Mommy's Pen

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The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Season 3, Episode 7: Wizarding World Chat

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Season 3 is continues!

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 3, Episode 7: Wizarding World Chat 

This week we’re straying from our season 3 format. Mostly because we’re on break and lazy. Nora decided she just want to talk about all things Harry Potter, so we did. And we give a few book recommendations.

Things we mention (or like but forget to mention) that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork, including an advance copy of my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • Pottermore – If you haven’t already, this is a great place to get sorted into your Hogwarts house and geek out on all things HP.
  • Funko Pop figurines – For Christmas we got three of these cuties: Bellatrix, Dumbledore and Dobby.
  • Super Carlin Brothers – We forgot to mention this on the episode, but Nora’s been binge watching these guys on the YouTube.

This post was lovingly sponsored by our Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – S3, E2: Empress Matilda versus Stephen

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Season 3 is continues! We’re combining Nora’s passion for history with Sue’s passion for story structure — giving you a historical story and pointing out the structural elements that make it compelling.

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 3, Episode 1: Empress Matilda vs. Stephen

Here’s how this season will work:

Nora will tell a story from history, and I’ll interject at various points to point out story structure elements. This week, we look at some British history from the 1100s. Matilda was supposed to be England’s first female monarch but tings went a bit sideways. Still, Matilda’s brilliance shines through.

To look at the story structure, I’m using what Shawn Coyne calls the “Five Commandments of Storytelling.”

Here are the five commandments:

  • Inciting incident – An exciting thing that kicks off a story
  • Progressive complications – a series of events that make the story more, well, complicated –these can be either negative or positive
  • Crisis – a question that must be answered by a choice being made
  • Climax – what happens when the choice is made
  • Resolution – the ultimate results of that choice

Then we get a bit off topic and talk about our excitement over the new Fantastic Beasts film Crimes of Grindelwald. But no spoilers — promise!

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork, including an advance copy of my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • Shawn Coyne and the Story Grid. There’s a whole story grid universe: website, book and two podcasts: The Story Grid and the Story Grid Editors Roundtable.
  • If you want to learn the whole story behind Matilda and Steven, check out the documentary “She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens.”
  • Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald — go see it! And then buy the script to help you figure out what you just saw.
  • Kristin Glasbergen – a YA author and big Harry Potter fan. You can get her serialized story, Red Magic, by signing up for her mailing list.

This post was lovingly sponsored by our Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast: S2, E4 The Performance Genre

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This week we take a look at the Performance genre.

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 2, Episode 4: The Performance Genre and “Spirit Riding Free”

We continue our exploration of genre with the help of the excellent kids series “Spirit Riding Free” from Netflix. The first half of the episode “Lucky and the Price of Freedom” (season 2, episode 7) is a great example of the Performance genre.

Read the full transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

This post was lovingly sponsored by our Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast: S2, E3: The Western Genre

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This week we take a look at the Western genre.

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 2, Episode 3: The Western Genre and “Spirit Riding Free”

We continue our exploration of genre with the help of the excellent kids series “Spirit Riding Free” from Netflix. The episode “Lucky and the Unbreakable Spirit” (season 1, episode 1) is a great example of the Western genre.

Read the full transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

This post was lovingly sponsored by our Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

Editor Roundtable: True Grit

Get Unstuck: Two Tools for Creative Types #Day5

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Wouldn’t it be nice if we creative types had an inbox on our desk that was magically filled with definable, executable work? We could sit down, pick something from the stack, bust it out and then sit back, satisfied, smug and creatively fulfilled?

But this is an absurd idea. Creative work is the exact opposite of this.

Our job is to conjure up our own ideas out of thin air and get to work.

Not easy. And hard as hell to sustain.

But it is possible. There are two tools I’ve found that have worked far better than simply sitting around waiting for a visit from the muse.

The first tool is a book. Once I mention it, you’ll start to hear about from every single creative person you respect. I first heard about it from Johnny B. Truant and John Morrow, two impressively productive writers.

It’s called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Crack it open (or better yet, get the audio book so you can absorb it while doing non-creative tasks) and this book will unleash upon you the biggest can of lovingly-dispensed whoop-ass you’ve ever known.

Pressfield defines your enemy: Resistance with a capital R, and sets about telling you what you need to know to deal with it and do your work anyway. Every person who’s taken my advice and actually read this book has kicked off an impressive period of productive creative work before they were even done reading it.

The second tool is a bit nerdy, I admit. But it’s the perfect companion to The War of Art. It was developed by writers for writers and it’s called the Magic Spreadsheet.

It’s basically a gamification strategy for making your word count. Hundreds of writers track their word count on a (free) shared spreadsheet and are rewarded for a consistent writing practice. You get more points for writing everyday than you get for the volume of writing you create, thus helping to create a regular writing practice. And when those points start to add up, and you start to see how much writing you can get done everyday if you’re accountable for it, well, it is indeed magical. 

My personal best streak of two and a half months of writing every single day (June through mid-August of last year) was entirely thanks to the one-two punch of Pressfield and the Magic Spreadsheet. It only ended with the life upheaval that the crippling fatigue of pregnancy’s first trimester can bring. And when you break your streak, you just jump back in and start again.

Go get started right now. Read the book, add your name to the spreadsheet and get to work. You’ll be amazed at what you can do.

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This week I’m doing the #YourTurnChallenge. One blog post a day for seven days. Today is Day 5.