Hi, this is Start with this, a podcast by me, Jeffrey Cranor, co creator of welcome to Night Vale.
Each episode, I and a writerly guest discuss a topic and then give you two assignments.
Something to consume and something to create.
Start with this, the burnout cycle.
Everything can be a story.
From a simple relationship between two people, all the way up to a high concept literary genre.
Fuck.
Sometimes stories pop into your head while you're getting lunch or doing a Pilates, or maybe multiple Pilates.
You think about it over and over, maybe even jot it down, but usually something happens.
Maybe it's an hour after the idea comes to you, maybe it's while you're writing it down.
Maybe it's years later as you just haven't moved on it much, or you fell out of love it and you don't like the idea anymore.
Or you do, but you don't like thinking about it because thinking about it reminds you of how little you've done to progress the idea into a full on piece of art.
Sometimes you can break this.
But with rare exception, almost every writing idea hits the burnout cycle.
I'm not speaking here just of writer's burnout, although that could be part of it.
I'm just speaking of the way we get too tired emotionally and physically to carry an idea forward.
And what do we do to combat this?
I'm Jeffrey Cranor here with Janina Mathewson, writer for BBC Podcasts, author of two fantastic novels and a very fine collaborator.
We've been co writing the fiction podcast within the Wires together for nearly six years.
Hi Janina.