Dogs Are Smarter Than People via Anchor
313 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsWelcome to Dogs are Smarter Than People with NYT and internationally bestselling quirky human author Carrie Jones, her slightly more normal husband, Shaun, and their dogs. Life tips. Writing tips. Dog noises. It's all here.
Bonus episodes of BE BRAVE FRIDAYS (telling people's stories of bravery) and LOVING THE STRANGE (all about celebrating the weird) and author-to-author interviews. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carriejonesbooks/support
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Episodes
Is Passion a Bad Choice? A Job A Career or a Calling.
November 10, 2020 16:00 - 23 minutes - 31.8 MBThis week during the blitz of U.S. election news, there was an article gaining some traction called “Seven Life Lessons Everyone Should Learn Sooner Rather Than Later” by Nicholas Cole who Carrie wants to call Nicholas Cage because she is old like that. Carrie has a tendency to hate these kind of articles because she thinks they are trite and insipid. But his first point hit home. It was, “If you want to ‘do what you love,’ you have to work three times as hard as everyone else.” N.Cole“Mo...
Be Brilliant About Money When It Scares You
October 20, 2020 15:00 - 24 minutes - 34 MBou will find a lot of popular content all about how to make money. There are a lot of random blog articles about HOW I MADE 8 TRILLION DOLLARS IN PASSIVE INCOME A MONTH or 22 AWESOME PASSIVE INCOME IDEAS. Which is lovely. But a lot of us writers are thinking, “What are these even talking about?” What Is Passive Income? Passive income is money that happens and builds from things that already exist. They can be from investments (like you rent a room in your house or an entire house or you o...
Writing Pet Peeves and Why You Don't Want Writing Tips From Stephen King
October 13, 2020 15:00 - 28 minutes - 38.5 MBCarrie’s number one writing pet peeve is when authors write, "I thought to myself." Seriously. You are always thinking to yourself, sweet writer, unless you’re telepathically communicating to a zombie hamster and then all bets are off. But the thing is that I, Carrie, get why authors like myself do this. It’s because: We’re worried that the reader isn’t going to get what we’re saying. We’re padding our daily word count totals for NaNoWriMo, national novel writing month where you try to ...
ARE YOU TENSE? Getting the Tension Out of Your Life and Into Your Story
October 06, 2020 19:00 - 17 minutes - 24.4 MBThis is a continuation of this week's blogs about adding tension and suspense in your writing. It's a bit short today. Sorry. Or maybe that's a good thing.... Here goes: Is My Voice a Little Tense? Tension in writing can also come from your voice. Not your speaking voice, but your writing voice, your style and your pacing. Author Justine Larabeister has a series of posts on her blogs about how she alternates action-packed scenes/chapters with more introspective scenes. Author William R...
Stop Giving a F-Word and Succeed, Writers and Humans
September 29, 2020 15:00 - 17 minutes - 23.9 MBThe other night Shaun and I imbibed some alcohol and I declared that to not have a who-gives-a-swear-word attitude is to be compliant. This made Shaun really happy. I said it because I was talking about authors and politics and being afraid to say what you think because you are afraid of backlash. I’ve been listening to a lot of entrepreneurs and marketers who all preach putting your authentic self out there so that your group of supporters are supporting the real you, not some fake, shado...
Mayo vs Miracle Whip Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Chill
September 22, 2020 16:00 - 15 minutes - 21.7 MBRuth Bader Ginsberg died last week and our timelines lit up with people mourning her death and some people exulting in it. Politics are often polarizing, but grief is often communal with people experiencing different amounts and aspects of it, but shared grief can be such a powerful thing. Kindness matters. Even to the dead. Action and beliefs matter. Especially to the still living. No matter what you think of her court decisions, which were meant to heal the ‘fractures in federal law,’ G...
Dear Bully, You Are Ruining Things Because We Are Awesome And You Are Not
September 15, 2020 16:00 - 21 minutes - 29.3 MBAbout nine years ago, DEAR BULLY, the anthology of authors telling their stories of being bullied, or standing by, or being bullies was released. Carrie was the co-editor for this anthology. And I am so proud of all the authors in there. HEY YOU! AUTHORS! I AM PROUD OF YOU! For a lot of them, it was a big act of bravery to tell their stories. For a lot of them, it was a big act of bravery just to survive. I was thinking about that right now because our country (The U.S.) is having some m...
Why You Gotta Hate Like That Bad Guys In Our Writing and Our Lives
September 08, 2020 15:00 - 18 minutes - 25 MBThis week we’re revisiting the idea of bad guys in our lives and in our writing because lots of us actually have bad people in our writing and our lives. These antagonists run the gamut from people who make us scream at their Facebook posts of Fakeness to actually physically hurting us and our community. Politics is full of making the other party the bad guy. People at work tend to make other employees or bosses the bad guys. We make bad guys everywhere. Sometimes we make entire groups of p...
Flour Tattoos and Hyperbole is the Biggest Danger in the World (That's Hyperbole right there)
September 01, 2020 15:00 - 17 minutes - 24.3 MBSo, this woman, Aileen Weintraub on the Huffington Post, has an article that’s headline is, “I’m a Grown Woman and I Still Sleep with a Stuffed Animal.” Aileen Weintraub“George is my deep, dark secret, and I’m sharing our story now in the time of COVID-19 because many of us are quietly struggling.” And the article is sweet and lovely, and poor Aileen had COVID-19 and was terribly sick and was even more stressed because George, her stuffed dog has been with her for thirty years and she didn...
Marriage is Gross and Just Say Yes!
August 18, 2020 16:00 - 15 minutes - 21.2 MBCarrie has talked about this in her blog before, but we decided that it’s time to talk about it in the podcast thanks to an inspiring presentation writer Sami Main made for the Writing Barn last week. It’s about one of the basic tenents of improv comedy and how you can use that for your writing and/or your life. Do both! Overachieve. Anyway, it's amazing how Patricia Ryan Madson's Improv Maxims, apply to writing and life and love and all that sexy stuff. Her first maxim in Improv Wisdom ...
What The Heck Do Men Want
August 11, 2020 14:18 - 19 minutes - 27.1 MBSo, over at the Good Men Project, they have a story called “Five Traits Men Want in a Partner That We Never Say Out Loud.” As a woman, I (Carrie) find this pretty frustrating. Why do men not say these things aloud? Paul Marsh of the Good Men Project writes: Most of us are just terrified of vocalizing what we want and 1) being laughed at or ridiculed in some capacity, 2) not having our desires taken seriously, or 3) not getting whatever it is we’re seeking. Marsh’s article which is anecdo...
GROWING UP WITH GRIT A BONUS PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH CHANTAL WATTS
July 30, 2020 20:00 - 21 minutes - 29.8 MBAward-winning news producer, blogger, podcaster, human, Chantal Watts is a bit of a force and she joins us on the podcast today and talks about her growing up, which reminds me so much of Jared Leto, and also how to be gritty and strong. She's amazing and I hope you'll check it out. Chantal's Links of Awesome. Chantal's Instagram Full Frontal Nerdity! WHERE TO FIND OUR PODCAST, DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE. The podcast link if you don’t see it above. Plus, it’s everywhere like Apple M...
Poop, Hate, Dentists, Flavored Booze and Jungian Archetypes
July 28, 2020 20:00 - 22 minutes - 31 MBOver the past couple of months, we’ve been talking a lot about archetypes and how you can use them in writing and life, but we’ve failed to discuss where all this talk stems from. It’s all from Carl Jung who is an old, dead, psychology pioneer who didn’t agree with another old dead guy, Sigmund Freud. Jung was about the ‘collective unconsciousness.’ And he thought that in humanity’s collective unconsciousness there were basically twelve archetypes of character. It’s like if we are all part...
Slug Bait or Sage What Are You
July 14, 2020 19:00 - 27 minutes - 37.5 MBThe Sage It’s not the herb; it’s the archetype in writing and maybe in life, although they don’t seem all that common in the real world. Super common in the tarot and astrology and numerology emails Carrie gets. So, what’s a sage? It’s a smarty pants. But it’s also a bit more. According to the individualogist.com, individualogist.com“Unlike other archetypes, the Sage archetype’s education doesn’t cease after graduation. They’re constantly applying themselves and enriching themselves thro...
Torturing Barbie: Archetype, Stereotype, or Cliché?
July 07, 2020 16:00 - 29 minutes - 40.9 MBn the past month, we’ve been talking a lot about archetypes and someone asked us what the difference is between an archetype and a stereotype. So here you go, listeners! FIRST UP, ARCHETYPES! According to masterclass.com when it comes to writing an archetype is, Masterclass“An emotion, character type, or event that is notably recurrent across the human experience. In the arts, an archetype creates an immediate sense of familiarity, allowing an audience member to relate to an event or cha...
Ghost Reaper Hot Sauce Fatal Errors and Scenes Heck Yeah
June 30, 2020 17:00 - 22 minutes - 31.1 MBFor all the great stuff about scenes, check out this link or go to carriejonesbooks.blog Writing Tip of the Pod Think about what kind of scene you're building in your story. Do you have too many character or theme scenes in a row? Dog Tip for Life Think about your life. Do you have too many plot scenes going on? Is it all drama? Is there some theme in there too? SHOUT OUT The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons...
Creators, Dirty Feet, and Archetypes
June 23, 2020 17:28 - 26 minutes - 37 MBor the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about writing archetypes for our characters and how they also apply to the real life humans we used to meet and interact with before Covid-19. There are lists out there all over the place about this. Most have slight variations on the number of archetypes or the names of the archetypes. Oh! If you haven’t heard in our past episodes, an archetype is according to MasterClass: MasterClass PeopleAn archetype is an emotion, character type, or event tha...
Are You a Seducer or Do You Fall Out of Cars?
June 16, 2020 17:00 - 27 minutes - 37.9 MBAh, yes, the archetype. Last week we talked about the misfits and the mavericks because they are sexy as hell. Again, Merriam-Webster says archetype are: Good ole Merriam-Webster“The original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies.” Archetypes, according to Tami Nantz, help us understand what makes our characters tick. She says to ask: Tami NantzWhat does he fear? What motivates him? What does he care about most? And while I’m afraid to tal...
Are You a Misfit? What's Your Archetype, Baby?
June 09, 2020 17:00 - 21 minutes - 29.9 MBThe Misfits and the Mavericks A lot of writers use archetypes in their stories. Sometimes we don't even realize that we're doing it, actually. There’s something really compelling about the heroes that don’t quite fit in especially the mavericks. The Huck Finns and Han Solos of the world and/or universe. For whatever reason, the mavericks have turned away from civilization. Maybe it’s to find out what happened to their missing mom. Maybe it’s because their own elite family oppressed them a...
We dogs smell poop the way sommeliers smell wine. It's about nuance.
May 19, 2020 16:00 - 23 minutes - 32.4 MBRANDOM THINGS YOU LEARN ABOUT EACH OTHER DURING LOCKDOWN So, in this house we’ve learned a few random things that we didn’t know before we had to isolate ourselves because of the Covid-19 pandemic and these things include some things that were mentioned on Buzzfeed and some that weren’t including: Treasure Hunting For Gray Hair In Other People’s Hair Is Fun. People Hook Up on the Scrabble app and Words With Friends. Sometimes Your Relatives Don’t Close Cabinets. How Much Noise Your Fell...
Jokes, Stuffies, Imposter Syndrome, And Using Your Weirdness for Good, An Interview with Jose De La Roca
May 07, 2020 15:00 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBHey! Welcome to a bonus interview episode of Dogs are Smarter Than People, the usually quirky podcast that gives writing tips and life tips. I’m Carrie Jones and with me today is podcaster, actor and definitely a writer, the amazing Jose De La Roca. Jose has a new book out, START PODCASTING: THE SECRETS OF A RADIO BROADCAST ENGINEER. Jose has more than 17 years of radio broadcasting experience and now he shares with you all the secrets he knows about podcasting. Jose say he is a dad first...
Fart Jokes, Zoom Fatigue and Coronavirus
April 28, 2020 16:00 - 27 minutes - 37.2 MBWhat do you call a person who never farts in front of other people? A private tooter. What do you call it when someone eats refried beans and onions? Tear gas. Success is like a fart. It only bothers people when it’s not their own. How do you say “fart” in German? “Farfrompoopin.” These jokes are from Fatherly https://www.fatherly.com/play/21-best-funniest-fart-jokes-kids/ Hey! Our episode notes are too big for this platform, so check out carriejonesbooks.blog Writing Tip of the Po...
Sam Spellacy Friend of Awesome, Jackson Lab Research Technologist, Animal Rescuer Interview
April 23, 2020 14:00 - 25 minutes - 35.6 MBYou know how sometimes you need a real-life friend of awesome who torments you so that you evolve? And sometimes you don't know how to say that friend's last name. That's Sam for me. Sam is a research technologist at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor and she joins me to talk about evolving, being brave, and how hard it is to be my friend. Just kidding! Just kidding! Sort of. Sam does some pretty exciting research with Ron Korstange and the lab itself is doing tons of research and test...
Wild Poet Woman - How to Be a Poet with Fiona Cameron Mackintosh
April 17, 2020 02:00 - 30 minutes - 41.3 MBHey! Welcome to a bonus interview episode of Dogs are Smarter Than People, the usually quirky podcast that gives writing tips and life tips. I’m Carrie Jones and with me today is Fiona Cameron Mackintosh is a poet from Toronto and manages Elderwood Coaching who doesn’t believe in tame language for wild things, which is possibly the best thing I’ve ever heard. What do we talk about? You'll want to listen but here's a heads-up: Poetry. Why do you think people are so scared of it? What was ...
Don’t End Up With a Troll - The Two Question Rule and Relationships
April 14, 2020 19:00 - 27 minutes - 38.2 MBOkay. We’re married, but we weren’t always married, right? Like it didn’t happen when we were two and the first people we married were cough definitely not each other. But we’re going to talk about dating anyway. And there is this concept that’s on Shallon Lester’s YouTube videos called the Two Question Rule. Lester is kind of a gossip columnist and sex advice person, but we’re going to be okay with that for this podcast. This is not related to the five-second rule where you get to eat foo...
Pants-drunk, Geico, Stinky Beer, Government Cheese - Things get weird
April 07, 2020 15:00 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MBWhen you think about people getting drunk in their underwear, you tend to think of Joe Exotic and the people on Tiger King, the hot-AF Netflix documentary, but the people who are masters at getting completely sloshed at home are the Finns. Yes, the Finns. They have a word for it and that word is kalsarikännit. That word means pantsdrunk They even have emojis depicted half-dressed emoji people holding a beer or a wine glass that they send each other when they are solo drinking in their und...
Ric Flair Swag, Social Anxiety, and Indie Publishing! Bonus Interview w/ Writer Jordan Scavone!
April 02, 2020 18:00 - 30 minutes - 42.6 MBToday is the big day when we start posting podcast interviews with all sorts of cool, random people. A lot of them will be in the book world, but some are just in the world world. Each interview talks a bit about being brave, being vulnerable, and the stuff we can't predict. And this first one? It also has a call out to Ric Flair. What else? We talk about: Book marketing Theater for the Young Indie publishing versus traditional publishing Marketing your book Social Anxiety Teaching p...
Zoombombing, Tiger King, Kittens in Heat - Is Your Family Driving You Mad During Lockdown? This might be why
March 31, 2020 18:00 - 28 minutes - 39.5 MBNow that we’re all home and living with our significant others because of CoVid-19 aka the coronavirus from Hell, it’s making some of go a little… Well, a little crazy. Why is this? Here we are housebound with the people we love with all our hearts and suddenly just listening to them breathe is making us want to throw knives when we really should just be so thankful that we’re not sick. Are you feeling this way and freaking out about it? Well, you are not alone. Not only is Covid messing w...
Rebels Reading the Hobbit and Talking Heads Syndrome
March 24, 2020 16:00 - 23 minutes - 32.7 MBA lot of time I’ll be reading scenes in books and it will be two characters talking and I’ll only have a vaguely general idea about where they are. Maybe I won’t have an idea at all. We call this evil beast the talking heads syndrome. Cue scary music here. WHAT IS TALKING HEADS SYNDROME? No, it's not about the iconic 1980s group. Sorry! It’s where there’s a lot of dialogue going on but there’s no actual anchor for the characters. It’s like they are floating in space blabbing at each othe...
How to Conquer Writer's Block in the Time of CoVid-19
March 17, 2020 17:00 - 19 minutes - 26.2 MBSo normally Carrie writes the podcast part of the podcast and this week she had no idea what to write. Should she write about Covid-19 and try to help people with things to do during their lock downs and times of social distancing? Should she totally ignore that and we go the other route with a happy, fun, dorky and totally non-informative episode? Should she cry? It turns out that Carrie was thinking too much and giving herself writer’s block. Writer’s block is something Carrie never gets....
Don't Be a Punk. Coronavirus and People Being Liars
March 10, 2020 17:00 - 19 minutes - 26.2 MBIf you’re going to write or communicate, it’s really cool to know what you’re writing or talking about. What? I know, right? Here’s the thing. You think that you know everything until you realize that you don’t half as much as you thought you did. We live in a time period where everyone is yelling, ‘fake facts,’ and ‘false news’ and ‘liar.’ We live in a time period that’s amazing because so many of us have things like indoor plumbing, internet access, prescriptions, food. But we also liv...
Ride Hard. Seven Tips for Aspiring Writers
February 25, 2020 16:00 - 14 minutes - 19.5 MBTips for Aspiring Writers? Everyone gives them. But these are the essentials that were inspired by a hot-wings induced stupor. Shaun doesn't believe you can get drunk off hot sauce, but I'm here to tell you that I (Carrie) can. Seven Tips for Aspiring Writers Write your ideas down anywhere and everywhere. Don’t think that you’ll remember the amazing ideas you got while in a half-drunken stupor from too many Buffalo wings. Have a notebook or notes file on your phone. Write that stuff down. ...
Surviving Road Trips, K-Pop, Stranger Things, and the Takis Burn
February 18, 2020 15:00 - 12 minutes - 17.1 MBThis week, we've stepped away from our normal format because we're on a massive road trip from Maine to Georgia to Florida and back again. So much time in the car is making our brains a bit - a bit - a bit - broken? Have a listen. There's a special guest. She's eleven. She's got opinions just like her dad. Apologies for the car noises. That's because we're in the car. Come join us. Big News! I just published a super cool adult novel. Gasp! I know! Adult! That’s so …. grown-up? Rosie J...
What's Evil is Killing Your Relationship and Your Character?
February 11, 2020 17:00 - 20 minutes - 28.8 MBThere was a post on Medium on PS I LOVE YOU called, “The Silent Relationship Killer You Never See Coming” about how the silent relationship killer is basically routine and sameness. The author, Barry Davret, compared relationships to a song that you love so intensely you listen to over and over again obsessively, but then suddenly, you are done with that song. Couples, he says, set weekly and daily routines after that initial burst of frantic attraction and then? They get bored of having i...
Are you Beige? Do you Think in Words? Or Images? Not everyone thinks the same!
February 04, 2020 20:00 - 20 minutes - 28 MBThis week, I’ve been editing two male authors’ stories and there is a lot of internal monologue embedded within the paragraphs of dialogue and exposition. At the same time that I’ve been doing this a man’s reaction to some people not having an inner dialogue has gone viral. It began with a tweet as so many things do. Kyleplantemoji wrote: Fun fact: some people have an internal narrative and some don’t. As in, some people’s thoughts are like sentences they “hear,” and some people just hav...
Banff, Beer, Balls, and Going to the Dark Side, Baby
February 02, 2020 15:00 - 19 minutes - 26.9 MBWe have a bonus podcast this week and it has swears in it and some adult content, so we're going to give it an explicit rating even though it's not super explicit. We're just chill like that. The bonus podcast features: Shaun lying Banff Film Festival! Carrie talking about third grader writers. Note: They have their characters rip their own hearts out in stories. The fact that the word 'fart' is a terribly ugly word and Carrie never quote-unquote 'rips one.' Bud-Lite We're super psych...
Dude, Don't Whatever Me
January 28, 2020 21:00 - 14 minutes - 19.5 MBWe like to think that our lives have a point and that they matter. I think they do, but we’re not here to get all esoteric on you. We’re here to help you be better writers and humans and one of the biggest things we need to tell you is this. You need to ban the ‘whatever.’ If you want your life to have a point then you need to give it a point. If you want your story to have a point? Same thing. Your life and your story should never be about ‘whatever.’ In life, you fix things when they ...
Don't Vomit in the Taxi and How to Tell a Good Story in Three Quick Steps
January 21, 2020 15:00 - 19 minutes - 27.3 MBThis week Carrie was in Georgia hanging out with her daughter who had just had an operation. Her daughter is fine! Anyways, on the way to the airport at 4 a.m., the taxi driver told her story after story, mostly about the drunk people from Fort Benning who had ridden in his cab. He was an amazing story teller and I realized that sometimes writing is just like telling a big anecdote. And you don’t want to be boring. We all know the people who have super boring anecdotes that just go on and o...
How to Be A HAPPY writer, Big Foot, Statues that Pee
January 14, 2020 14:00 - 18 minutes - 25.7 MBThis week’s podcast is about something really important. It’s about remembering to have fun. For a lot of us, life has a ton of stressors and responsibilities. We have to make enough money to survive. We have to take care of our family and ourselves. We have to deal with a world and not succumb to constant catastrophic thinking about the state of the world. It’s easy to forget to have fun. Or to feel guilty about having fun. Or to feel guilty about having hobbies. And here’s the thing. I...
How to Deal with Distractions like Trolls and Panting
January 07, 2020 19:00 - 22 minutes - 31.2 MBDealing With Distractions How do you write (or live) when you’re surrounded by distractions? Recently, a great teacher was talking to me about me being his writing coach, but he was hesitant to start right now because of his new class load. I’m a seize the moment kind of human because I always expect to die tomorrow. That ticking-clock point of view keeps me moving and going despite distractions, but I know not everyone is that way. When I was a newspaper editor and Em was little, I was a...
Attacking Seagulls, Mr. Taco and New Year? New Writer You?
December 31, 2019 14:00 - 21 minutes - 29.7 MBThis week on the podcast we talk about:Mr. Taco, Attacking Seagulls, Doing the Raccoons, and Goals. Also, Shaun sings. So it’s the New Year and as we all know it’s all about goals and looking back and creating our lives in a new way. People are spending money on exercise equipment and diet food and all that, but you know what? The you that you are? It’s totally fine. Writers especially feel pushed towards outside affirmations and validations. We think, “If I traditionally publish a book,...
Subordinate Me, Santa Claus
December 24, 2019 18:00 - 27 minutes - 37.5 MBSubordinate clauses are baby clauses that can’t stand all by themselves as complete thoughts and they demand a certain kind of punctuation – or lack of punctuation. Here are examples: If I can find Santa, then we can go party. We can go party if Santa ever freaking shows up. So, in both of those sentences there is a clause can’t stand alone as a complete thought: If I can find Santa If Santa ever freaking shows up. A subordinate clause or supporting clause is basically a clause that’s...
Santa, what are your eyebrows doing? Telling Details, Christmas Parties and Taco Bell Smells.
December 17, 2019 20:00 - 23 minutes - 32.4 MBThe Magic of The Eyebrow and Telling Details What is this thing? This telling detail? It’s a phrase or an image or a word that illustrates something about a character. It’s pretty exact. It’s a magical moment of showing rather than telling. It’s usually pretty short. And it’s the opposite of a telling description. Here’s a bad description: He was nervous and scared and sad all at once. Here’s a telling-detail description: He soothed himself, rubbing the tips of his own ears over and ...
Are You A Drama Queen or a Melodrama Queen
December 10, 2019 20:00 - 21 minutes - 29.1 MBAt its most basic a story’s components are these – a beginning, a middle, an end. The beginning is the situation or set up. The middle are the complications. The end is the resolution. Our lives are like this too. We begin in certain circumstances. We live and encounter complications and then we end. But even within that simplified construction there are divisions. There are vertical stories and linear stories, which is a fancier way of saying stories that are character driven or plot d...
Florida Man and the Queen of Kittens - Writing With Yearning
December 03, 2019 16:00 - 18 minutes - 24.8 MBStories are about people having emotions. Writers who write from their heads (outlining like crazy, etc,) are often missing out on the emotion because they are analyzing how to show emotion. But it’s desire and yearning that makes stories stand out and makes writers into artists and truth tellers. Robert Olen Butler says that yearning creates a dynamic of desire and that dynamic of desire creates plot and story. The need, the yearning, the want, is something that needs to bleed out into th...
Road Rage When North Meets South
November 26, 2019 12:57 - 23 minutes - 32.4 MBThis week? Well, our podcast is not our normal format because we’ve been in the car for… um… Okay? Forty-eight hours? Apologies! So, this week we drove from Maine to Vermont to Maine to North Carolina to Maine. In North Carolina, we went to Shaun’s dad’s funeral and it was the first time that Carrie’s been in a Southern church. And we learn that there is an adult-themed section of Shaun's brain. WRITING NEWS LEARN WITH ME AT THE WRITING BARN! The Write. Submit. Support. format is desig...
Dog Poop and Shame
November 20, 2019 00:00 - 22 minutes - 31.4 MBWhen people look at our dog Gabby, they almost always say, “Oh, she’s so beautiful.” Gabby, however, isn’t beautiful by breed standards. She’s actually a mess. Her muzzle isn’t boxy enough. Her back sloops. Her hips splay. She’s about twenty pounds too skinny. And that’s mostly all because she was abused and starved her first year of life, tied by a chain to a tree in the Alabama fields. But Gabby isn’t about shame. Gabby is about being – being joyous, loving, and keeping her flock of kit...
Yo! We're High Concept
November 12, 2019 18:00 - 23 minutes - 32.6 MBSo there’s a quick and easy way to figure out who you are and who you want to be, but also figure out what your book is and what it wants to be. It’s called the high concept. It’s the dramatic question. It’s the way you describe in a quick captivating phrase all the energy inside your novel. You can also do this for your life: Like mine would be: Latchkey kid overwhelmed by family secrets sets out to find out who she is in a world that really couldn’t give a crap. Sorry! Sorry! That’s so...
Motivation and Creativity And Hand Pies
November 05, 2019 14:00 - 27 minutes - 37.4 MBWe all want to be creative. We all want to be amazing at relationships. This guy, Benjamin Hardy, PHD, wrote an article on Medium exactly about that. It’s called “21 Behaviors that will make you brilliant at creativity and relationships.” Basically, his article is saying that people limit themselves by defining who they are, what they can do, and what resources they have. This article is wildly popular with 31,000 likes, which means he’s made a ton of money off this point of view. And with ...
Licking The Kitten and Embracing Vulnerability
October 29, 2019 18:00 - 23 minutes - 31.9 MBShaun: A week or so ago, someone told Carrie that she’d be better served if she didn’t present as insecure on her social media. Carrie: For the record, I am just open about when I’m scared about things. I’m not sure insecurity is the same as fear. I mean, I guess it is to a certain extent. But I’m not insecure about who I am. I like who I am, an occasionally anxious, goofy, smart, creative, quirky, open-book kind of person. Does that sound like who I am? Shaun: Pretty much. Carrie: Anywa...