S2E11 - The Week Begins on Sunday

I was literally like on a conference call until like two minutes ago.

So just like, where am I? What's going on?

Yeah, I gotta switch from like sysadmin mode to like podcaster mode all of a sudden. Hello and welcome to behind the Locked Doors, a podcast where sometimes Scott doesn't think of joke to have for this part of the discussion. I am Scott Paladin. I am working on a horny werewolf audio drama called It Takes a Wolf.

My name is Sam Stark. I'm working on Azzan west, which is a spinoff of Unspeakable Distance.

I'm Jack and I'm also working on ASD in West.

And I'm Mike, AKA Interiority, and I'm working on a sci fi audio drama called Sundered.

Awesome. So we will start with, as always, with our updates and how we did on our homework. I believe my goal was to have to either get close to or finish episode eight of mine scripts, which I managed to do. I'm about to a grand and a half into episode nine as well, which is the last. We're trucking the last episode of Strange. Amazing. Yep. So that's how I did.

You did great. Yeah, Sam, how'd you do?

Yeah, let's talk about our homework and then I will take up most of the podcast talking. No, I'm just kidding. The homework was amazing, though. Jack and I got together yesterday and talked through, just hashed out like the next two or three episodes and did some character work. And Jack sent me the. What was. What episode did you write? I can totally. I can't remember. You did three?

Well, wait, two. The numbers on the spreadsheet don't match the numbers of the episodes because there are two. Pilot, like, first, second, part, whatever. It's episode two.

The.

The script I gave you was episode two, and what I gave Sam was like a very condensed, like, here's all the bullet points you wanted to hit. I've hit them all, but there's absolutely not a scrap of like filler anywhere. That's like just the barest bones of what we wanted to put in there. And we were talking a little bit about, like, how long we want actual episodes to run, generally speaking. And like what we want for the pacing, considering that the like, overarching plot. There's like that urgency of we're trying to rescue someone from like a dangerous situation. But we also want like, you know, nine or ten episodes getting there somehow. So it's like, how do you balance that pacing to work out?

Yeah, yeah, the. The. It Was. It was interesting. I was telling Jack that I wish that I could do this because the episode that they wrote is, like, every single man major beat that I wanted in, like, the character conflict, but it happened so fast that, like, the audience wouldn't be able to, like, have emotional reactions. It's like the conflict comes up immediately.

Like, clicks version of the episode.

It's the TikTok version of the episode. So, like, the conflict comes up and we don't even really have a moment to, like, process the conflict is happening and then it's resolved, which is perfect because it's a. It's like a nice little outline already done. And what Jack wrote is probably going to span extended to the next episode. Yeah, it's gonna be, like, almost two and a half episodes worth of stuff. And that's great for me when it's time to write the next episode so.

We can talk more about it. But, yeah, the long story short is we did our homework, we had our meeting, and we know what we're doing for next time.

Mm. Awesome. How about you? Interior.

Hey. Well, you know, I spent most of the intervening period, like, choking on the dust that Scott has left us all.

Literally. Oh, my God.

Right as he just races towards the horizhoo, you know, like, just, you know, like, coughing, spluttering, kind of like wiping it from my eyes, kind of like, you know, just knowing that I can't possibly compete. But thank God it's not a competition, but. Exactly. I did finish my first draft of episode two.

Oh, my God. Yeah.

Which is where I wanted to be and made a start on episode three. So.

Yeah.

Amazing, actually. So you are. You are gulping that dust down very handily.

Yeah.

Yeah. You're doing great.

Well, you know, I'm trying to gain whatever nutrition I can just. Cause it has pervaded every kind of, like, you know, fiber of my brain.

Right, right, right.

Yeah. I mean, like, you know, episode two is gonna need a lot of rewrites and work on it. You know, like, it's a vomit draft, but I'm gonna try and kind of like, get the next couple episodes of done with the momentum and then come back and rewrite. I have found out something interesting that when I struggle or if I'm kind of, like, feeling kind of, you know, just like a little bit blocked, I will invariably resort to silliness to try and get through it. So Scott also does that. There are sections of episode two that I've introduced a character called Dippy Fresh. He's a returning character from Disney's Gravity's fault. Obviously, I'm gonna have to enter into negotiations with Disney in order to. To license this.

Was nice knowing you, Mike.

Right? Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yes. It may. It may kind of like, you know, put the release date of this series out by a couple of decades, but, yeah, it was my way of getting through a scene. Like, if it was just getting too tense or too serious or whatever, like, Dippy Fresh would turn up and give everyone a rad high five. And I seen that really worked to just get me over the.

Get you unstuck.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. So, yeah. So if anyone else wants to take that on board with. For a knowledge that the Disney Corporation did not condone this, feel free. Like. Yeah. It's my gift to you.

Excellent.

Awesome.

Gravity Falls, though. Seriously, great show. Really great show.

Very good show. I need to do a rewatch. It's been a minute. Because that's a very good one.

Yeah.

Well, so. Because I am closing in on being done with my not really first draft, almost zero draft. Because I'll have to go back. I know I have to go back and make major revisions to a bunch of stuff. That means that some stuff is starting to get put on the calendar, though, about when some certain things will happen. So I had checked with all of y' all, and it seems like the last Saturday of July is all good for you guys. So that is the day that I have chosen for what I'm going to call a virtual table read, where we're going to take about four hours, I think, and we're going to do a stream on the Library ofCurse Knowledge YouTube channel. And I'm probably going to write a quick Python program to randomize the people who sign up for it and the characters that they will be playing.

Oh, my God.

And we'll go through the first couple of episodes and let people just read.

Oh, my God, that's so fun.

And then the next week or the next, maybe it might have already started. It might be the next Monday will be the first set of auditions will be opening up.

So exciting.

I will probably not have the signup sheet ready yet by the time that the audience hears this, but it'll come out sometime in the near future. And that's kind of a thing where people can just sign up and we'll grab people and use the. We'll probably do it through Riverside because it's got a streaming system and. Yeah, that'll be fun. It'll be probably quite silly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What a great idea. So, Scott, like, Pinged everybody in this call like, hey, do you have this or this date available to do a thing for? It takes a wolf, unspecified parentheses. And we were like, what the hell does that mean that I'm so excited that it's a table read? That'll be so fun.

Yeah. I wanted Yalls reactions a little bit because I think it'll be fun.

No, yeah, that'll be dope. I'm so excited.

Yeah, so. So, yeah. But between then and now, I've got to finish the last episode, which is. The last episode is so strange because it's the big fight, but also it's not really tense anymore because the climax of the story has happened in the last two episodes. Like the last two episodes. That's the proper climax of the story. This is all hyper violent denouement really.

Right, okay.

Which is a very strange genre to be in, but. Okay.

Listen, I'll be very curious to see how you end up handling that. Ending stories is like a whole separate skill from writing the rest of the story somehow. It's crazy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Are you the kind of people that know your endings before you start or does your ending come about as you like, after you write it?

That's a really good question.

Depends on the story. For me.

Yeah, I have a tendency to cut the beginning and endings of everything. I like sort of inflection points where you come into a work and you can see the trajectory that we've been on up until this point and then you see the turning point and then we end. Right. As you see. Oh well now from here I can map what happens. Right? Sure. Which is kind of a cheap way to get out of actually having to do the hard work. A real ending.

Well, no, I would say that is a way to really respect to your audience's ability to do that projection and be like, we know what happens after this. So I don't have to tell you. Like.

Yeah, and you get, you get the, the fun of imagining it yourself basically.

Yeah.

But yeah, other than that it's like. Like I said with this particular one, I knew kind of. I don't wanna say I knew because I just completely rewrote it recently. But I had certain elements of the climax, the fight and then them getting together. That was all mapped. That's all in my head. And then I knew after that I'm like, well, they're going to go kill a bunch of people at the end of the story because that's how it's going. It's going to end in a big Giant, violent bloodbath. I don't know how anything other than that.

It's like we had the Sexy Mr. And Mrs. Smith episode and now it's the music video for. Oh, my God. What's the song that I'm thinking of? It's that Caravan palace song where they go into the club and kill everybody.

Oh, yeah. Something killer.

Yeah.

Oh, my God. No.

Lone Digger, Lone Digger, Lone Digger. Scott, I knew you would have me.

Yeah, yeah. We are on the same wavelength.

I will have to go look that up. I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's a great song and the music.

Video, it's a very good song. And the video is dope. But it's also kind of a lot.

Oh, man. Everything is happening the most. It's.

Yeah, Yeah. I was just. I was wondering about the endings because I don't think that I've ever written anything long form that I didn't know the exact ending when I started. And I think it really helps me as a really out of control discovery writer, because I know the ending and I know where everything's going to end up. And so there is an end in sight for me, even though I will keep adding and adding and adding and adding to. It happens when I do like short stories and novellas, notoriously in my writer's group, I turned a prologue of something into an entire book in and of itself. So it's nice to have an ending insight when I start something.

Maybe someday it will be over.

Exactly.

It also can very much depend on what you mean by ending. Do you know where kind of all the parameters of the various characters are going to be? Or do you know what that last scene looks like? And that's two different questions.

And that's the conundrum. Because what I mean by ending is I mean I know the last paragraph of the book or I know the last line of the script, but that does not mean that everything that I thought was going to be in place when that paragraph happens is going to be in place.

So yeah, there's also the question of. So there's like I place a lot of importance on first lines. Like if you don't have a banger first line for something, then it becomes, to me, it becomes much harder to write the rest of it. Like, you know, having. Having a really good first line for the episode, a really good first line for the series, especially like the very first thing that gets said in it is really important. And I know that there is that you could also look at last lines the same way of, like, how does it. Like, what are we ending on? Like, what's that, like, last. The punctuation on the end of the story, Right? Like, how do we fade out? And I sometimes feel like my stuff, at least as I'm writing it, feels more like one of those 80s songs where they just slowly turn the volume down and it just goes away.

Fade out in a book. Oh, yeah.

It's very effective.

Rather than, like, an actual sharp, like. Okay, well, here's the thing, you know?

Yeah, interesting. It's lovely when I come in here and talk to you guys, and everybody's just like, well, I do it this way, and I do it this way. And I'm like, dang. Sometimes I cannot wrap my head around some of the stuff that you guys or, like, the ways that you do things.

It's so interesting. It's so fascinating to see how everybody's brains work well. And, Scott, it's funny that you say that, because I feel like I have, like, read enough of and heard, performed enough of your scripts now to be like, huh? Which ones are you thinking end with you turning the knob down? Because I feel like a lot of yours do have, like, sort of a definitive stop point.

So the. The answer is that I feel, like, rarely do I feel like I have, like, that. That punch at the end, and that's just as. From the person being inside. Like. Like, it has a point where it stops, of course, but it's not. Not. I guess fade out's may be the wrong word. It's like the energy or. I don't know. Like, I don't have. I don't feel like I have something in my head that I'm like, this is a banger ending line, you know?

Okay, I see what you're saying.

Yeah. The way that I do. I. I often think of my first lines as being like, I will. I will look at it and be like, yeah, that's a fucking banger. I like that. Yeah. Y.

Okay, I see what you're saying.

Mike. Do you have any input on how you feel about endings?

I was just thinking, like, I've kind of come at it a couple of different ways in the things I've made up to this point. So there's definitely been some things I've written where I've gone, yes, this is the end line, and I want to get here by any means I can. And I established that as the point to aim for and go for it. And it's usually, like, what I think is a banger ending Line and I'll do it that way. The first thing I made, I very intentionally wrote it so it ended on the inflection point where it's like the circumstances have changed. The thing that I think is important has happened already.

Yeah.

There is more to the story and like, traditionally you would see it, but I don't think you need to at that point. It's just. It becomes like a. You know, I think I even, like, when I was trying to defend it at the time, I was using like a Martin Scorsese reference saying kind of like enraging bowl. Like the final title fight, you don't actually see it. The camera just lifts away from the ring. And because it's like, it's not important, like the actual fight itself. Like, it's the journey up to this point.

Yeah, yeah.

And you can see him kind of like going into the ring and it's like that's. That's all you need.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

As an audience.

And that's about.

So I kind of want to.

Yeah. That. That can be about focusing your audience on what you want them to be paying attention to. For sure.

Yeah, yeah. But for Sundered, it's kind of difficult because there's a couple, a couple of different kind of ending points that I've got as part of it because I'm. I'm envisioning it as a multiple season series. So like, there is the end. End point, which I've got an idea of, and then there is the end point of the first season, which I also have an idea of. And, and when I say an idea of, it's. There are certain things I kind of want to happen.

Yeah.

But it's usually kind of like, you know, in a plot sense.

Yeah.

Like the things like these things happening, who they're going to happen to, who initiates them, who's around them at the time, et cetera, et cetera. And what's the. The, you know, emotional state of everyone involved is a little bit more nebulous. And that's the stuff I'm gonna be finding out as I write towards it, I think. Like, you know, there are specific kind of like, you know, historical events and stuff like that have to happen. But like, yeah, the state of the world around that at the time is a little bit up for grabs at the moment. So not too sure how I feel about that. Like, I feel like I would like some more certainty of it, but it is just because it is the longest thing by far that I've ever tried to write. I'M trying to give myself enough space to kind of actually discover a lot more RA and then deciding it too early in the process.

Well, and there's. There's definitely something to be said for giving yourself, you as the writer, giving yourself some space to discover and figure out new things and have, like, sometimes the anticipation of not knowing can also be a good thing of, like, it gives you a little bit more creative freedom. It gives you also something to look forward to, to find out the things that are gonna happen down the road.

You can take bigger swings at stuff because you're like, I'm not locked into the world state being a specific way at the end.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

And because. Because this, like, very specifically is quite a thematic work. Like, I have a lot of stuff that I want to touch upon and talk about and kind of like the stories. I also don't want it to be didactic. So, like, there isn't like, this particular lesson I want to impart onto the reader and hit them over the head with it. By the end of it. I'm just gonna say I want to explore this area with these characters, and it will probably take me down unexpected routes and ways. So there isn't like a set conclusion or a set kind of like sledgehammer of a moral that I want to. To end the things on. It's just going to be dependent on where the journey takes us. Yeah, yeah.

And there's that. And that's. I think that could be really important for, like, the idea of you discover where the themes and what the important parts of the story and you know, what. What symbolism is there? Like, sometimes afterwards you go, oh, okay, this is what this is about. I wrote the whole thing and I knew the plot and whatever, but now I know what it's about.

It's so funny.

It really is like that sometimes.

Yeah. Writing as in West, I don't have any, like, themes. It's more like a love letter to all of the hilarious sci fi stuff I've ever. Yeah. It's almost like, man, I love that one episode of the Mandalorian so much, it made me want to write a thing. Or I love Murderbot so much, I wanted to write a thing. And I should get that. Please do. So I can scream at you about it. But. And Andor. Especially Andor. It's like. And again, Azen west is nothing like Andor. But I guess the theme is just, I want to make something that's fun and entertaining and maybe poignant and sad and, you know, nice.

It's gonna be all of those things, and I think we are gonna have themes that emerge as we write through it. You know, like, people, like, finding similarities with each other where there seem to be none, or, like, you know, having to prioritize what is important when you have this, like, goal in front of you that you've both agreed is A, urgent, and B, not something you can give up on, and you have to keep pushing towards it, but all of these other things are dragging you back and distracting you.

Yep, yep.

And you have to figure out a way for it anyways. I don't know, like, we're gonna hit them. Like, the themes are going to hit us as we.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

As we go through.

Yeah. It's just really. It's really inspiring to listen to you, Scott, and you, Mike, like, talk about, like, your process, because you always have, like, these kind of overarching things that you're trying to, like, not really write to, but, like, you. You feel. To me, it feels like you have this way better, like. Like this big picture, like, this idea, you know, And I'm like, I just want to write these guys in space, you know, trying to do some things, you know, like, they're just little guys.

But the trade off is that, like, you get. You get the freedom. You get the freedom of doing. Doing a thing and then finding out what you were doing at the end. Whereas when you set out with things in mind, you say, like, I am going to write about this, and I'm going to write about this, and I'm going to write about this. And then if you don't do it, like, if it's not there, you then are faced with the decision of, well, do I abandon my plan and go for something else, or do I go back in and rewrite to add those things back in? I know that one of my revisions, one of my big revisions is to go back in and look for places where I can add additional Class Warfare stuff at various spots, because I didn't hit that enough. So it's like, okay, well, this is a theme that I had in mind that I was really thinking about, but I never found the spot to put it in. So now I'm going to have to either find it, find those spots, you know, come in with a crowbar and make spots to put them, or I'll have to abandon that idea. And that's a decision.

Yeah, yeah.

Whereas it can be a lot. It can be much easier the other way around, where you're like, oh, I've written this thing and now I see, oh, look, it's got a really strong theme of togetherness and, like, forgiveness or something like that. And you're like, oh, okay, well, cool, now I can lean into that. Rather than trying to, like, make the decision of like, well, this doesn't fit my plan. You didn't have a plan. You just discovered it.

Which can be me, the epitome of discovery writing. Absolutely.

Yeah.

That's all me. That's me to a T. Well, it has its place.

I mean, like, you can. You can find your. I'll admit, like, right now I'm doing more planning in the thematic realm than I have in the past. Most of the time I'm just kind of like, I have an idea, I'm just gonna do it, and then I find out what it is at the end. Kind of like you're talking about.

Or you write your script four or times and then be like, okay, here's the actual episode I wanted to write. It took me a few attempts to get there.

Oh, yeah, 100%. Throw everything out and start over. Yep.

Which one was it? The noodle shop episode in season, what was it, three or four of breathing space, where you were like, I have. I have, like, wiped everything out of this document like four times. Because every time I start writing it, I'm like, wait, this is still not the episode I wanted to write.

Yeah, I think it was. I can't remember the exact number of times, but it was. It was probably four or five grand worth of words of various attempts and, like, starting and like, getting far into an episode. And it. Yeah, and so some of those would have been interesting. There was one that was a straight up Hallmark episode where, like, young, high powered lawyer comes back from her job in the city to, like, take over her dead dad's noodle shop and then, like, her childhood friends there. Yeah, it was a whole thing.

See, I would read that fan fiction if somebody wanted to write that. 100%.

That's a really sweet, solid idea. It's just that I couldn't. It was like, it wasn't the thing. Didn't have a heart. You actually were whatever I needed to. And yeah, and then I. And I, you know, I just had to go back and go. And that was discovering what it was more about. Like, how do you deal with the baggage you have with somebody who means a lot to you? You know, is a different theme entirely. And that's cool. And I really like what it ended up with. But, yeah, there was stuff in the trash at the end.

Yeah, well, not even in the trash, but in your, like, I'll pillage this for parts later bin.

Yes.

Yeah, maybe. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those.

You could still write that Hallmark movie sometime.

I could, yeah. Yeah. Who knows? I think there's a whole. There's a whole conversation as well, because you brought this up, Mike, about, like, you're planning for second. Your second season already. Like, you're thinking about what. What doors to leave open, what things to sit there. And I. Whereas, like, it takes a wolf. This.

The.

Particularly the story that I have laid out here, it does not have a continuation, as far as I can tell. Like, I can't. Not, like, say I can't, but, like, I was thinking about that the other day. I'm like, I'm onto the end here. Am I thinking, what do seasons two and three and whatever look like? And I have ideas in those regards, but I'm like, I think that this particular story may be done. I might have to do a. What's the True Detective or American Horror Story, where they start up a new thing each time. And that comes in part from the fact that I planned the story out as a. As a whole. You know, and so the approach of how do you. When you're. When you're sitting down and thinking about the ending, to come back to that idea, are you specifically planning it to be an ending ending, or is it a. Like. Well, and then episode two continue, you know, like that. So really interesting.

As in, west is not going to have a season two. Yeah.

Speaking that into existence. We are going to. We're going to rescue Simmons, and that is the end.

That's it. That's the end.

Yeah. I mean. I mean, you could. But, like, having the idea that this is what you're doing. But there's. I'm not saying, like, you could. You could write it in such a way that you absolutely could write a season two. You know, like, you don't have to have Simmons as, like, a goal. You can come up with new goals and stuff like that. But I think there's also value in saying, like, no, this is what we're doing. We're going to do whatever I think you guys are saying 10 episodes, is that right?

10 at this point?

Yeah, we're going to do X number of episodes, and we're going to put everything. We're going to leave everything out on the field. You know, we're not going to hold anything back. We're going to do all the things we want to do, and then we're done.

Yeah.

And that actually is. I mean, that's a. I'm not going to say it's perfectly valid. I mean, like, that's a great way to do it.

If.

If that's what you want to do. Like, if that's the goal that you've set for yourself, then, like, knowing it and not compromising, not. Not like leaving out little tendrils and talking about, well, maybe there's a season two just being like, no, we're done. It's having the clarity of purpose is really good.

It's the. It's the Penny dreadful way. It's the. We have an idea, we're gonna do a thing, and we're gonna do it, and then we're done.

Yeah.

There is absolutely room to, like, you know, they're the. They decide to go against the. The big, huge, terrible.

Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. Preservation, like, take a. Start the rebellion, make it real Star wars, you know, like, yeah, we could definitely fall down. Exactly. But I have no desire to do that. I. I really just want to save Simmons and that's it.

Yeah, that's great.

I think you're. Oh, God, no. I think you're solving, like, a real narrative problem by doing that. Because the moment you save Simmons, Simmons just draws all the focus.

Yeah.

Like, whatever you do afterwards would just have to be like, it's not. As in west, it just the Simmons show now.

Just the Simmons show.

So then we have to start planning for Simmons season one.

Yeah, exactly.

Right, exactly.

I'm thinking multi camera sitcom sort of stuff.

No, we were talking about that. We were like, I mean, Simmons is such a magnetic character that, like, once he's on screen, that's all anybody wants to look at. I don't give a fuck about as in West. So we're like, okay, well, how long do we want the story to continue after we rescue him? Or do we even want to get the camera on the moment where we unseal the door? You know what I'm saying? Like, where's the end point? We spoke about this, I think, on the podcast a number of episodes ago.

Well, that reminds me a lot of the Martian. Right. Which is this long, meandering story that's all about how do we get this guy home. The parallels are there, but the moment that he's on the ship and the plan has worked, it's like, okay, we're done.

Yeah, that's it.

That's what we came.

We can just walk away at this point. That being said, having a magnetic secondary character that you can call up to the first string for your second season, if you want to trans, you know, if you want to move on to something else, is something to keep in mind. As, again, I sort of think about. I don't. Like I said, I'm not committing to doing multiple seasons of It Takes a Wolf because I don't know. I don't even know if we're going to actually make the first season the way I want to, because that will be whether or not people want to give me some money to do it. Because I do want to pay people. Yeah, I do want to pay people. And crowdfunding is a big, open question mark right now. But if we were to go onto it again, if I'm thinking that the current story is done, which it really feels like it is, those characters kind of have their moment. But I'm looking at my secondary roster of characters, and I'm like, Arcadia the Fiend, Endless Wager, the Madam. There are a couple of characters I could call up to the. To the Front line. I think that could carry a season if I needed them to. So maybe there's.

If you decide you want to explore that world further and spend more time there, you can.

Yeah, well. And the. The world isn't what calls me. It would be the characters at this point. I think that that's kind of the. That's the thing that really, like, it would be like, hey, do I want to hear more from this character? And I think that some of them actually. I think they've got legs, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's always a really scary thing, though, because then you run the risk of doing the Death Note thing. People get so, like, attached to the first story and characters and everything. And then, you know, you're. For whatever reasons you continue it because it's so successful. But it's just. It's like a different show because it's like, you're supernatural.

That ran for what?

Yeah, there you go. At least it's the same characters through the whole thing. Like, with Death Note, the mangaka for Death Note was like, once L is dead, it's done. Like, that's the end of the whole thing. And Light wins. But then, like, you know, the people, the powers that be, were like, we can't have an ending like that. Oh, my God. And so he had to, like, create. Create new characters and, like, make a whole other, like, arc of this story. And not that it didn't do well. I mean, it's fine. But, like, you can tell that there was a very, like, purposeful. This is the story and then, oh, I got to keep going. So I'm always really scared. I'm always really scared when I have an idea, when something is going to finish. If I have to keep going, like, that's. That's terrifying to me. Like, Like I said before, I always have an ending in sight when I start something.

So.

Yeah. And then. Then it becomes a question of, like. Yeah, in that. In that case, it's like, do you make a clean break or not? Like, are we? Are we? Yeah, it's season two of the same show, but, like, it's. Again, it's a. It's a.

It's totally different.

Yeah, yeah.

Where it's like, this is not the same thing. Right? Like, we're following characters, we're in a new place, we're doing a new thing. That is a place where, like, okay, we're telling stories in the same universe. We're carrying over our title song or whatever. But, like, mostly it's a new story following a thing. It's a little bit more like an anthology where, like. Yeah, yeah, like, the stories in Breathing Space are related and there are through lines that connect over the course of four seasons. But, like, every episode is its own thing and it's supposed to stand on its own. And so it's like, yeah, no, we. You don't have to worry too much about, like, well, we, like, are people. Are we going to follow us from one episode to the next? It's like, no, that's the whole point.

Is that you're going to follow the.

Thematic through lines and stuff. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's go ahead and set our goals for the next two weeks. I, as normal, will go first. I have family in town next week, so I will probably not be particularly effective. So my goal is to get again, sort of within spitting distance or to finish episode nine by the time that we meet, which will be two weeks from now. So I think I probably can get again. I'm gonna. Look, I'm gonna lose a week in there where I won't get much done, but I think I've got. I'm making a decent clip here, so hopefully I can get that far. You're chugging Sam and. Or Jack. Yeah, almost an as.

I'm sorry, One of you bitches.

I don't know, one of you people. Character name. I don't know.

I think that the. I think that we have. We both have homework that we have to do, so my. My specific thing, because I have the entire month of June available now. I. I'm going to try and make things easier on Jack, where I'm going to, like, update our. I have a. I have an Excel spreadsheet of, like, what each episode. Like, the loose themes and the two storylines happening for each episode. I have it all written out, like, loosely.

The beats we want to hear.

Yes, yes. But of course, as we're writing it, things are changing slightly. Just slightly, though. So I think I'm gonna go in there and update everything and make sure that it's. All the things that are happening are happening in the right episode.

It's like, current with the draft that we're producing.

And then I'm going to put that in a Google folder so that it's easy for Jack to just get in there whenever they need it. And also I have, like, a character list and people that I want that I'm thinking of casting for everybody. And I need to update that because we definitely talked about how we might need. Scott.

Scott, we might need you.

We might need you to be gruff and tough.

Do I get to die?

No, unfortunately, you do not. But you get to be gruff and tough, and I need you to pretend that you have a cigar in your face. Mouth. So that kind of kick.

Can you clench your teeth around a fake cigar?

Yes, yes, but. Cause I. Again, I think I've talked about this before, but I usually cast in my head, if there's somebody I know that can play somebody that I'm writing, I'll cast them in my head before I even start writing them. And there's so many characters in this that I've already casted, so I have to make that list and have to put it in the Google Doc for Jack. And then I'm probably going to start working on little bits of the next episode.

You have to write me the beginning of this episode, too.

That's true. I have to write. I have to write our hilarious AI Bot and our poor, poor on vacation, but now not soldier.

Having a meeting with the boss. Mm. Yeah. So. And then my homework is to kind of take the draft that I've just written in both hands and stretch it and, like, make it an episode and a half or two episodes long so I can work on that as easy. What I told. Right. What I told Sam last night we were talking is like, it's very easy for me to make things longer. It's so hard to cut. So I would always prefer to start with something that is shorter and be told it needs to be longer than to be like, you need to cut a thousand words from this and I'll be like, oh, my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine. I can do that.

All right. How about you, Mike?

Well, I think I'm gonna aim to try and get significant progress on episode three. I'd love to be able to say I'd have episode three done by next time, but I have some family stuff in between, which are you. And it's also my birthday.

Yeah.

As well. I'm gonna be taking a couple of days to celebrate becoming even.

Yay.

So that and the effects thereof may have detrimental impact on and how many words I write. But, you know, like, I feel like I've got a bit of momentum now, so I don't want to give up completely. So hopefully I'll be like, you know, half, two thirds of the way through. We'll see how we go.

Okay, cool, cool. And then audience mark on your calendars the last Saturday of July, which I think is the 20 something.

20 something.

The 20 something.

Yeah.

Yep. Just like the zero draft.

Yeah, I've got to actually, like, is that 2025? Yeah. Okay, so that's 27th of. No, wait, no, that's. Why do you start on Mondays? That's the worst way to do it. Okay. No, it's the 26th of July. Excuse me, I'm not used to start. Monday is not the start of the week. Sunday is the start of the week. This has been foretold. Anyway, so 26th of July, we're going to do the virtual tabletop or virtual table read. I will put a sign out sheet somewhere where people can get to it closer and we'll. We'll talk about it again. At that point, it'll be like an open sign up where people can just jump in. And depending on how many we keep how many people we get, we'll like cycle people in and out. We'll see. It's going to be fun. And yeah, awesome. We will catch y' all in two weeks.

Bye.

Bye, guys.

Bye.

You know where I can Hawaii from. You want to bark into the microphone? No. Okay, well, that's all right then. So thanks for joining us this week. And if you want to learn more about the podcasts and projects and all that stuff, then you can head over to www.library.horse or if you want to give us a little bit of money, help us make these things, then go to patreon.com cursedknowledge you don't get anything for it. You just, you know, put some green in our hands so that we can make some projects. Anyway, later Sat.