One-Drink Book Club

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.
Here’s what we talked about in this episode:
* Breaking the flow in writing and how it’s an annoying downward spiral
* Reading Dungeon Crawler Carl and being totally jealous of Matt Dinniman
* Borrowing the mood and vibe of existing scenes from other stories
* Bill spoils The Count of Monte Cristo, then performs a story that’s just as brilliant
* I drop a pair of philosophical bombs that will be forever debated by scholars for the ages:
* Is the best motivation for writing a book “Just because you want to”?
* Are we actually writing to express ourselves, or are we writing to connect with others and therefore share an experience with other humans?


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.
Disclaimer: Please don’t respond to this episode to argue with me about AI. I have zero interest in arguing it and will ignore that sort of thing. We are neither pro nor con on AI in this episode, though my natural need to see the glass as half full does try very hard to see possibilities of good. Instead of making arguments for or against emerging technologies, we are instead mainly exploring the issue on a philosophical basis, and everyone knows that philosophical discussions are infuriatingly devoid of actual conclusions and instead end with the philosophers saying, “Nothing can be known!” and then going out and getting drunk.
Here’s what we talked about in this episode:
* What kinds of readers are there in the world? I think it’s more than most authors usually consider. Which readers are there for connection with the author’s intent, versus who simply wants the story?
* Do we write for commerce, or because we want to? (Can’t it be both?)
* Is AI a creative tool or a lurking threat? We explore some options on both sides.
* Is it possible that AI will — after some sure-to-be turbulence in the meantime — actually purify the intent of art … meaning something we create simply because we want to create it?


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.
Here’s what we talked about in this episode:
* Art isn’t something made by one person. Art, including books, is a collaborative medium, and depends on the reader almost as much as the author.
* We attack our frequent whipping boy: literary vs genre writing
* Inserting pop culture and personal references to our hearts’ content
* Here’s a theory: Writers should be amused by their own work. Makes it better for readers, right?


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.
Here’s what we talked about in this episode:
* Emma and I are finally back in the groove of writing after a long time away … and what the transition back into flow feels like.
* Working with editors and soliciting feedback … and ultimately, who are you writing for?
* Revising a completed draft and rearranging/adding scenes after the fact … and why the idea of ever doing that gives me (Johnny) chills.
* Plotting intuitively vs. overtly
* Writing and publishing as you go … sort of like what Sean and I did with Fiction Unboxed back in 2014 (on Kickstarter, before author Kickstarters were cool).


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.
Here’s what we talked about in this episode:
* WE RETURN! AGAIN! Remember how on the last episode, we said, “WE RETURN!” and apologized for being gone for two months and then I said, “We’d promise not to do it again, but we absolutely will?” Well, turns out I know us well. So we started the episode by giving updates and talking about how the end of last year was weird. THIS TIME WE’RE ACTUALLY BACK. Maybe.
* Bill’s been writing and talked about the elusive “writer’s high,” which Emma and I both said we were working hard to get back, then talked about how hard it is to find that flow state again. Damn you, Bill.
* I’m impatient with worldbuilding. I didn’t realize until Emma talked about how long it takes to build worlds.
* Why live events are the best kind of book research and business work you can do as an author … kind of like less-shitty focus groups.
* We closed with the idea of being stubborn and writing what you want, as opposed to scoping the market and deciding in advance to write something that will sell. It’s all artists up in this motherfucker, so guess which way we leaned on that one?


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com