8/15/21 – Sunday

Took a slack day and did nothing creative. Combined with taking it easy yesterday, it’s the first time in a while that I took a weekend off writing and podcasts. (Well, I did record an episode of Men in Gorilla Suits in the evening.)

8/16/21 – Monday

Creative time for the day went toward editing the latest Men in Gorilla Suits episode.

Because we shoot for an every-other-week schedule for Men in Gorilla Suits, every couple weeks—for at least a day or two—it gets more attention than writing and Not About Lumberjacks.

8/17/21 – Tuesday

A very busy day, combined with tending to bills and other things during lunch, meant no creative work for the day.

There was a time I wrote daily no matter what, but along the way I valued sleep and not stressing about things so much. The goal then became, “Did I write more days than not?” With working full time, having a life, and other things that happen during any given week, four out of seven days seems like a good target.

I still do more than many people I see who claim you must write daily, even if it’s just 10 words. That seems like a recipe for stress.

Even people who write fiction full time take breaks (often for months…even years), so cut yourself some slack!

8/18/21 – Wednesday

Got the latest episode of Men in Gorilla Suits online. (Since reorganizing much of the office, I really need to treat the space for recording. Lot of echo. You can see how I handle that for Not About Lumberjacks at the end of the first post of this series.)

Lunch break writing was a return to “Godspeed, Crazy Mike.” It felt nice getting back to writing.

Yesterday, I wrote about how I once wrote every day no matter what. For years, I had a hand-written note above my computer monitor. It was a slogan I thought of one day when I didn’t feel like writing after an extremely hot day working in a warehouse.

The note:

“Every day I don’t write is another day I have to go to work!”

At the time, I believed that I’d be writing fiction full time at some point. I still don’t rule it out, but I know most people who write fiction don’t do it full time.

Still…I loved the saying so much that I made an image that’s been my computer desktop for years using the slogan.

In recent years, I don’t view my job as a thing that gets in the way of writing fiction, but rather, a thing that allows me to write what I want with no care if it sells or not. Many of my favorite stories exist because I have a day job.

It’s one thing to use a job you don’t like when you’re younger to motivate you to write regularly, but I’ve been fortunate to move on to jobs I’ve liked — with coworkers who support the things I do.

It feels like it’s time for a new desktop.

8/19/21 – Thursday

So…about that new desktop…

As far as writing, I continue finalizing sections of “Godspeed, Crazy Mike.”

8/20/21 – Friday

Up early, and got some good writing done. I hit a point where I needed a little map of the scene where Crazy Mike’s body is found, so I roughed out a diagram on one of the main notecards I’m using to track story details.

The map is based on Volo Bog, a place a little north of where I grew up in northern Illinois. I still wanted a bit more room in case I had notes, so I figured I’d use a satellite view of the bog at the size to shuffle into my note cards. (I could keep it all together that way and write on the back.)

So, I did what I do when I make notecards for Dungeons and Dragons and cropped an area from a screenshot at size.

In the end, I left the image on a full page because it was even easier making notes where I could see everything and not have to flip things over and write on the back.

Also, I will never tire of how much the World Wide Web helps with research. (To think, I started writing on a typewriter and had to go to libraries for research…and hope they had what I needed).

8/21/21 – Saturday

More good writing and other snazzy things.

I mentioned on Wednesday, that to some degree, I used to write in opposition of day jobs. But how, along the way, I got better jobs I didn’t mind…and eventually good jobs with great people — making it easy to write what I want with no concern beyond creating (and sharing) stories.

For the past couple years, I’ve been working as a contractor at a company I like. I did one contract from May of 2019 until January of 2020. At that time, they wanted to bring me on full time, but…COVID-19 put a hiring freeze on the position.

I was brought on for a second contract in July of 2020.

Yesterday, I was offered a full-time position working with a group that’s very close to the first group I worked with. I loved the people in that first group (and the people I met in the group I’ll now work with on a full-time basis).

It would be easy to say, “Well, starting something new means more time learning about the job and less time writing stories,” but technical writers are always learning (and working on) new things. In fact, I started a novel on the first day of that first contract.

It’s not lost on me as I hope to get back to the book that it will be as an actual employee at the place where I started it.

8/08/21 – Sunday

First, on this day in 1984 (37 years ago), I left my hometown north of Chicago and moved to Southlake, Texas. (I no longer live in Southlake…left in 1987, but still live in the general area.)

It was a good writing day, with enough pushing on “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” to see where the plot breaks. Things like imagining something happening at a particular time or day in the story, only to change it. Mentioning some plant growing or a flower blooming, and realizing it contradicts other plot points or the season.

And in the process of all this, the suspects in the story just seem to happen naturally.

Obviously, I know who did it, but if I didn’t, I’m not sure who I’d suspect…

For those interested, here’s the opening…

(And no, I don’t write stories by hand…unless I have a job that requires me to be in the office. Then I do write by hand on lunch break.)

8/09/21 – Monday

The morning was mostly spent sharing online what other people I know are up to. Some charity stuff and some things people I know are up to and making. I may not get to writing until after dinner today.

“Calling Out of Time” has been out for a full week, and it has 46 listens at this point. That’s solidly average for the show. But…I’ve heard from quite a few people about the story, and it means a lot to me that it a fair amount of listeners always show up.

I thought about September this morning. Each September, I take a month-long social media break. But…I know social media is one of the ways people find out about new episodes of Not About Lumberjacks. And if all goes as planned, “Godspeed, Crazy Mike,” will be a September release.

Part of me wants to now wait until October, but I think I’ll break the social media hiatus to post about the story when the time comes next month…

8/10/21 – Tuesday

I have never been the biggest fan of the “kill your darlings” philosophy when it comes to writing. I get that sometimes you can become attached to something that doesn’t work, but if you can see that something works and is something you love, the thought of killing it if it doesn’t serve some grand purpose is weird to me. (But then, the same people who say, “Kill your darlings!” often say, “Write the book you want to read!” They regurgitate advice that often contradicts other things they spew.)

But sometimes a thing you loved doesn’t work.

8/11/21 – Wednesday

And then, sometimes the thing you thought you were going to remove does work. Not even forcing it in there because I like it…it serves its purpose, and I know it’s the kind of thing listeners and readers will like.

That’s the thing: sometimes it’s important to put something in a story for the sake of joy. Even in short fiction, not everything must drive the story forward. Often, my favorite moments in stories are those that don’t drive plot, but perhaps serve a different purpose–even if it’s just appreciating a turn of phrase.

The bit I thought I’d remove, but ended up keeping, does give listeners and readers information about the protagonist’s personality. But I could have just as easily left it out.

But I know listeners often love those little scenes that are the same scenes many others would tell me to cut.

Why, it’s almost as if people have different tastes…

8/12/21 – Thursday

With the plot laid out and tested, it’s now a matter of going in and finishing sections.

While I usually finish stories in Word—just out of habit and because there’s something about it that helps me know the story better when it’s one big, scrolling thing—I build things in Scrivener. It allows me to set up each scene in a chunk that’s easier to see.

If a new scene needs to be made…in it goes. If I need to remove something, I can set it aside until I’m sure it’s not needed.

It’s easier for me to see progress this way, even though—in the end—I’ll compile all the sections and export to Word. There, I make sure the flow works and that it’s more than just plot points completed and called done.

(The polishing done is Word is where the story really comes together for me.)

8/13/21 – Friday

Wrote a bit this morning, and then—during lunch—I dug around on Epidemic Sound for music to accompany the story.

In my first pass with music, I use Epidemic Sound’s filters to find music that fits the mood of a story, and then sample things. Anything that sounds good gets placed in a folder. (I may not use some musicians for the episode, but if I have another story with a similar mood, I can peek into something older and see if there was music fitting for what I’m working on at the time.)

I typically try finding one or two artists for each episode. Because Epidemic Sound is a paid service, I don’t have to list the music I used, but I like including it in my show notes and end credits in case someone wants to seek out something they liked.

While I don’t know which tunes I’ll use in “Godspeed, Crazy Mik,” I know it will open with Moorland Songs’ “The White Birch.”

Because I tend to use instrumental pieces, it’s not unheard of for me to listen to the tunes I save to my music folder on Epidemic Sound while writing and working on a story. While I prefer writing in silence, when the day begins and there’s some noise around that might distract me, there are worse things to listen to than music you feel embodies what you’re working on.

8/14/21 – Saturday

Today was the big season-opening day for the English Premier League.

The team my wife and I support, Leicester City, won their season opener.

We had a few beers (Rahr Oktoberfest), and then enjoyed a rainy afternoon being lazy.

After dinner, we watched some science shows and went to bed early.

I didn’t even think about “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” or any other stories until much later in the evening when I saw a tweet on Twitter than gave me a story idea worthy of jotting down in my big Evernote file of story ideas.

“Calling Out of Time” would not have been written without seeing something on Twitter that gave me an idea, and maybe something in 2022 will be the second story inspired by the site…

8/01/21 – Sunday

The day was dedicated to sound design on “Calling Out of Time.” I’m getting used to Adobe Audition. Compared to the way I did things previously, there is so much more control compared to what I previously used. It’s not a matter of not knowing all the old editor could do — Audition does so many things better.

Little things, like controlling sound levels of effects and fading things in and out are much easier. And that makes what can sometimes feel like a bit of a slog…not as sloggy.

Putting episodes together is always filled with steps that make me think, “Why do I put so much effort into a thing so few people listen to?” But I know, even with a larger following, I’d still feel that way—there are moments of drudgery in every creative thing that can be so tiring. (I think that’s why so many people try something and stop. They envision grand creative energy washing over them, but some aspects of everything can be rather boring.)

It’s part of the process.

But another part of the process is remembering that it’s always worth it when everything is put together and a thing released into the world.

I should have “Calling Out of Time” out tomorrow.

8/02/21 – Monday

I released “Calling Out of Time” today. I put together the episode art before work and got things online. During my lunch break, I posted on Facebook and Twitter that it’s out there.

I got a text message from Rick Coste during the day that he loved the episode…that the consistency of stories and sound always work for him. And that means a lot to me because Rick’s podcast, Evolution Talk, was one of the things that inspired me to start Not About Lumberjacks…just the effort and quality he puts into all he does. I may never feel I hit his levels of production, but I’m happy to have a good target.

After work, I sat down with my wife, Cynthia, and listened to “Calling Out of Time.” I love this story and the way it turned out.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll get back to “Godspeed, Crazy Mike.”

8/03/21 – Tuesday

“Calling Out of Time,” had a bit of a slow day yesterday.

It happens.

To be clear, no episode of Not About Lumberjacks gets the kind of downloads that would keep a saner person putting in so much for the show. With 40-60 hours going into most episodes (that includes writing the stories) — only to have 22 people listen on a release day — would be considered time wasted to a lot of podcasters.

But…I like doing it—writing, recording, and editing short stories. And the people who love the show really love it! (If I get 50 unique listens in the first week, it’s a good week. Most episodes have a total of 100 – 400 listens.)

It does make me think about ways to get more people listening, but it’s definitely a thing worth doing.

As far as productive work, I cut all the bad takes from the next Behind the Cut and roughly pieced it together on lunch break.

8/04/21 – Wednesday

Woke up and went for a walk with Cynthia, so it wasn’t until lunch break that I got busy. But the Behind the Cut episode for “Calling Out of Time” is done, meaning almost all attention will now shift to “Godspeed, Crazy Mike.”

If you’re following along, I recorded “Calling Out of Time” on Saturday, July 24. All work shifted to that, and the episode was released nine days later on August 2. A couple days for Behind the Cut, which usually takes longer because I rarely record the behind-the-scenes look at the time of the story.

Add in the time to write “Calling Out of Time,” and I think you can see why I rarely release monthly episodes. Six to eight episodes a year is pretty ambitious.

It’s probably best to shoot for an every-other month schedule.

8/05/21 – Thursday

Got back to writing “Godspeed, Crazy Mike.” Just roughing out scenes with dialogue and seeing what more pops up.

All the whodunit aspects are done, but…while I don’t like to deliberately create red herrings (again, listen to the Behind the Cut episode about “Under the Big Top” for my thoughts about mysteries), this is where playing with how humans think can be fun.

People naturally make their own assumptions about things, and that’s how I prefer handling some of the misdirection in a mystery…because it’s more real to me than planting things that seem forced.

When you let human tendencies shape things, it’s fun to write…and carries possibilities without deliberately planting them, just to give readers and listeners something to chew on.

8/06/21 – Friday

Some days, it’s good to take a break.

This was one of those days.

I researched some video stuff, but didn’t do much with any Not About Lumberjacks things.

8/07/21 – Saturday

It was a lazy Saturday around here, which meant I had time to work on “Godspeed, Crazy Mike.”

I’m still roughing things out and jumping around, shaping scenes with dialogue because…detectives ask questions. From there, I’m able to write other scenes completely–and make sure nothing contradicts earlier scenes.

I know there are mind mapping programs, and that even Scrivener has ways to plot everything out, but I find you can’t know everything until you get into a story and realize, “That thing I thought about while plotting gets negated by this…or makes no sense once I really look at it.”

With many other things going on right now, in ways, a mystery is welcomed. I almost chose a literary story, but that always requires more focus and staying in a certain mindset for weeks, and that’s not happening right now.

I’m pleased with “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” so far, and suspect I’ll only like it more as the story takes a better shape.

* * *

A Bonus Thing

Click here if you’ve listened to “Calling Out of Time” and want to see the timeline I worked from. (Or click if you’ve not listened and don’t care about spoilers.)

Welcome to the second week (first full week) of this detailed behind-the-scenes look at the August (“Calling Out of Time”) and September (“Godspeed, Crazy Mike”) episodes of Not About Lumberjacks. (“Calling Out of Time” came out today…you can listen to it, here.)

Here’s what last week was like…

7/25/21 – Sunday

Work shifted from “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” to “Calling Out of Time.”

I recorded with markers, which means…when I mess up a line, I push the M key on my MacBook Air’s keyboard, and it makes a marker I can go to until I get a good take. It makes knowing where bad takes are, making it easy to delete them.

I used to spend 4-6 hours trying to find the best takes. It’s now roughly an hour-long process.

7/26/21 – Monday

The narration for “Calling Out of Time” is all together. I got to listen to it during lunch today, and I’m pleased with the story. I made notes on the manuscript of changes I made while recording, so the transcript will be ready to load when I release the episode.

As you can see, progress on “Godspeed, Crazy Mike,” shifted to “Calling Out of Time,” and that will likely continue through the week.

I also noted effects I’ll have to make and find for the episode. Once I make that list, I can get busy making sounds.

7/27/21 – Tuesday

I entered changes and set up the transcript page (see previous photo) for “Calling Out of Time,” so all I’ll have to do when the time comes is link it from the episode show notes.

I’m not sure if anyone even uses the transcripts, and I understand why some people who post stories instead of scripts are apprehensive about them. It would be quite easy for someone to snag all the transcripts and publish an e-book or something. But if it helps someone with a hearing impairment, it’s worth the effort to me.

Theoretically, it also makes it easier for reviewers to pull quotes, but…at least right now, over six and a half years into the show, it’s received virtually no coverage. Which is why I need to create a press kit and work at getting more people to listen.

7/28/21 – Wednesday

Spent the morning before work getting the latest episode of Men in Gorilla Suits out. Men in Gorilla Suits is another podcast I do…a thing where a friend and I pick a topic and discuss it 10 to 12 different ways.

During my lunch break, I went through the sounds for “Calling Out of Time,” and color coded everything so I know what I need to find, what I need to make, what I might already have, and some things I may find or make.

(Yellow = Find. Blue = Sounds I Will Create. Purple = Either Find or Make. Green (Not Shown) = Ready Sounds.)

The sounds are broken up by scene, which I do on the big printed version of the episode…where I make notes about everything: sounds, rerecordings, music, and updates for the transcript.

It can be a time-consuming step, but it’s good to have everything ready up front, so you’re not in the middle of putting an episode together and running to the closet to make a sound you forgot about. (Although, it always still seems to happen…)

Regarding music. I get most music these days through a paid account through Epidemic Sound. It allows me to sort by moods, genres, and so many other things. Once I find an artist I like, I listen to their works on the site and save them to a folder I create on the site for the episode.

At this point, I grab anything that sounds like it might work for the story…and then go through with the story in hand, listening to pieces of music while narrating to see what sounds best at certain points.

7/29/21 – Thursday

This is where the whole process becomes rather repetitive. Spent my lunch break finding and thinking about how to make the sounds that will accompany “Calling Out of Time.”

I have everything assigned, and know what sounds I need to make. Most can be done in our apartment, but a walk to the park down the street is likely in order.

7/30/21 – Friday

Recorded some sounds for “Calling Out of Time” during lunch break today. The protagonist walks with a cane, so I grabbed my great-grandfather’s old [sword] cane and I little Ikea candle lantern (fitting—it was my Swedish great-grandfather’s cane). I made sounds to mimic the protagonist tapping the metal and glass of the phone booth he discovers.

Recording effects is always interesting. Sometimes, the thing you need sound for—if recorded from the real thing you need—doesn’t sound as much like the thing as something else entirely.

I tested sounds by tapping the metal on our patio door…and on the glass of an old china cabinet we have. But my wife seems to have a knack for imagining what will sound better than even the real thing in one’s ear…and she suggested the Ikea lantern.

It has the loose sound of a beat-up phone booth…not as solid as the metal on our patio door…and there was no risk to an antique cabinet’s glass, either.

I look forward to the weekend and hopefully getting all the effects I need together so I can begin assembling the episode.

7/31/21 – Saturday

The morning was all about making sounds…and gathering and organizing sounds I already have.

“Calling Out of Time” is a simple story, but whew…it seems like a lot of sound design. Most of it, though, is made up from lots of little sounds…not big soundscapes. All those tiny bits do add up, though!

I still have a bit more to d, but I hope to begin really putting the episode together tomorrow!

Some fans of Not About Lumberjacks have wanted even more behind-the-scenes updates about what I’m up to. So, if you want more, look no further: I’m starting a weekly progress update about what I’m up to, creatively. (This one is from a couple weeks ago, but I’m thinking about posting new updates every Monday.)

It’s possible some weeks will not have a day-by-day chronicle of progress, while other weeks might have even more going on than usual. But on the day I started the September episode of Not About Lumberjacks, I began keeping a journal. I’m sharing it with you, here.

Godspeed, Crazy Mike

The September story is a mystery called “Godspeed, Crazy Mike,” and — as you’ll see in a moment — it’s a story that’s been knocking around my head for some time.

And also, to be up front: another reason for documenting everything going on is a proof-of-concept to myself that if I do create a Patreon for Not About Lumberjacks (as some have requested), that I can keep up with providing more than just stories. (And to see if would-be patrons find this kind of thing interesting.)

One thing I’m torn about is how much to include, here. I’d love to share photos, but some of them will likely contain spoilers. I can always blur out spoilery bits or not include photos at all, but I’ve opted to provide links to the full images for those who want to not only read, but see, everything going on. I’d love to hear what you think about how I’m handling it. Feel free to comment — I’d love to hear what you think.

With that out of the way, let’s get to work!

7/21/21 – Wednesday

After letting it sit for years, I decided to write “Godspeed, Crazy Mike.”

Fifteen…maybe even twenty years ago, I passed by a plant nursery. On the business’ sign was a simple message: GODSPEED CRAZY MIKE. I assume, maybe, they had an employee they all called Crazy Mike who passed away.

And that got me thinking about a mystery set someplace with plenty of plants.

I was born in Chicago, but raised north of the city in a town called Mundelein. In many ways, we had more in common with Wisconsin than the city. Not too far from my hometown is a place called Volo Bog. It’s a quaking bog, meaning the floating mat of sphagnum moss, cattails, and sedges gives the illusion of solid ground, but it undulates like waves from the water beneath it all.

I always loved the bog and all the marshlands in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

So…I decided to set a mystery at a bog.

7/22/21 – Thursday

Woke up a little after 3:00 a.m. and wanted to work on the story. (A benefit of crashing around 7:00 the night before.)

Did a breakdown of the only mystery short story I’ve written, “Under the Big Top,” a whodunit taking place in a circus. I wanted to see how many characters were in the story and how they all came together.

I’ve talked about mysteries before, in the Behind the Cut episode from “Under the Big Top.” I mentioned it’s not that I don’t like mysteries, but they have certain expectations in their structure. You need enough characters to leave listeners and readers wondering who did it. By design, there’s a bit of an ensemble necessary to pull off this kind of mystery.

I had some characters and bits written from when I started thinking about “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” years ago. This morning, I looked at them and realized the story needed a few more people. And so…I came up with additional characters.

Each character gets a notecard of their own…with who they are, personality traits that come up while writing, notes to myself, and how they relate to the story and other characters. There’s a separate card with story ideas that come up while thinking things through. (Not sharing that card, though, because it gives everything away!)

By doing this, you get a rough idea for the story’s framework. In my case, the morning produced the killer and their motive. (Was it Wesley…or somebody else? You’ll have to wait until September to find out!)

7/23/21 – Friday

Yesterday, I cracked open a couple of the old Writer’s Digest Howdunit series books: Scene of the Crime and Cause of Death. Mostly, I wanted to get the flow of what happens when a dead body is discovered and foul play is suspected.

While laws change, some procedures have remained the same for decades. And because “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” isn’t a highly detailed procedural, I was able to get everything I needed to help rough out the plot.

I normally have a couple ideas for a story and wade into it without a bigger plan. I find my way while writing. But with a mystery, an outline is needed for me…just to see the main storyline that will unlikely change much in the writing. Things around the main line may change, but most of this story is locked down from the start.

(The outline image contains a spoiler. Not a “Whodunit” spoiler, but a cause of death spoiler. Click here if you want to see it.)

Now, it’s time to sit down and write.

7/24/21 – Saturday

Yesterday at lunch, I roughed out the second-to-last scene of “Godspeed, Crazy Mike.” It’s the big mystery reveal scene, and I wanted to rough it out because everything builds toward that.

While I often have endings in mind when I start a story, most things I write are rather malleable. I plan to record the next episode of Not About Lumberjacks today*…and I didn’t know how it ended as I wrote it. I didn’t know until I got to the end…and then…I fumbled around until I wrote something that made me tear up. (Happy tears…not sad.) That’s how I knew it was done.

But a mystery is different.

Now that I have all the little intricacies of the whodunit aspect of “Godspeed, Crazy Mike,” the rest should be establishing characters and having fun with interactions until it’s a fully-formed thing ready to record.

* I did end up recording the next episode, “Calling Out of Time,” and it’s Behind the Cut episode this morning. So that will be on schedule for August.

Recording Photos

* * *

Volo Bog Photo by: McGheiver.