The One with Peter and Erica - Part Two

Please pass the pie. Hey, everyone, welcome to this podcast needs a title. I am Eric Davis. And I am Peter Malone Eliot. And this is real talk about writing, publishing and everything in between. This is a little bit of a different episode than usual. today. We have no guest Yeah. Just us. It's just us. And you know, to be honest with you, I'm a little scared, but we'll see how it goes. We'll strap in and we'll, we'll oil up and we'll be ready to do that. Okay, but you got you do you, buddy. How are you? How are you? Good. I'm doing okay. In life. I am a little frustrated. Because I'm cooped up. It's been raining here for close to two and a half weeks. And I know there's a lot of stuff happening with weather across the globe right now. But that doesn't diminish the fact that I'm cooped up because of the pandemic, I'm cooped up because of this rain. I mean, it's like, it's not like they can't go outside with an umbrella. There's electric storms happening and we get notifications like please step away from your computer do not touch electrical equipment at this time. And we have one rolling in in a couple of hours. So I'm nervous, but I'm nervous because house, two doors away from us caught was hit by lightning about a week after we moved in. Oh my god, they were shut down. They had to redo reconstruction on it for eight months. And so that is elderly, helping. Yes. Wow. This elderly couple was displaced for eight months. They their homeowners insurance, I think put them up in a condo around the corner. But they couldn't live in it because their attic caught fire their TVs like their TV shut off. They thought it was a power out. It's a small neighborhood. So everybody got to know what happened. But it I was on a call with my previous job at the time. It was the loudest sound I've ever heard in my life. Yeah, I can imagine. And you felt that rumble It was literally only two houses away and we're very lucky. But the storms here in Florida I'm learning do not joke around. So we did just have a generator put in which is great, but we do it. We do it here to any evacuation mandates and flood zone evacuation mandates. Good. Good. Oh. But don't get me wrong. I love storms. That's where I power up. So, so to speak. Yeah, yeah. Wow. All right. Well, I'm how I'm grayskull. I asked me how I'm doing No, I let me just make sure I'm done talking about myself. Yeah. Okay. And in conclusion, I'm done talking about myself. How are you doing, Peter? I'm good. Thanks for asking Erica. I know I actually am. Really? No, I actually am I just I just I've finished moving into my New York apartment. So I'm all set up here as Erica can see my listeners can't. It's a pretty swanky setup. You guys. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah, it looks if I may, like mid mid century. Modern modern modern Yeah, there definitely wasn't reading Peters lips just now. minutes. Wow. That looks mid century modern. Yeah. Out of the pages of madman men men. Close enough. We got there. makes the dream work. Yeah, no. So anyway, so I we did all that. And I finally figured out a way to not have to record in my little closet. I got like this little like, the best way I can describe is like the cone of silence from get smart. It's like a, like a phone all encompassing thing around my microphone. So you know, so that's nice. It's sound will be sweating and in shadow. I'm very glad to hear that. And I can see your face. There's light, you know, an air circulation. I can't see the air circulation but you're not passed out. So I'm glad for you on that score. True. And yeah, from my angle. It looks more like a bonnet of silence. So I'm gonna call it your bonnet. Okay, just everybody. I just this is quite and this is a little bit of an aside but we'll all allow it. I this is the happiest I've been in a long time. I absolutely love Brooklyn. Oh, yes. Also you figured out how to shut up your washer. I did my washer was making a lot of rumbling noises and it was annoying me and we almost had to cancel because I was getting cranky. But I figured out how to turn it off pt pt Greg is not fun. Oh my god not a good so we made because of that he and I just made Peter and I just made a pinky promise to each other to read to ask for a reschedule anytime we noticed that the other one may or may not be up to their most podcast recording worthy self. We're allowed to get grumpy we're allowed to be grumpy. Maybe we're gonna have a grumpy episode and that's okay. I have an entire grumpy carebear outfit. Oh wow. onesy not the one that It's just a pajama top. And sweat pants that match. I need. I need to see this outfit. I need to. Oh yeah, sure. I actually almost wore it today. But I'm like, No, let me go pro on top and pajamas on bottom. So here we go. All right. Yeah. So we so we've reserved the right to say, Hey, buddy, let's take a day. You're being a dick. We're not. We're not? Well, you're not punching the screen? Because my face is not right. So, to that end, God, this is where I'm like, well, let's bring in our nobody, because there's nobody. I want to bring in my nobody right now. But you know what I can do? We can go Okay, I know we can do but he will say on the same time, ready? 11321? Why? How did you do? I did very well. My accountability goal was to finish chapter 11 of my novel. And I did. So you might say you filed chapter 11 away Mad Men. I did it. That's great. shook my desk. Erica. Excited. How did you do on your accountability goal? Yeah. So for my accountability goal, the original goal was to write a check in synopsis with my story as is just to see if I remember what where I'm heading where I'm going. So on and so forth. And it came out more like a, an outline. And not like, you know, a hierarchy outline or anything, but just maybe two to three sentences for each chapter. Each major beat, and I likes it. And as I was writing it, I had better ideas for the future stuff that isn't even written yet. That's why I like doing this. And I forgot why this is so helpful. So if you guys are ever feel like you're off losing the thread of not only what you're saying on your podcast right now, if you're losing the thread of where you're writing, if it's something you're stalling out, or you're hitting what feels like writer's block, I highly recommend giving yourself that litmus test of let's check in with the story and see what I remember what I'm supposed to be writing, right? Because I have like, two better ideas than what I had before. That's awesome. I like it. Yeah, that's awesome. How did Lee Matthew Goldberg do? Lee Matthew Goldberg did well, I saw his original accountability goal was twofold. One was to finish the pitch deck for the TV adaptation of his new book runaway train. Awesome. And then the other was to reach out to reality TV stars for a blurb for his upcoming novel stalker stocked. And according to him, he said he did okay with his goals. He's waiting on his designer to finish up the pitch deck for runaway train so he didn't quite finish that But okay, he did hit up a lot of reality TV stars for blurbs and reviews and he started the stalker stock script adaptation so he kind of crushed it kind of Chablis Yeah. Good job Lee. Well, I mean, this is my read Paul our guest in so Peter in here. Okay. Hi guys. I like my mug or anything right now, but I was drinking an espresso but now I'm just having some water. Hey, take your water ready? Here's to Episode Five. Here's clean crushing it. So listeners we thought that this that this episode would kind of be a shorter little palate cleanser that we do this every few episodes in between guests that were just Erica and I talking about writing in craft and yeah, you know, and we've got some some things that we on our minds that we both love to ask each other. So I think that I think that's what we're gonna do if you're okay with it. I'm waiting for the automatic stance, right? I know you are but what am I hearing son of a gun? It's downpouring and I heard it in my What are these ear muffs called? Oh, if you heard a fuzzy shift and my audio it is the torrential downpour happening right now. It's nice though. It's just that's why it was so humid earlier I once had a student tell me it's like the humidity here is like walking into a jar of mayonnaise. They were talking about North Carolina but it applies and that is no terrific is a great term. It sounds like a hockey crowd in my head not compelling that that I heard a little bit but it's very very faint. Cool. All right. I'm not gonna go shut off the rain. I don't have that power on like Peter. Alright, yeah, I dragged Peter into this episode because I have some questions for him about the stuff that I'm stuck on. Like processes and habits writing habits and like it's not stuck up just stuff that I always know that I need help with. That I'm trying to work on and write read create better habits for buddy. So, Erica, I would love to know more about working on the ya horror. Yeah. Oh, I know it originally started as a middle grade horror. It did. So what prompted that change in how are you finding it? Wow. This is what our guests feel like that's a really? That's a really good question, man. Thank you. Um, yeah, NPR. You should be checking out Peter Milan, Elliot, because his q&a is pretty tough. Don't Don't say it like that. Nevermind, I'm not gonna hire you now. What was something about writing question was originally your why horror that you've been working on started as a middle grade? Yes. And I just wanted to know kind of a what prompted that change and be how are you finding it? Oh, yeah, I love reading middle grade anything, all of it the thrilling psychological terror, gormless horror books. And so that's what I started trying my hand at, and I was really enjoying it. And this one story. It was originally titled, this is how scary movies start was titled, no, thank you, um, was this kid obsessed with scary movies and learns her wilderness survival skills from scary movies, because that's what she that's the trend that she notices is like, if only though that main character, or that secondary character, or that tertiary character had known how to, you know, survive, survive a run through the woods or light a fire or whatever, they would have survived and so right. And I had to get that character in a situation where she's without adults, which I couldn't care less about, including adults in my books. It's like, I don't mention parents. I don't mention teachers. And once I figured out that, I just liked that middle grade age, innocence. But she wasn't old enough to do stuff on her own without, like, possibility, like law getting involved and like she's a missing persons and she can't kill people. In the middle grade. It's that's, that just doesn't fly with agents and publishers right now. So I wanted this, this character had so much more potential than what 1213 year old could do, right? In real life, realistically, speaking. Sure, sure. So I'm like, let me just see what this is. Like, if she's let me give her 10 years. 22 Okay. And I and I'm thinking like, I don't know why it took me so long to decide that I was not a mature 22 year old, I was not ready for drinking. I was not ready for parties. I was not ready for college. I was a very late bloomer, and I'm like, hey, if that's true for me, that's gonna be true for other people in this universe. So yeah, that's going to be true for her as well. My main character. Awesome. So I picked her up and dropped her and aged her up 10 years. She still has her weirdness or quirks are just no filter like picture if Dwight schrute and Liz lemon had a kid. Like, that's just the the asexual pneus of Liz lemon and the just bluntness and outlier stuff of Dwight schrute. Like, that's her. And yeah, those are two of my favorite characters in the world as well. So the best Yeah, it's just, I'm not forcing her to be like that. But I'm, she's becoming naturally like she's surpassing that. So I'm really happy with her. So I am finding it so much easier to write her story as with her as a young adult, as a 22 year old, because I don't have to worry about her about, you know, real world rules on genre. And as much I mean, there's still some parameters I want to meet. Yeah, of course, of course. Yeah. And I mean, I can't break the rules until I know what they are. So I I'm learning a lot more about why I read a lot of why I never thought about writing it until I was getting stuck with a 12 year old Gert, my character's name. That's interesting. Yeah. And I think I love it because I, I really don't have to mention adults in this, like parents and teachers and professors. But I am now and it's, it's just so funny how these secondary characters are coming up in the story because she doesn't have to obey her parents. But she still does because there's that sense of family duty and her moral compass is to like respect their boundaries. But there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes in her family that she doesn't know about. And it's very intentional that her family hid some stuff about herself from her. And I mean, spoiler alert, this is Gertz coming of rage story. If you think of rage coming of rage, and it's just the best way I can describe it because I just remember for myself like around that age, I had never really been angry. And I'm still okay with that. I'm not wired for rage or anger. myself okay. I very much am I very much. I respect that. I'm going to talk in soothing tones for the rest of the podcast. When it but when I do feel when I do feel rage in real life. It's typically, literally it's a food allergy reaction. Or, you know, like in terms of like the symptoms you get. Yes. Yeah, it's it's interesting. So it's like, I don't know how to describe it. My body just doesn't react well to the foods that I have an intolerance for. Right. There's allergies and there's intolerances. And one of those reactions for me is like irritability, which is a hot blooded Sicilian. That I am. It's amplified. Yeah. So all of that to say, I am really liking the freedom. I just feel like I don't have as many shackles isn't the right word that like restrictions. Because she can swear she can. She can flirt. I mean, yeah, a 12 year old can flirt too. But like, she could also punch a guy in the nuts to be if he's getting too. Yeah, that's cool. Did I answer? Yes, you did. You very much did. And I know, I know. You're you mentioned to me that you're working on a script adaptation at the same time? Yes, I am. I do want to say the adaptation is helping the manuscript. And the manuscript is helping the adaptation, but they are two totally separate stories, because I can get away with a lot more in a manuscript because I don't have to worry about the special effects budget. And I'm lucky enough to have those two modes in my writing tool belt, where writing a young adult fiction piece is one set of structured rules that want to follow one sandbox. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And screenwriting is this other sandbox. And yeah, I do think about the fact that like, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot with this script. Because it's an outlandish set design or something. I would be careful. I mean, you didn't ask me for my gift. But I did know, okay, I have to do a podcast with you. I absolutely. try as best you can not to worry about stuff like budgets, and whatnot while you're writing the first draft. Now, obviously, when you start revising, and you want to make it more, you know, marketable, and yada, yada, yada, then you can go in and strip some things back. All right, when you're crafting the initial version of it, kind of just let the balls out the pasture and just let them roam and just kind of just see where it goes. I don't typically take well to unsolicited advice. But that is allowable. Okay. Have you ever switched one character into a different age all of a sudden? No, I can't say that. I've done that. But there have been projects that I've worked on where it's I've started out, thinking it was gonna be one thing, and it's turned into something very, very different that that has happened to me quite a bit. Quite a bit, but it's happened. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, like, for instance, the thing that I'm working on now, which is my first novel, it's an adult psychological suspense. Originally, I come from a film and TV and playwriting background. So I was thinking about, you know, something that would be I was thinking, you know, okay, like, I was, I was putting on my filmmaker hat. I was like, Okay, how can I make this something that would be good to be adapted, right? So I was initially going to be a very contained one location, kind of like, propulsive pedal to the metal thriller. And as I started working on the characters and developing it, it became it's still a suspense, thriller, psychological thing, but it's much more expansive, because I realized kind of what you were saying, when you're doing a novel, there's so much more you can do. I mean, just the The possibilities are kind of endless in terms of stuff you can explore and stuff that you can't and film and TV because of the structure. So it's it's become a much deeper, character driven suspense novel that takes place over three different time periods. And it's, it's become much more complex isn't the right word, but like much more layered? I would say, Oh, all right. Yeah. So that that's, that's probably the biggest example of what you're talking about that it's the most recent Anyway, there's also I did an adaptation of my mother's novel on our war torn sky. The way in the book is, it's um, you know, it's a book is 300 pages. This is like 300 350, I think, and it's very, by nature. The story is Henry forester. He's a bomber pilot in World War Two, he gets shot down over enemy lines, and he has to make his way back and survive. The French Resistance is loosely based on my grandfather. And so like, by nature of that story, the it's very episodic, right, because it's, there's not just one person with a French Resistance, right, right. But when I was making it into a film, I had to condense and compress the timeframe, a lot more and focus on two or three characters as opposed to you know, the however many there are in the, in the novel, so it became much more Have a much more of a streamlined storyline as a result than that isn't the way it is in the novel. So that's that was a that was an adjustment. Can I ask you? I just heard Thunder? I didn't. I didn't. Okay. No, I know. But I'm, like, I'm just bracing for the electrical alert. Step away from your computer. If I start know, if my skeleton glows through my skin, I should probably get off. Probably. Just let me know if you notice anything. Okay. Yeah. This makes me want to know, how do you know when your work is finished? Like one thing is ready to be seen by not beta readers not critique partners? for like, for like for industry? Yeah. For industry industry? Yeah. So I'll speak from my film and TV background, because this is my first novel. So like, I don't really have the comparative, but in terms of in terms of film and TV stuff I have, and I'm going to do this same process for my book, too. So it applies. I have a close group of readers about five people that are very, very tough. And I know they'll tell me if I mean, they're not like pricks about it, but they're tough. And they'll tell me if something is not working. So I'll do several rounds of drafts with them and have them read. And then once I kind of get I mean, you're never gonna get an unanimous, you know, yes, great. But once once I've gotten into a point where the majority of people like yeah, this is great, this is really working. This is x, y, and z. At that point, then I would get it to my manager, and then I would do a password to with him before he would send it out to industry. So for my book, what I'm probably going to do is a similar process, except for I don't have a rep yet, so I will do that process. Before it's ready to you know, send agents. Welcome. Good. Yeah. I keep forgetting you have a manager for your film industry stuff. Yeah. He's awesome. Yeah. Shout out exact book of all trades content. Great. Last name, his book. His name is Zack book. It's like the most like the best industry name in the world. Exact book. Next question, Peter. Ready? Oh, okay. I'm ready. Yeah. Do you have a specific writing routine? On a daily weekly level? Yes. Yeah. What is it? So every day I am by everyday, I mean, Monday through Friday or Saturday, I will wake up at around 745 eight o'clock. And all right, for a couple of hours before I start my pipeline day job stuff. Wow. So Alright, from like, you know, say nine to like, 1115 1130 somewhere around there. And then I start my pipeline stuff, you know, at like, 1145 noon. 1130. somewhere around there. And I do that every day. Oh, wow. That's pretty disciplined. Yeah, I mean, does that include like, letting panda out and making coffee or espresso or? No? No, usually I do that. before and after. So now I mean, like, it's, it's pretty much I just I sit down and I focus on the test. I mean, like, you know, look, it's not like I'm just furiously typing away like a monkey in a typewriter for all feed me. Yeah, I mean, for the most part, I try and stay as distraction free as possible. That makes me curious. Do you snack while you write? I don't know. I'm gonna join john and all our other guests that have that say that they don't I don't. Yeah, I don't aim them Peter. huddle. JOHN. Brutus. A to BJ. And to add to huddle. No, no, I'm with you guys. I will I coffee have a coffee break? I but I won't I won't eat. No, I find it kind of to use John's phrase, it breaks the flow. He's not wrong. All right. I'm just still I'm still shaken by this revelation. I I'm probably a little bit more structured than usual. Just given my my athlete background. I come from a very like regimented lifestyle. So it's kind of just, I kind of just transposed my athletic background stuff in terms of structure into my writing schedule. So but that doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me. You know, I played badminton sophomore year. There you go. I love that. It's a great game. So good luck. What about you? I'm going to reverse the question on you. I genuinely forgot what the question was about writing routines and schedules and processes and do you have a set schedule every day? So yes, and No. My mornings much like you my mornings are carved out for creative work in progress time. Yeah. That does not include my dog breakfast schedule, in which I have three dogs and our high needs. Our one dog has a very severe allergy. So this is part of my warm up to my writing day. Granted, I'll always talk about my dogs if I have an opportunity. So here we go. Here we go. Henry has an allergy to the food he used to eat and it like picture jackets, but acne. He breaks out if he eats the other two dogs food or likes their bowls. So I have to like watch. And as soon as the other two are done eating, and they eat a lot faster than he does, I pick up their bowls so he can't reach them, right? Because we don't want to have to put the ointment on him anymore. Like so bad. So that sort of interrupts my morning from when I wake up until 915 930. I mean, in the meantime, while they're pottering, like I'm unloading the dishwasher, reloading the dishwasher, making coffee, maybe wiping down the counters if they're like, gross, because I hate cleaning. And like organizing dirty dishes. That's typically what I do in the mornings. But once that's done, and once the minute I see our puppy, sit down and chew on something, I know, it's like, I know they're good. It's worth time, because our pipeline team is mostly West Coast. I don't even worry about work until after 1230 which is when the dogs have lunch. So right. I unlike you, I mean, saved for that year of badminton which rocked my world. I did not have a structured schedule approach. I don't like I liked I like vague parenthetical structure like from 930 to 1230 is my creative time. Right? If, if I, if I put it on my calendar must work on whip or whip, which I did like two weeks ago. I tried it. Yeah. My, I think my oppositional defiance kicks in and like, No, I'm not doing that. Because just because you told me I have that like for you know, creative time. Right, right. I am going to freely admit here that a lot of that time the last two weeks had been Animal Crossing, which is a game from something Nintendo Switch something or other. Okay, I usually like watching other people play video games, other people being my husband. But yeah, and the friends I grew up with it was really fun. Like just the graphics were amazing. The storylines like even though it was you know, player generated, it was still pretty cool to follow the narrative. But this game is it's not as passive as watching TV or reading. I'll admit, I don't I don't have the brain to read right now. I haven't read much during the pandemic, and I was getting bored watching Downton Abbey and I'm terrified, horrified, mortified that I have to say that. So on a whim after my husband got us this switch, I had seen people posting about Animal Crossing, and I did it. It's all joking aside, if anybody's ever considering trying to play Animal Crossing. I wish I had had it when my parents were dying. I wish I had had it when I was going through that bereavement and grief and I still am going through that bereavement period it's been God five and three years respectively for my dad, my mom passing away. And it is such a healthy distraction. It's it occupies so many different pieces of my senses. And I, this sounds so weird, but my favorite part of that game or the sound effects. There's like the sound effect of my avatar eating fruit or running through mud or running through crushersand very swimming, swimming. It's like, it's like, what's that? ASMR for Erica? Well, okay, yeah, it's really the sound hats off to the Animal Crossing Foley team because it's just really good. And while I'm playing this game, I'm thinking about Gert, I'm thinking about my novel, I'm thinking about the script. And I named my avatar, Gert, and I only collect things that my character would collect. So I guess she's a puppet for me to like, act out the stuff that my character should do. It's like it's character building in like, kind of a backdoor way. So that's what I'm using it for. And that's definitely an excuse I'm using to play a lot. And I did ask my husband to tell me if he thinks I'm playing a little too much to let me know, and just not to be offended if I don't stop playing just because he told me to write like, for the last two weeks, I hadn't been writing in the mornings, I had been playing Animal Crossing, and the guilt has absolutely been creeping up that I'm not sitting button chair writing words, right. Typing and writing. Physically writing is 1/10 of my process. Yeah. And if I don't, you shouldn't feel guilty about that. You shouldn't think you know, I mean, like, it's, it's a completely valid point. I mean, look, I mean, it's I try and write every day or you know, every workday, but you know, sometimes it doesn't happen and I do something else that's adjacent to the story that helps me think about it in a broader sense. Yeah, I mean, like, you have to be able to take a step back and if something's not working, you have to evaluate why it's not working and sometimes that means thinking about your character in a kind of a backdoor way like you're talking about like Animal Crossing or something. And that will inevitably help I write a lot of period pieces so like all I'll read and watch as many things from that time period as possible. And that in a backdoor way helps myself. The other piece is that I am a lot more analytical in the afternoons and evenings so I don't edit or revise my stuff until until the evenings. So obviously, exact opposite. That's fair. Yeah. So in the mornings is, that's why I have my creative time because it takes me a while to wake up. I get up physically early, like I'm up at 637 o'clock, but I don't get out of bed until seven 730 because I'm not a very scheduled person having dogs is helping me become one which I've have needed in my adult organization life. But I've never able to revise well. In the morning. I do not edit for clients. I don't do evaluations for book pipeline in the morning at all. Because I'm like, Oh, it's everything's lovely. Don't change anything. Like I just I have no critique. At all. I am exactly the opposite. I know. I can't do any creative work, whether that be writing editing, anything that's, you know, artistic stuff. I can't do it past two o'clock, some hidden It's why I do it in the morning. I just I get it done, get it out. And then I do my day job stuff. It might my brain kind of shuts down after like seven 730 it's I tried to being you know, because like in college, like the cool thing is you go to the library at night and right at night, right? I tried doing that. And just everything I wrote was absolute garbage. Yeah. So I just I'm, I'm, I wake up in the morning, have my coffee and get to it. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. That's interesting. It is amazing how to creatives can have just completely different processes, but they're completely valid in their own right. Yeah, they are. And I'm curious, you mentioned a couple minutes ago that you also count your viewing your your intake of your consumption of popular culture as part of your process mo greed. hardegree. What are you watching, reading listening to right now that is part of that? Well, right now, the the thing that I'm writing is set in Virginia. So I'm, I'm reading and watching a lot of you know, kind of Southern things. The thing that I've been watching recently, it's not Southern, but it's a similar tone. I just finished watching Yellowstone, which is that's on my list. How is it? It's great. It's It's very, you have to go into it knowing it's very theatrical and very heightened and like almost kind of soapy. But if you go into that, and if you go into it, knowing that it's phenomenal. Wow, great. It's in my main character is a horse trainer, and all those characters and Yellowstone or, you know, cowboys and ranch. And so there's a lot of horses and stuff. So it's helped me with that, too. I've also been listening to a lot of a lot a lot of country music. Have you really a lot of country and blues and you know, indie rock and stuff like that. Do you enjoy that? to begin with? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I can't say no. I mean, like, yes. But like, it's not like I was like, devouring it. But like I enjoy like, I love the civil wars. I always have loved the civil wars. I love stuff like that. But I'm discovering a lot of new artists that I didn't know about, because it's music that my characters I know would listen to that. And that helps me think about the way they live in their mannerisms and peccadilloes and stuff like that. That leads me to my next question for you. Yeah. Do you listen to anything while writing? Yeah, I have I listen to music. Okay, what about you? What do you what do you listening to watch to help you with Kurt? Um, for good. I actually, the only thing I can listen to you when I'm working on Gert right now is the village soundtrack or this excuse me this score from the village, Mr. challans. Yeah, amazing. It's instrumental and it's just, it's perfect. That's what I can. I can listen to that. But that's it. Yeah. Otherwise, it's foam earplugs for me. I need my own my own silence. Yeah, that my mom is the same way. She can't listen to music either. Yeah, I do hit flow a lot easier when I have your plugs in. Yeah, just those foam ones. They squish them down and then let them expand in your ear. Right? If I'm doing day job stuff that's not editing or evaluations. My pipeline work is typically processed while watching or having what is it called a stranger things on in the background. And no, yesterday I started watching miracle workers on HBO. It's a comedy. Yeah, I've heard about it. I've heard it's good. Yeah. Stunning. And it has one of my favorite actors lolly in it. And she is phenomenal. The cast is great. And I was chatting with Uncle Matt about this yesterday that I don't know if this particular show would be as good as it is without a couple of big stars because it's just it's deadpan, slapstick funny tongue in cheek, almost like either the office or the office space but Middle Ages like they do not worry about anachronisms at all and it's hilarious. And this is this on HBO. I'm 51% sure it's HBO. Okay. Not very bye. I started watching that yesterday and that actually helped with some pages for my screenwriting grip yesterday's it's, it taps into the veins that I want to inject into Gert. It's always fascinating for me to learn about other writers, processes and the way that they digest characters and stories because it's just again, it's this is a terrible analogy, but like each writers process or the way they do things is like DNA. Right? I mean, it's it's absolutely different and unique to that person. And it's, it is always an interesting question that I get, and I feel like I don't always have a good answer is like, what's your process? Like? Well, I don't know. pends on the day, it depends on the budget it kind of Yeah, yes. You know, there are some projects that I outline really intensely and others that I don't you know, I mean, just to kind of just depends, ditto. Erica, I think Yeah, I mentioned something about mugs. I do if anybody listening here would like one of the original. This podcast needs a title mug. Just shoot us a DM first five people to dm us on Twitter. This is your special treat for hanging with us this entire episode. Use the phrase, may I please have a mug? And drop us your address? And we'll get it to you? Yes. Yes, that's creepy. so creepy. Yeah, but yeah, well, and we'll and I will let you know if you're not one of those five people. Well, Erica, I think that's going to conclude the episode. What do you think? I think we did a good job. I think we did too good of a job because we forgot one part. Okay. Here we go. But it's just you and me this time though. Just as I have an accountability goal. So in line with my accountability goal from last time, my accountability goal is to finish chapter 12. Oh, hey, next chapter will get you one goal, man. Yeah, one goal man. nicely, I've taken your advice to only have one accountability goal. I think that's I think having two or more is potentially spreading myself a little thin. So I'm very happy to hear that. Nicely done. Thank you. What about you? What about you, Erica? Um, my goal for next time will be to have written the next I think write the next two chapters because I write short chapters. How Okay, all right, Erica. Yes. Who do we have up for Episode Six. Oh my god. Yet again. I cannot wait for this guest. She is an author. And she probably close to a year that she's been agented now and I had the pleasure of editing for her once about a year ago and fell in love with her writing and she happens to also be a fantastic person. So we're gonna get to know Shelly page and episodes. Awesome. Awesome. And guys, if you have any questions, rants or raves about writing or you want to learn more about us or pipeline please visit Pipeline Artists calm and follow us on Twitter at the podcast title. Instagram at this podcast needs title and on Facebook at this podcast needs a title. And remember if you want a mug, just dm us and say May I please have a mug slide in the DMS daeva folding the cheese I'm talking about? Yeah, of course. The best. You don't know what Goonies is? But the folding in the cheese thing was a shits Creek reference. Yes. Yeah, maybe I don't know Goonies. Oh my god. Okay, bye. Bye. You know, that means just sex thing. It's not a sex thing.