107. The Name of the Game is Change

“I want to encourage you to have it rooted in heart. In fact, I bet you, it already is. What you care about is what you're writing about. So, Where is the heart in your work?”

In “The Name of the Game is Change” episode, novelist and podcaster, Beth Barany, reflects on her two-year anniversary of How To Write the Future podcast and shares what she has learned in the process including her inspiration, tools used, and what’s next for the podcast.

ABOUT THE HOW TO WRITE THE FUTURE PODCAST

The How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers. This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

• How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?
• How do I figure out what's not working if my story feels flat?
• How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany, an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist, teaches novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor.

RESOURCES

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING - START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

Get support for your fiction writing by a novelist and writing teacher and coach. Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/

• SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
• SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

c. 2024 BETH BARANY

https://bethbarany.com/

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CONNECT
Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580
Email: beth@bethbarany.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/

CREDITS
EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://get.descript.com/0clwwvlf6e3j
MUSIC: Uppbeat.io
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465

Transcript

Transcript for 107 - The name of the game is change

Hey everyone. I am your host, Beth. Barany for How To Write The Future podcast. This is a podcast where I talk about tips for writers, specifically science fiction and fantasy writers, and how you can create positive and optimistic futures for yourself, for your readers and for the world.

Sharing A Few Things I've Learned 

In this short episode today, I want to reflect on the fact that it's my two year anniversary of running this podcast. And I want to share a few things that I have learned. And, yeah, reflect on it together with you. It's a funny thing, having a podcast. You record, you create, you interview. You release, you promote and all in the privacy of my own home. 

Tools I Use 

It's quite amazing with today's technology. I just love that so much. So I'm so grateful to be able to use the tools that I have. Descript is what I record on. I'm using a Yeti mic. I actually bought this mic several years ago before I started the podcast. And I use Buzzsprout to distribute. Such great tools. 

Teamwork 

And of course I have a team, couldn't do this without a team. Some of the factors that came into play for me to start this podcast were, an inspiration from a friend of mine, Shannon Borg, who gave me the topic because she saw that's what I was thinking about: concerned about writing the future, writing science fiction. I cared about foresight and futuristics. 

My First Idea For The Podcast 

Doing this podcast, I thought that I would be developing a curriculum somehow because I'm a teacher and I always think of things in terms of curriculum. 

But what I have discovered is maybe not so much a curriculum, but a wealth of information, sharing all the different things that interests me. 

And maybe there is still a curriculum in here. I can't quite see it, but I'm just following my nose and letting my intuition guide me. And having fabulous conversations with people. A good handful of which are going to be coming out later this year. 

“I felt like I didn't know what I was doing“ 

When I first started, I felt tentative. I felt like I really didn't know what I was doing. We all feel that way at the beginning of a project. And this one is no different. 

And what I've discovered is for one thing, I have to do things to warm up my voice, meaning, I actually have to have a conversation with another person, either real time conversation or a-synchronously. 

I have to talk to a friend who I have asynchronous conversations with, through Voxer, another tool that I really love, but isn't directly part of this podcast. So she and I have conversations all the time and asynchronously, and it's we're having this ongoing conversation. It's fabulous. 

Talking It Out 

So I know that if I need to warm up my voice and ‘cause I work from home, I don't have office mates, I can talk out loud. I can work out, cause I like to talk, I talk it out, whatever's on my mind that I think might make a good topic. And then I can come back home and I can record it. So that's one thing I've learned. 

Paying Attention To The Question 

Another thing I've learned is just to really pay attention to the questions I'm being asked by my clients and students and use those as food, fodder for the episodes. 

So I've always been doing that, in the written form. And now I've taken that into the podcast form. 

What's Next For The Podcast 

And something that I have been ruminating on lately is: how do I connect my How To Write The Future Podcast and my interest in writing science fiction and fantasy with the greater methodology of my work as a writing teacher. Which is really about coming from the heart. 

I've been developing over the last few months a methodology with the help of this class that I took called Surface Your Methodology. The teacher is Kelly Diels, and I really appreciate her work. I'm working with her in another program as well called We Are The Culture Makers and this whole process of surfacing my methodology has been not so much like inventing anything. It was really documenting what it was that I have been doing all these years- 18 years as a writing teacher and my own business. And actually I was teaching writing before that as well. So if I really count to when I started teaching writing In one form or another, we're talking 25 years, something like that. Or actually maybe 35 years. I can't do math when I'm talking- 35 years. Yeah, that sounds about right. 

Connecting The Parts

And so what does that mean? 

What I want to say is: how does it connect my Trust-Your-Heart methodology for writers to my How To Write The Future podcast. I'm still evolving my methodology, but it's called Trust-Your-Creative-Heart method. It's specifically how to go from idea to finished science fiction or fantasy novel. 

So how do I connect that with How To Write The Future, which feels like such a forward oriented statement. And what I came up with is everything that I do is rooted in the heart. And I love that word rooted. It's rooted through the body and the heart. But I didn't call my method Trust Your Heart and Body. Your heart is in your body. I don't know. 

My method existed before I named the method. So I think my method of “trust your creative heart,” it's already been baked into the work I'm doing with the podcast. And. I guess what I'm trying to do right now out loud with you is to put words to the feeling. And connect them for myself.

New Themes: The Power Of Creativity And Of The Heart

Ultimately, I believe in the power of our creativity and the power of our heart and the heart, meaning caring for others outside of just ourselves, and caring for ourselves actually. Caring for ourselves, caring for others, caring for our beautiful planet. 

And what I am thinking about How To Write The Future, I'm really thinking about all of humanity and all of living, life, all of life and our habitat, the earth. We're all connected here. And when we write stories about our possible futures. 

I want to encourage you to have it rooted in heart. In fact, I bet you, it already is. What you care about is what you're writing about.Where is the heart in your work? 

New Themes: There's Not Just One Future, There Are Many 

Yeah. And what am I saying? I want to leave you with, which is when I say How To Write The Future, I realize, I want to clarify that I'm not talking about The Future with a capital T like there isn't one definitive future. There's actually many futures. Every one of us, each one of us here has- it's going to have it's- your own future. And we create our futures by what we do today. 

New Themes: Yesterday's And Today's Habits Are Tomorrow's Outcomes 

So really, I notice that I'm always concerned about as a writing teacher for myself and my own creative work is what are the habits that we are operating off of today. And how can we develop better habits to achieve what it is that we want to achieve as writers? 

So it is both a today thing. And it's a future thing. And then of course, it's also a past thing because our today is built on what was in the past and how we view the future. Is it based on who we are today? And who we are today is based on who we were before?

New Themes: Change How View The Future 

But what about change, changing that? So how do we change that? So I'm also very interested in how we change, how we view ourselves now. And it happens because we change how we view the past. And we could also do that. We could change how we view the future. So change is another theme obviously that I care very much about, and I will continue to explore. 

Thanks For Listening 

Thank you for listening to my short podcast episode today about what I've learned. 

What's Next 

I don't really want to make any promises about what is going to continue to happen here on the podcast, because I want it to be a surprise. I do have lots of ideas brewing and have a lot of interviews to share with you that I've done over the last six to nine months. That are still waiting for me to release. So when those are ready, I'll be sharing more about those. 

Write Long and Prosper

And yes, I'm getting over COVID so that's why my voice sounds like this. Thank you so much for listening, everyone. 

Write long and prosper.