The Nudge

Ethan Koss-Smith -- musician, poet, and resident devotee of Robinson Jeffers -- describes his process of putting Jeffers' poems to music and the particular limitations of that form. Later the group jumps into a shared writing exercise to create a 'new' form (if such a thing exists...).

Tim and Eric duet about revision, discussing what it means to leave a piece aside. How long should it be left? Should it be left at all? Why is it so difficult to climb back into the seat and take the creative spark back to an existing, grown form?

Screenwriter Jamie Grefe gets Nudged, as he begins chatting with Eric & Matt about his sound-editing and leads into a discussion of his many writing projects with various filmmakers. Jamie talks about the highs and lows of working in the business, and ultimately comes to accept failure as a healthy part of the process.

How does one engage with culture while retaining sympathy for creators and audience? Is it the role of the artist to offer themselves up to the vultures? Jason joins The Nudge to discuss responsible engagement with media, writing for the public, and old-fashioned photography.

Evan joins the conversation and brings the 2013 documentary film Tim's Vermeer to the party. Kyle and Evan debate with Eric over a definition of art, and Matt brings his perspective of process to bear. They agree, at least, that the "last five miles" of any artistic project are certainly the hardest. 

Following Matt's sitting-in on Tim's creative writing class, Tim, Matt, and Eric have a lengthy discussion on a variety of topics, from developing surprise in written work to vulnerability as a requisite sauce for quality. Beyond that, they touch on risk in writing, what it's like and whether it's possible to write 'for a prize', dealing with rejection and avoiding tokenism, and being white, male, and grown-up about it.

The boys turn their questions on one of their own, inquiring after Eric's process writing his short story "The Gold-Boned Monk". Conversation hangs around how it happened, to start, and when Tim takes off to track down his wife, Matt and Eric talk feedback, a relatively unspoken element in the writing how-to. How to give it, but as importantly, how to receive it.

Collin Scanley, amateur wrestler and professional teacher, helps the boys bridge the subject of writing with Collin's own personal interests; in the end the group finds grounding in a discussion of 'leadership,' its implications and possible definitions.

The boys discuss Matt’s piece, A Buzzing in the Corner of his Ear¸ the story of a maestro driven mad, perhaps by his musical talents, perhaps by something worse. Matt answers various interrogating questions, topics ranging from title choice to character motives, drifting periodically into places that may or may not deserve disclaimer.

The story will be published as The Remains in our upcoming text, Haergrole. However, it can also be found as a free PDF on our Discord.

The guys struggle with the day-to-day trial of writing 1,600 words per day for NaNoWriMo. They discuss the boons and burdens of memory-association, the advantages of making yourself write, and the importance of the embodiment of writing. 

After a long break in the project, the boys return to their screenplays in-process. They read and discuss Matt's untitled piece about three women on a train; Eric's "Patch," about a Twitch-streamer living two very different lives; and Kyle's "A Kiss Before Dying," about an ancient vampire in the Jersey suburbs. 

The boys bring Tim's work under their scrutinizing glass. Two fiction pieces, "A Patch of Wild Grass" and "Motley of Denial" are read. This brings about a number of discussion points regarding how refrain works in fiction, what it means to be in Kentucky but not be able to write in Kentucky metaphorically, and how to know if a story is packed too tight or strung too loose. As always, more questions than answers, but a small workshop session studying the concrete details of our own writing. To read along, the pieces are on our Discord.

Having successfully funded the Kickstarter for their new book, the guys discuss where they'll go from here and what they'll be writing over the coming weeks. Plans for NaNoWriMo 2022 are laid.

In an effort to understand 'when a thing is done', Matt compares writing to a walk through a neighborhood. He and Eric talk about writing as a physical act of labor, bound by the energy food provides us, and then move from Jenny Odell's book, How to Do Nothing into deeper territory about attention and luxuriating in that, which might provide the answers they want.

In a discussion about the future of their small independent press, the boys talk about how they might unite their writing under a common aesthetic umbrella and what kinds of other writers the press should look to promote. They also discuss taking breaks from work in order to write and the value of the hallowed 'writer's retreat.'

Join us and write along at https://discord.gg/vB7efz9pmh.

Eric & Kyle discuss conversations around the metaverse, body modification, and George Saunders. The role of imagination and 'play' in fiction also get their moments in the sun.

Kyle finishes a novel; Matt recovers his wallet; and Eric proposes a short writing session for the podcast and its listeners. The boys encounter a minor defeat and struggle to go on without what was lost.