Season One

Episodes

Six so far, newest first. Start anywhere: we digress either way, but we always come home.

Every episode in one player

All six episodes, one player.It arrives when the show goes live on Buzzsprout. Until then, each episode is below.

Margin note: “the final draft” crossed out in red and replaced with “the next draft”.

Episode 06

Emotional Alchemy with a Side of Space AI

Ben finishes rewriting the first section of his science fiction novel, and his ship's computer picks up alien tech, a dank sense of humour and a point-of-view chapter of its own. Michael hands in his book a novella lighter than it came back from his editor, and explains his rule: if it could talk, make sure it's a character.

“I would rather just have an authentic three line email with a vague insult in it.”
Michael

Episode 06 playerComing soon to this exact spot.

Episode 05

Five Books, Four Digressions, One Ship of the Dead

Michael is deep in edits and feeling like the Ancient Mariner, which turns out to be the first digression of several. The topic is their five favourite books, eventually, by way of Gene Wolfe, Abercrombie, Sanderson, Red Rising and a great many primate noises.

“Hello and welcome. Today's episode is about something that we'll tell you about in half an hour.”
The cold open

Episode 05 playerComing soon to this exact spot.

Episode 04

Cognitive Drag and the Myth of the Final Draft

Michael's new obsession is cognitive drag, the bits of writing that slow a reader down when they shouldn't, and he has rewritten his opening chapter about 500 times in its honour. Ben collapses three chapters into one and decides it's okay for this not to be the final version.

“I just ate tuna out of the can because I've just, like, got rid of the brown toast.”
Heard on Episode 04

Episode 04 playerComing soon to this exact spot.

Episode 03

Conspiracies & Progressive Overload

The headband episode. Michael lays out the conspiracy at the heart of book three and the crew investigating it, while Ben realises he never gave his novel a brief, the way a copywriter would, and both of them learn to lift a little more each time.

“There's always some bits left over when you build an Ikea cupboard.”
Ben

Episode 03 playerComing soon to this exact spot.

Episode 02

On Embracing the Dread

Michael admits to the terror that turns up every morning before the writing does, and the Goofballs agree it only grows the more you care. Then they take Ben's first chapter apart, from every condiment in the fridge to Michael's offcuts document, and work out how to keep going anyway.

“It's a fine line between dread and excitement.”
Michael

Episode 02 playerComing soon to this exact spot.

Episode 01

Of Bunions, Battlements and Book Deals

Who are we, how did we get here, and why does it start with a snake eating a pony? Michael tells how Fantasy February and a bunion operation turned a literary novelist into the author of a three-book epic fantasy, and the Goofballs get properly geeky about hard and soft magic.

“Our origin story begins with a snake eating a pony.”
Michael

Episode 01 playerComing soon to this exact spot.

Where to next?

Every episode left a place on the map. Go and find the one you just heard.

Open the map Meet the Goofballs