Yesterday, I finally turned in the manuscript of my novel. I’d been revising it for seven months, and by “revising” I mean, “trying to fit a scene in that I wanted to put into it, but which doesn’t seem to fit anywhere and also staring at page after page wondering why I ever thought I should tell this story in the first place.”
Yeah, it was fun. Thanks, depression brain!
Anyway, doing that narration last week did the thing I hoped it would do, and it opened up the door to the place in my brain where the creativity lives. With access to that room, I was able to step out of the room where Everything Sucks And It’s All My Fault And I’m Terrible At Everything So I Should Just Stop Trying and look at my creative work without fear or judgment.
I could be wrong (my agent and eventual editor will tell me if I am), but I feel like I spent all this time trying to make something better for the sake of making it better, when I had gotten it as good as I was going to get it on my own already. There’s a lesson in here about knowing when your desire to work hard becomes a self-defeating exercise in impossible expectations.
So anyway, it’s Friday, and I wanted to be creative and to feel productive, but I’m giving my writing brain a few days off because it’s been working really hard for a long time and it needs to recharge. Luckily for me, my performer brain was inspired to do another pulp fiction magazine audiobook narration, because it was so much fun the last time I did it, and the feedback was so positive and effusive.
Therefore, I am happy to present to you, Please Help Me To Die! from 1938, written by Leon Byrne, and found at the Pulp Magazines Project.
As before, you can stream or download from my SoundCloud. BUT FIRST YOU HAVE TO KNOW that the mic was hot, and I really needed a pop filter. The audio quality is not particularly great on this one, which is a shame because the story is awesome. But, I promise to give you a full refund for your purchase price if the audio quality does not meet your expectations.
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Whoo hoo another story!!! Thanks! I’m looking forward to listening to it!
Geez, Wil, I really like how you read these old stories.
I marvel at how quickly you are able to develop the voices of the characters. I had goosebumps listening to Nathanial Crayton’s voice. Creepy.
I think you do the mystery genre really well.
Now that I’m done listening to the story and can use a little comic relief, I can’t help thinking of Monty Python’s “I’m not dead yet!”
If you did a short film…would you play one of the characters? Which one?
Wow! I have to say it’s an unexpected treat… Thank you Wil! I very much enjoyed the last narration.
If you haven’t heard Wil do professional narration — I highly recommend “What If?” on Audible!
https://www.audible.com/pd/What-If-Audiobook/B00LV6V4UW
Congrats! I hope the rest of the process is smooth and relatively painless for you. I know you’ve poured a lot of energy into writing this.
I’ve been having similar issues on my own first draft, and sometimes just the thought that I need to write this thing if I ever want to see it finished makes it hard to drag myself out of bed in the morning. I hope it will be easier when I start editing because right now I hate it as much as I love it, and it’s making me more anxious than usual.
Awesome, I can’t wait to hear it!
Hi Wil, favorite audiobook narration (so far) Ready Player One) I am pinging you because I just listened to your podcast segment on The Hilarious World of Depression and it was amazing. I just started a blog on being bipolar and a bunch of other fun stuff so I have been trying to educate myself on writing about a sensitive topic responsibly. Final thought I have been obsessing hard about Hamilton for three years now so the lyrics insert themselves into daily life. You mentioned the room where it happens my brain went to the song then you said Hamilton and I almost peed myself. Good weekend.
“He stared at me long and penetratingly”–and that’s when I started snickering. Hashtag juvenile.
I’m loving your reading of the story, but I super love that you turned in your manuscript! I hope it lifts at least a little weight off your shoulders.
star trek the next generation was a great show. you did a great job i wish people would give you more credit
Congratulations for turning in what’s sure to be a good read! I can hardly wait to listen to your narration of a cool old story-fantastic way to start a weekend!
This one was super creepy; thanks for recording both! I’m glad you got to have a vacation recently; I’m glad you got the manuscript turned in; I’m glad this slightly different burst of creative energy did what you needed it to do! Congrats on all fronts!
Loved it! Resting up from chemo and it really was a fun listen. It did remind me of Night Gallery, Elvira and Seymour. Thanks, Awesome Wil!
Yay!!! New story!!
Glad to hear story is at its new landmark.
Also, Happy 6th Anniversary of the original International Tabletop Day!
Dunno about you but my Facebook is giving me reminders of all the fun of the ~30 friends filling every room with tables, chairs, games, laughter & fun.
We’re doing another game day like it next weekend, looking forward to more smiles & fun.
Yay, narrating Wil is my favorite Wil!
I really enjoyed that one, and I really wouldn’t, mind if it became a regular thing!
Congrats on the manuscript submission
Love it. Another pulp fiction narration to start my weekend. You did a great job. Like you, part way through the narration, I was imagining this as a Twilight Zone episode. I hope you do more reading. It’s so much fun listening to you.
Hi Wil, I am a middle school teacher and am running a game club for the 1st time. Some games we have already played are Catan, Carcassonne, Dominion, a few games from other countries (cards and dice), Magic the Gathering, Hive, Munchkin, and a few others. The kiddos are wanting to play Dungeons and Dragons and I am happy to play with them, but know nothing about it. Would love it if you could share tips for us or if there is no easy way to do that, then maybe some ideas for other games we could play. I am also going to suggest my students watch Table Top, any favorite episodes I can steer to them to? Thanks!! Sonya
This should also be part of Radio Free Burrito!
Keep up fighting, the world is better while you allow yourself to do your best!
I’m so thrilled for another of your narrations!!! I’m going to listen right now! Thanks!!!
Any thoughts on uploading these to radio free burrito? I’d love to listen to them; and having them show up in my podcatcher would be even better!
Wil, congrats on turning in your manuscript! It can be super hard to know when you’ve done the best you can on something you love, and when to know that you aren’t overdoing the work and have already gotten it the best it can be. It’s annoying to try and figure that out, but it’s good that you’re continuing to make progress with the novel. I’ve been reading this blog since before you started writing it, and to see how much progress you’ve made is inspiring, especially to someone working on their own projects like me. Also, the story was frickin’ AMAZING! You did such a good job, and WOW it was so great! The way that you’re able to just GO with a story and adapt as you read is so impressive. This was excellent, please keep doing more, and congrats again on turning in the manuscript!
Just saw Teen Titans Go to the Movies. Freakin hilarious.
i think you would be brilliant narrating Pier Anthony’s ‘a Spell for Chameleon’
Seriously, i think it would be a SyFi / fantasy commercial hit – never understood why it was never recorded.
Well Wil, If you read these comments from time to time as you being the artist I truly enjoy everything you put out there for us. You have inspired me through so much of my own battles. Thanks.
I would totally pledge to the Kickstarter for this. Short film. And…. GO!
Thanks, Wil! This was great! These are so much fun . I hope you will continue to do this as the mood strikes. 😀
I have long said that I would listen to you reading the phonebook. These pulp fiction stories are a vast improvement on a phone books, even without perfected audio quality. So thank you. Happy to “help” nurture your own creative process. 🙂
Wil! You’re in the Chicago Tribune Sunday crossword puzzle! (Sunday March 31st.) Thought you might like to know.
This was a lot of fun to listen to, Wil! I hope that you continue with these ‘experiments’, you seem to enjoy making them about as much as we all enjoy listening to them.
Oh, yeah! As with the first one, I dropped everything I was doing so I could listen. I don’t know how you make those female voices sound like females. Hated the story, loved your narration. (The part where the real estate agent “thinks it was poison” so he throws the hypodermic needle in the river? Gee – thanks, guy. Way to poison the water supply. Hahaha So bad) There were other bad parts too, but you said them like a pro. Thanks very much – these are quite the treat to listen to.
Just a quick comment, Wil.
I really enjoyed both this and the previous readings you did. They helped make an afternoon at work go a little faster.
Thank you for that, and thank you for taking the time to do both readings.
Really enjoyed this, love your narration and it’s cool to listen to a raw performance like this, very cool.