The NormalNess Podcast – Episode 6 – Writing Satire

 

In this episode I discuss my current writing work in progress, a satire series, and how I feel confused and challenged by knowing what is good or bad. If you’ve ever felt muddled on a writing project, listen in as I am 100% muddled here!

 

You can listen below, or subscribe in iTunes.

Welcome to the NormalNess podcast, this podcast cover blogging, writing, the anti hustle life loving shiny objects, and much more. It is as nicheless as I am. And remember, we’re all normal to ourselves.

 

Welcome to the NormalNess podcast. Today I wanted to have a chat about some writing or work in progress I’ve got. Now I’m not going to be telling you exactly what it’s called, because it’s part of a series that I don’t really want to give that away right now. Most of you have probably heard of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, it’s an international, despite its name, national project, for lack of a better word that encourages people to spend November each year, writing a novel. It’s not about it being perfect or finished, it’s about getting the quantity of words out. And one of the other a month long events they do is called Camp NaNoWriMo. And I was participating in that the CEO, and I didn’t get very far. But I did have a group sort of breaks down into these little group support networks.

 

And we’re all you know, introducing ourselves talking about books, and I basically explain that mine is an odd kind of satire. And someone’s reply was that they liked the idea of it. And there are really, oh, you know, kind of like a let me know, I’d like to read it. But then they also said that satire is hard. I really respect people who can do that.

 

And it’s got me thinking about the flow, and the pace, and everything I’ve written so far in it. And not so much scared of publishing it, I really just need to I had about, I just need to add like about 2000 words, and reread it. And I’m pretty happy, let it go publish it. But it just sort of stopped me in my tracks a little bit because it is really hard to know. And perhaps it says practice. How much you need to control the joke, the story, the lead.

 

I know you just haven’t really thought about before, I never thought of satire as challenging in that way. And in some ways, I think, well, maybe it’s not maybe it has the same elements as every story it has. And I’m just interpreting what this person said and putting, you know, some kind of pressure on myself that doesn’t need to exist. And maybe that’s the case, I’m not sure.

 

But then I thought well, one of my favorite types of music, if it’s a genre, is comedy music. So unlike what Saturday continue with the song, it’s, and I’ve always liked it because of the challenge, because they’re taking something that already exists and having to completely retrofit it within this tiny little framework where they don’t actually have much wiggle room to make it familiar, which makes the satire work and good. 

 

I don’t know where I’m going with this whole topic. It’s something I wanted to talk about and talking about things get some out of my brain from with this podcast, there’s no point to anything. That’s really positive. Anyway. Satirical writing, that was my point. And the thing is that this is not just a once off, it started as a once off, which will be the first book I’ve released because it’s got the most words. But ever since then I thought I could branch out here, I could branch out. And I could branch it out to this, this and this. I don’t actually have my writing app open at the moment, which was far too many half finished novels in it.

 

But I have a quite significant amount of books on this topic. And I think, when am I going to? Am I am I going to start repeating myself? Or am I going to start repeating myself? Because it going to come to a point where people don’t want to read it. They’re all on different topics. But it’s the same principle. And I don’t misquote basically, I have no idea what I’m doing with this. It’s kind of fiction. And it’s kind of real. And I guess that’s the big blur of of what satire actually is. It is it is fictional. You’re being creative, you’re making something. But it’s got a big basis in reality that perhaps other types of fiction don’t have and neither is good or bad. But everything and creativity is personal preference.

 

Yeah, I’m just, I’m not sure basically about any of this. And it’s going to be interesting experience to see where this goes. I actually think this one particular book in the series that will be more marketable than others. And let’s put like an asterisk next to marketable because I’m terrible at marketing. I guess it’s the first one that has a niche and that’s another word I really hate using. Yeah, so I’m thinking that when that one comes out, and I think that’ll probably be the third one in the series, I haven’t completely decided. It’s a sort of thing where I kind of hope it will be the linchpin that one sort of goes, not viral, because it’s another word I hate really using words I hate today.

 

This is a terrible podcast, when I keep using words I hate. I think the one that will be most popular will be that one ends up being the draw con, it will draw people into the series, and they’ll be able to buy the books that on other topics that also interest them. Assuming I can, you know, finish writing them, release them and sustain the challenges of satire. So I mean, wish me luck.

 

If you’ve ever written satire or have any insights or resources, tips tricks, definitely share them with me, I’d be really interested to know. Yeah, and I know this is a bit of a model podcast, but this is this when my brains out with my current work in progress. And not everything’s a productivity podcast. So this is my brain. It’s my model. It’s my writing. And that’s where I’m at with it. And sometimes that’s the stage you’re at with a project.