The Nudge: Recent Episodes
Eric Jon Westerlind
Ethan Koss-Smith -- musician, poet, and resident devotee of Robinson Jeffers -- describes his process of putting Jeffers' poems to music and the particular limitations of that form. Later the group jumps into a shared writing exercise to create a 'new' form (if such a thing exists...).
Further discussion and references can be found on our Discord.
Our books are available on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
Tim and Eric duet about revision, discussing what it means to leave a piece aside. How long should it be left? Should it be left at all? Why is it so difficult to climb back into the seat and take the creative spark back to an existing, grown form?
Further discussion and references can be found on our Discord.
Our books are available on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
Screenwriter Jamie Grefe gets Nudged, as he begins chatting with Eric & Matt about his sound-editing and leads into a discussion of his many writing projects with various filmmakers. Jamie talks about the highs and lows of working in the business, and ultimately comes to accept failure as a healthy part of the process.
Further discussion and references can be found on our Discord.
Our books are available on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
How does one engage with culture while retaining sympathy for creators and audience? Is it the role of the artist to offer themselves up to the vultures? Jason joins The Nudge to discuss responsible engagement with media, writing for the public, and old-fashioned photography.
Further discussion and references can be found on our Discord.
Our books are available on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
Evan joins the conversation and brings the 2013 documentary film Tim's Vermeer to the party. Kyle and Evan debate with Eric over a definition of art, and Matt brings his perspective of process to bear. They agree, at least, that the "last five miles" of any artistic project are certainly the hardest.
Further discussion and references can be found on our Discord.
Our books are available on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
Following Matt's sitting-in on Tim's creative writing class, Tim, Matt, and Eric have a lengthy discussion on a variety of topics, from developing surprise in written work to vulnerability as a requisite sauce for quality. Beyond that, they touch on risk in writing, what it's like and whether it's possible to write 'for a prize', dealing with rejection and avoiding tokenism, and being white, male, and grown-up about it.
Further discussion and references can be found on our Discord.
Our books are available on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
Eric & Kyle meet at the end of their month of novel-writing. They discuss depicting afflictions and mental illness in fiction, how afflictions end up driving plot, and how they're viewing their month of writing after the fact. They also discuss Anton Chekhov's short story "The Lady With The Dog", which can be found online here and on our Discord, along with Kyle's story "The Newest Place For Noodles."
Find us and our books on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
The boys turn their questions on one of their own, inquiring after Eric's process writing his short story "The Gold-Boned Monk". Conversation hangs around how it happened, to start, and when Tim takes off to track down his wife, Matt and Eric talk feedback, a relatively unspoken element in the writing how-to. How to give it, but as importantly, how to receive it.
Join the conversation and share your writing here, on our Discord.
Find our books and contact info on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
Collin Scanley, amateur wrestler and professional teacher, helps the boys bridge the subject of writing with Collin's own personal interests; in the end the group finds grounding in a discussion of 'leadership,' its implications and possible definitions.
Join the conversation and share your writing here, on our Discord.
Find our books and contact info on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
The boys discuss Matt’s piece, A Buzzing in the Corner of his Ear¸ the story of a maestro driven mad, perhaps by his musical talents, perhaps by something worse. Matt answers various interrogating questions, topics ranging from title choice to character motives, drifting periodically into places that may or may not deserve disclaimer.
The story will be published as The Remains in our upcoming text, Haergrole. However, it can also be found as a free PDF on our Discord.
Join the conversation and share your writing here, on our Discord.
Find our books and contact info on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
The guys struggle with the day-to-day trial of writing 1,600 words per day for NaNoWriMo. They discuss the boons and burdens of memory-association, the advantages of making yourself write, and the importance of the embodiment of writing.
Join the conversation and share your writing here, on our Discord.
Find our books and contact info on our website, https://clawfootpress.com/.
After a long break in the project, the boys return to their screenplays in-process. They read and discuss Matt's untitled piece about three women on a train; Eric's "Patch," about a Twitch-streamer living two very different lives; and Kyle's "A Kiss Before Dying," about an ancient vampire in the Jersey suburbs.
Find all of these and read along on our discord.
Find our writing and contact info on our website, Clawfoot Press.
The boys bring Tim's work under their scrutinizing glass. Two fiction pieces, "A Patch of Wild Grass" and "Motley of Denial" are read. This brings about a number of discussion points regarding how refrain works in fiction, what it means to be in Kentucky but not be able to write in Kentucky metaphorically, and how to know if a story is packed too tight or strung too loose. As always, more questions than answers, but a small workshop session studying the concrete details of our own writing. To read along, the pieces are on our Discord.
Join us and read or write along at https://discord.gg/vB7efz9pmh.
Find our writing at www.clawfootpress.com.
Having successfully funded the Kickstarter for their new book, the guys discuss where they'll go from here and what they'll be writing over the coming weeks. Plans for NaNoWriMo 2022 are laid.
Join us and write along at https://discord.gg/vB7efz9pmh.
Find our writing at www.clawfootpress.com.
In an effort to understand 'when a thing is done', Matt compares writing to a walk through a neighborhood. He and Eric talk about writing as a physical act of labor, bound by the energy food provides us, and then move from Jenny Odell's book, How to Do Nothing into deeper territory about attention and luxuriating in that, which might provide the answers they want.
Join us and write along at https://discord.gg/jw5P9dbK.
Find our writing at www.clawfootpress.com.
In a discussion about the future of their small independent press, the boys talk about how they might unite their writing under a common aesthetic umbrella and what kinds of other writers the press should look to promote. They also discuss taking breaks from work in order to write and the value of the hallowed 'writer's retreat.'
Join us and write along at https://discord.gg/jw5P9dbK.
Find our writing at www.clawfootpress.com.
Eric & Kyle discuss conversations around the metaverse, body modification, and George Saunders. The role of imagination and 'play' in fiction also get their moments in the sun.
Visit Clawfoot Press to find our writing and other projects.
Kyle finishes a novel; Matt recovers his wallet; and Eric proposes a short writing session for the podcast and its listeners. The boys encounter a minor defeat and struggle to go on without what was lost.
Join us and write along at https://discord.gg/jw5P9dbK.
Find our writing at www.clawfootpress.com.
Eric, Matt, and Kyle spend time with Chris, our producer and a fictional encyclopedist, chatting setting both scene and expectation.
We talk promotion, pandemia, and compost with Jess Saba, a PR consultant who self-defines as a 'lurker around writers'.
Kyle, Matt, and Eric talk hive-minds, permeable selves, and habits as always.
References:
Movies: Evil Dead, Lost in Translation, Magnolia
Books: Pachinko, Orlando, VALIS, The Face of Battle
Shows: Station 11, Atlanta, YouTuber Noel Miller
Authors: Kurt Vonnegut
Kyle, Matt, & Eric discuss the relative difficulties of being alone, how it relates to writing, and then open up the final prompts from the film pitch exercise in order to move to the next phase of the project.
Reference Material
Books: Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche, The Control of Nature - Mcphee
Movies: Amelie, Burn After Reading, A Fish Called Wanda, The Trip
Shows: Patriot
Tim, Matt, and Eric chat with Dan Brooklyn about his remarkable travels and the stories that came from them.
Eric, Matt, and Tim chat about writing to music, and then dig into suspense and fear. Eric and Matt both share scary stories from back when, and do a little campfire story-round.
Eric, Kyle, n' Matt discuss English profanities, the weather, bugs and composting, the stakes of composting, the stakes of composting humans, how stakes impact writing. They talk about sea glass—when it's not good and when it is good—and the general problem of what to do with stuff when we're done with it, leading to questions of the role of the writer in asking questions, questions in favor of reckless honesty, vulnerability, and more.
They also read Kyle's story Midwest Pizza, which he is currently shopping for publication.
Tim, Eric, and Matt talk with Dan Lombardy about his and their approach—why writing? How does the sport affect the person who does it? What issues arise in the act? They read a trimming of a larger work of his and discuss how it affects them, and more.
Kyle and Eric talk the origins and growth of a novel, theme saturation, the playgrounds we build our stories on top of, and how the connection of disparate elements makes new writing and new growth as a writer. We take another tour through our barn pieces, and end with some movie recommendations and talk of Strega Nona.
Eric and Kyle sat down with Tori to talk about her writing and writing life. Topics range from marriage to eating disorders to womanhood to the loss of Tori's mother, the truths of which suffuse her work.
Eric, Matt, and Kyle talk personal repression, being an American writer, how it all started, and then share their first workshop about barns.
Eric, Matt and Kyle discuss writing exercises, plotting as a principle, how turning to Substack has changed their writing, and then read a chapter of Eric's book UGO.
Matt, Tim, and Eric talk one effort at werewolves, Matt's collection about grief, and how audience, idea, or approach can all set good borders to work within when setting out to write something.