The Roundtable Podcast, Episode 1

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Hey gang! So our good friend Dreamhand (aka Dave Robison) runs a new writing podcast called The Roundtable Podcast. And I was lucky enough to be picked as the first guest writer. This meant that Dave, his compatriot Brion Humphrey, and guest host J. Daniel Sawyer helpfully ripped one of my story ideas to shreds (but in a good way!) while providing lots of insight into the writing process.

So check it out!

 

[Telcontar]

Can't wait to listen to it! Hopefully will tonight. I wonder if you actually managed to finish your 'pitch' in time. I misjudged and was still jawing away when Dave stopped me. Felt foolish... like getting played off at the Oscars.

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

I really enjoyed it. Great job pitching the story, and the hosts were great as well. Dave, I would like to point out that Fizban

Spoiler

was actually Paladine in disguise! (At least in the Weiss and Hickman books, I don't know if he is in other stories..) I loved that guy!

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Can't wait to listen to it! Hopefully will tonight. I wonder if you actually managed to finish your 'pitch' in time. I misjudged and was still jawing away when Dave stopped me. Felt foolish... like getting played off at the Oscars.

Hah, I think I did manage. I actually probably gave more pitch than I really had, since the story idea I presented was really just a kernel of an idea; some of the stuff I was saying, I was making up on the fly just so that it didn't sound quite so rudimentary.

 

[gerald.parson]

Listening now Around what time do you or your book pop in Ben?

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

About 18-20 minutes in, I think? The first part is interesting too, it's the hosts chatting with J. Daniel Sawyer.

 

[gerald.parson]

Yeah , listened to the whole thing, I didn't realize you had that much air time. I liked it, seems like a cool show and pretty decent group of guys. I thought you did rather well.
About your story, I know its in the early stages, and you're still hammering out details, but seeing how you have essentially 3 main characters, or at least 3 strongly focused characters, you give any thought on doing a multiple P.O.V format? Cause it seemed, or at least I gathered, that the story was going to follow Dena (Dana? Dina? not sure to be honest).

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

The novel I'm currently working on is multi-POV (four main characters, plus a prologue, three interludes, and an epilogue, each from a different other character). So I've got no problem with multi-POV.

But the story presented in the podcast is something I'd actually probably restrict to a single POV, in order to give it a different kind of focus. It's really supposed to be her (Daena's) story, and I'd probably want it to revolve around her.

That said, I haven't actually written down more than a few hundred words' worth of ideas for the Daena story, whereas for my novel-in-progress, my notes file alone is around 85,000 words and the novel itself will probably break 170,000. Plus I'm planning two sequels. So the Daena story will be a ways off, if I ever indeed get to it

 

[myrddin173]

I liked it, I might decide to do it at some point down the line.

 

[Telcontar]

Lot of fun to listen to. Out of curiosity, how did you find the editing? Did Dave (Dreamhand) leave out much of the conversation?

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

As I recall, he only really left out a couple of minutes altogether; I have the original recording but haven't listened to it again to figure out what changed. There was one part where I talked about a particular scene idea, but it was kind of rambling and it didn't really add anything to the conversation, so it's actually good that he cut it out