drafts, maps and magic systems while the work is still unfinished. It's for anyone writing genre fiction, beginners especially, who would rather have company than a rulebook.
Our Story
Every writing adventure starts with a small disaster. Ours involved a boa constrictor called Eric.
In 1997, in an undergraduate creative writing class, Ben read out a story about the neighbour's boa constrictor, who ate a Shetland pony. “That was the first time I noticed you,” Michael says (Ep 1).
Nearly thirty years later, one Goofball is a fantasy novelist with an eight-year, 270,000-word book. The other is a copywriter turned academic who gets up at 5:30 to write science fiction before work.
Season One is the two of them working it out in public: “a practice based writing adventure” (Ep 2), not a lecture.
- 1997The snake eats the ponyA creative writing class, a short story and a friendship. Ep 1
- c. 2019Fantasy FebruaryA bunion operation leaves Michael bedridden, and he starts writing epic fantasy. Ep 1
- c. 2024The book dealA three-book deal for Gods of the Hollow Wild. Ep 1
- 2026Season OneMichael hands in his manuscript; Ben finishes his first section. Ep 6
Why we do it
Purpose
To make the solitary part of writing less solitary.
Mission
To show the working in every episode: the dread, the digressions, the 500th rewrite of chapter one.
Vision
More people finishing the strange books only they could write.
What we believe
Six things we keep saying
Each one came out of an episode, so each one comes with the line that started it.
There is no final draft.
“It's okay for this not to be the final version.”
Perfectionism belongs at the end.
Make the mess first.
“But you need something to fix in the first place.”
Through the process of making the mess, you invent the good stuff you get to keep.
Lift a little more.
“…you can't do everything all at once and you've got to build up to things.”
Progressive overload, like in the gym: one point of view, then three.
Fun first, logic later.
“Just lead with the emotions. Let the logic come afterwards…”
Tropes are there to “rinse and repeat and remix”.
Show, don't prescribe.
“…not telling anyone what to do, just saying, well, this is how we solve problems.”
Beginners get the same respect as editors.
The Goofballs
Ben and Michael, as drawn
Flat caps, not headbands. The caps are the uniform.
Hover Red
Ben
Dr Benjamin Matthews. Copywriter turned academic, with about 25 years as a professional writer behind him. He always secretly wanted to write science fiction and fantasy, and now gets up at 5:30 to work on a science fiction novel whose ship's computer has just been given a point-of-view chapter of its own.
Known for: analogies, a great many of them.
Dread Sea
Michael
Dr Michael Sala. Literary novelist, published by Text Publishing, who started an epic fantasy one February and kept going for eight years. Gods of the Hollow Wild is the first of a three-book deal.
Known for: the 500 rewrites, and the dread that arrives before them.
The supporting cast
If it could talk, make sure it's a character.
