130: Propaganda – How We Steal Writing Tricks from Other Authors (feat. Sandwich)

This week we got deep into writing nerd territory, swapping stories about the books that shape our craft—Slaughterhouse‑Five, Catch‑22, and one Nabokov short story WebEater dissected like he was an eager fifth grader who'd just been handed his first owl pellet. We talked about borrowing and adapting structure from other authors, the little lies we tell ourselves to keep writing, and that weird optimism/pessimism dance that happens whenever Vonnegut comes up. And also, cat anuses *.

Then we read first‑draft stories inspired by Propaganda, featuring a secret East German book smuggler, a fantasy bureaucracy obsessed with sacred flames, and a hilariously depressing mini‑monster‑truck rally.

Happy writing everyone! Stories start around 19 minutes in.

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