Hallow!
I was wondering how many hours a day/week you spend on writing/editing/proofreading/etc. when working on projects? I've really been struggling with making any progress on my one book I'm writing. I do not have any deadline to adhere to, to make me work faster, but I still feel like it goes so incredibly slow.
This is one of those questions I get a lot and never have the time to give a proper answer.
The problem is it’s not answerable. Well, not in the way you think at least.
When working on a project I use a system called batching where I work in clumps to minimise turnaround time. I.e. one week I will spend doing as much writing as possible, the next week I will do as much admin as possible, the next week I will do as much sound design work as possible etc.
I do this so that when I am feeling lazy I can treat myself with work from a different clump for variety rather than just resorting to pure procrastination. it scratches the procrastination itch without being actively unproductive when I can’t afford to waste time.
To answer your specific question though novels and scripts are very very different to write and need pretty distinct skill sets. There’s a reason I still haven’t finished a novel, its super slow (comparatively) and requires a huge amount of dedicated grind, scripting dialogue on the other hand I find is just a case of sit down then words happen.
Assuming I am on a dedicated writing clump, undisturbed with no other draws on my time and I deliberately trigger my huyperfocus I tend to write for about 7 hours/ 7000 words a day but that isn’t sustainable and ends up leaving me exhausted by week’s end and needing a recovery period. (Hence the batching.) I still have not found a way to write sustainably hence why Jonny impresses me so much since he can script AND novel simultaneously.
I think honestly its not about the hours you put in as much as it is about regularity of contribution. I only really made any headway once I was a full-time creative. Anyone who can juggle full time work and write a novel is far more talented than I will ever be. It’s very much my own “white-whale”.
Hey alex, i noticed you wear suits or turtlenecks most of the time. And i couldnt help but wonder, How are you handling the awful heat in the UK atm?
So at the risk of shattering what little personal brand I have built up:
Don’t confuse the person with the persona.
I tend to wear these things at public events to stand out, show respect and give people what they expect.
The truth is that in the heat I have been wearing a lot of jogging leggings and sleeveless synthetic exercise tops with “barefoot-shoes”. In fact, I am wearing that right now.
It’s “a look” but not necessarily one I want to be seen in public with given my ever-growing paunch.
Hey,
During a Q&A at one point you said that in making the remote recording kits once COVID hit, you caused a shortage of a particular microphone - just curious, which microphone was it?
The Audio Technica AT2020 with all the associated accoutrements.
It’s still our standard microphone but we are looking to upgrade in the future.
I desperately need to know (for no other reason than for my own amusement) if you prefer the brotherhood version or the '03 version of Fullmetal Alchemist and if you have read the manga
I personally belive that although the brotherhood version is thecnically better, the original adaptation does a better job of introducing viewers to the world and the characters and developing the relationships between said characters which makes the emotional gut punches hit harder
Depends what you want from the show.
OG Alchemist is good if what you want is to hang with your favourite characters as long as possible and ride their whole ride with them.
Brotherhood is technically better written and better paced but it doesn’t scratch that hanging-with-your-besties vibe in the same way.
If you are there for the characters then definitely OG, if you are here for the story, definitely Brotherhood.
I also remember being more shocked by the ending revelations of OG than I was Brotherhood but that might just be because I was younger.
Was the stuff in the transcripts such as [Around a Mouthful of Archivist] for your laughs, the readers, or both?
So stage directions were originally written by Jonny under duress because I insisted I needed to have at least some kind of hint as to what the heck was happening if I was going to direct and edit.
These days though we just accept that people are reading them and factor it in. I would say I am generally more comedic and specific than Jonny in my stage directions but then again this is the guy who wrote something along the lines of “weird sounding bullshit happens” in an official script back in the day so there’s probably not that much difference really.
What are your reactions to the increasingly more eldrich and cryptid jon art?
I mean, I do not really duck into the fandom as much as people fear so when I do come across it:
“Oh cool someone listened to something I made.”
after the release of magp 19 my friend thought it was odd to include such a prolific historical figure. I reminded him that Robert Smirke was a pivotal character in the magnus archives and arguably more important to history as he had been in charge of the construction most famous buildings in London built during the early 19th century, including the renovation of the royal mint Isaac Newton had been the warden of. Who do you think is more famous/more important to history?
I would argue Newton is more important to actual history.
Interestingly there was a quite a bit of back-and-forth about referencing Newton in Protocol.
On the one hand he is a prolific figure in Alchemy and slots into the lore very nicely. On the other hand though, he has been portrayed a lot and is very much a “go-to” choice for the time period. (See Rusty Quill Gaming as an example!)
We went for it in the end because practicality won out but it was still a proper discussion.
Hey Alex! I was wondering if you have ever thought about running an rqg sequel?
Have I thought about it? Yes.
Does that mean you should expect it? No.
There would be so many practical obstacles to overcome that I don’t know if it would even be possible.
Also sequels are hard work and high risk so there other new things I would want to try and make first.
Hiya! Just wondering, have you ever had any dreams (possibly nightmares..?) about any of the creepy stuff you’ve written?
Yes but the reverse is far more common.
Hi Alex
Genuine question from someone who has never (not yet anyways) played D&D: what would have happened to the campaign in Rusty Quill Gaming if the party had gone tpk?
Have a nice day!
I mean you already saw a TPK in the Paris arc.
Unfortunately in an entertainment show you can’t just say “rocks fall everybody dies see ya!” So I had a couple of deus-ex-machinas cued up just in case but a TPK has to hurt so each TPK would have cost us at least one core character either in physical death or massive personality changes due to trauma etc. Also NPCs would treat them differently.
Do you look at fanart often, and what are your thoughts on common headcanons for the way that characters look? Do you imagine some characters looking a certain way?
I don’t really look at fanart unless it is put directly in front of me even though I fully support it as an endeavour.
In terms of HeadCanons, I keep saying people are welcome to do what they want but I am always a little saddened when a fandom homes in on an “accepted” or “standard” portrayal because it just feels to me like closing a bunch of creative doors which seems a shame. That said, fandom is a weird and terrifying beast I do not understand so I’m not sure my opinion counts for much.
Hi Alex, I have a humble request.
during one of the protocol pre-launch livestream Q&A things, you and Jonny were talking, and you mentioned that Jonny had come up with a plot idea, that, on reflection, would quote “fuck up the universe worse than in archives.”
When protocol finishes, please could you release more on this? I desperately want to know what the plot point was, because HOW?! How could Jonny possibly fuck up a universe more than he did in archives? He basically engineered hell on earth last time!!
but I appreciate that this plot point is probably all spoilers, so yeah. After protocol is finished!
Yes. I promise I will share this when possible. In fact I think it will be earlier than you suspect.
As I’m relistening to RQG recently, I was struck by the fact that Hamid starts the story with a little bit of power, grows into a lot of power, and then basically has all of that power stripped away from him. He loses his magic, his family and money matter a lot less in the new world, and he presumably lost a ton of public respect and influence during Cairo with the scandals. Was this a deliberate choice, or just how things worked out with the story? It’s really interesting that when so much of Hamid’s arc was about learning to be responsible with power, he ended up having very little.
So Hamid’s arc was always to my mind an examination of personal responsibility in a world with a horrendous power imbalance.
Given that, there were a few ways it could have panned out depending on the player Bryn’s actions:
1) Hamid could have been corrupted by his power.
2) He could have rejected it.
3) He could have grown into the proper wielding of it.
4) He have been denied it and been forced to adjust.
I think in his heart Bryn was hoping for number 3 but we ended up at number 4.
To be clear, this was not a foregone conclusion, I would not be arrogant enough to claim complete control over the story that unfolded but I would say #3 would have been hard to achieve at my end without falling foul of power fantasy tropes.
As it is, I often catch myself examining the ending of RQG and looking for better alternates if I were to travel back in time and do it again but ultimately that’s not helpful. It is what it is and I should be glad we managed to bring the plane in to land at all!
Hello sir, I hope you're having a good day. I just have one question for you: have you ever read the Warriors book series by Erin Hunter?
I haver not. Unfortunately my reading is very patchy with some deep veins but equally broad deserts of ignorance.
who out of the Protocol crew do you reckon would be the best at taking care of a Tamagotchi
Probably Alice but only to spite Gwen.
Gwen would do everything right caring for hers and meanwhile Alice would see Gwen cared and just get Colin to hack one for her and pretend she’s just really competent to Gwen. Same with Digimon.
Where would the Boneturner take Bonzo on their first date if this is the supposed steamiest romance of 2025. The people need to know!
To the stars and back my friend.
Hello Mr Newall!!
I was wondering if the name Fairchild in any way came from the Fairchild Aviation Corporation? Ima bit of an aviation fan and I just found out about the company (big fan of civil aviation in the 60s) and thought it was neat!
(Feel free to not answer if you don’t want to:3)
That’s a Jonny question I’m afraid.
I just want to ask, is it okay if me and a few of my friends make a podcast in the same universe/inspired by the Magnus archives? We’ve been planning this for a while but I wanted to ask if you were okay with it.
we wouldn’t be doing it for profit or anything, just for fun :)
So that’s a question that has to go via email to mail@rustyquill.com For various reasons, I’m not really allowed to give permission for company related stuff as a private person.
Greetings,vhope you're doing well!
I'm running a campaign with some friends and I would love some ideas. What are your favorite things to throw off/mess with the party?
Start with a high level seeming TPK then jump to “3 years earlier”. Now you have the challenge of getting them into that exact scenario without railroading. Good luck!
So I once read a tumblr post and it’s been haunting me since: since Michael D Stortion has really long fingers and is in general tall- are his toes also abnormally long???
They could be.
Then again they could be wide.
Wider than flippers, wider than spades, wider than the doors it strides betwixt and between.
Or just, y'know, toe shaped. That would work too.
Did the episode “Schwartzwald” in tma take inspiration from the twilight zone episode “time enough at last” ?
I’m afraid that’s a Jonny Question.
If rusty quill were to fall apart right this second, what would your back-up plan be?
RQ2 Bigger Longer Uncut.
greetings Big Boss Man!
i would like to know if there will be a canon age drop for the tmagp characters in the future? i am cooking up a theory.
an answer is much obliged, although i get that you are busy so it is not needed (i will just headcanon it you cant stop me)
We normally try to sprinkle such references throughout all the seasons but I can’t remember off the top of my head if and when they explicitly happen. Fair warning though you’ll be waiting a while if you want to collect the set.
hello mr newall!!!
do you have a favorite author or a writer that inspires you? can be for any sort of media so books, films, tv shows, podcasts (whaaat) etc
I really enjoy your work! thanks for all that you do :)
Probably Terry Pratchett most.
I just vibed with his work and his creative ethic. I.e. The writing is the reward.
Most US-based airlines were grounded by the Crowdstrike outage on the 19th, but Southwest Airlines was unaffected, because its key systems are still running Windows NT 3.1.
Which is to say, yeah, the OIAR's tech is outdated, but at least it's not Southwest Airlines outdated.
I am going to break my rules for the first time and answer this post that doesn’t technically meet the criteria.
- Thankyou for telling me this
- I could tell you some real world horror stories about air travel technical infrastructure. I probably will at some point in the future.
- The tech for the O.I.A.R. is loosely modelled on actual UK infrastructure and processes I’ve seen implemented in places they REALLY shouldn’t be.
- The entirety of digital infrastructure is balanced on ancient pins. The reason things keep going is just because there are enough pins distributed about that when something goes ping into the corner of the room there is normally another less optimal pin that can be substituted in a pinch. It’s fascinating, if upsetting, to watch.
Hello! I just wanted to check, who was the lead writer on episode 22 of Protocol? The episode credits say Jonny, but I noticed your name is listed on the transcript.
Either way, what a fantastic episode - I'm absolutely loving the existentialist themes the show is getting into!
Huh, weird.
I did write TMP 22 with Jonny editing. Looks like an admin error, we’ll try and get round to fixing it at some point. Honestly, most people assume Jonny writes it all anyway so I don’t think anyone will be shocked by this revelation.
I found out about tma from my friend because he asked me to make an edit of michael distortion and got into it a few months later. I LOVE TMA. I mostly listened to the whole thing three times when I was mostly offline because I have the 200 episodes downloaded on YouTube and now I'm finding out that there's some stuff I missed, there's bloopers, q&a and I was in the wiki because i wanted to see how many times the admiral was mentioned and theres one what the ghost episode? IM GOING INSANE. I love tma. I think it's rotting my brain... it's everywhere, it's in my veins. I need to know everything but when I try to search these things up on YouTube it only shows me rusty quill gaming which I will be watching later but where do I find the other stuff where is the best place to listen to tma and find every extra lore even if it's just the tiniest squeeze of lore? I need to know y'all really did an amazing job with tma, I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of listening to it. I need to relisten to it before hell— I mean... School starts again. Lord save us for another year of merciless torture. Also I was trying to type this fast and forgot to say hi. hi Mr Alex, I hope you're having an amazing day/night when you see this. I promise to listen to all the podcasts rusty quill has after I learn every little squeeze of tma lore. Where is the best place to listen to and learn every little squeeze of information of all of rusty quill podcasts? (I absolutely did not install Tumblr just to ask this what do you mean 😓😓😓)
Lovely to hear from you and thankyou for the kind words.
To list good locations for TMA Lore:
1) The podcast feed is obviously first port of call and includes some bonus materials between seasons
2) Our Patreon has an absolutely enormous amount of content in there now and I believe it should at this point be organised into collections so you can just look up TMA and it’s all there for you (although that is behind a paywall)
2) Any video QNA’s/events etc. not included in the main feed should be on our twitch channel.
3) Rustyquill.com has various links dotted around that have snippets too
4) The fan wiki is a very strong resource. Like any wiki there is the odd error here or there but for the most part its astonishingly accurate and detailed.
5) Special mention to whoever keeps our TV Tropes pages up to date. It was when I saw a proper entry for The Magnus Archives on that site that I actually started to call myself a “proper” writer.
In RQG, did the party ever clock that what the British Museum sent to François Henri was the Rosetta Stone imprint for the translation that Carter drunkenly bemoaned in Cairo?
I quite liked that little microcosm we saw of the consequences of upending infrastructure with no change management, particularly as that idea echos across the campaign.
Oh you caught that did you! I don’t think they ever did. I could be wrong though. I love putting in little stuff like that, stuff that doesn’t really matter but gives you something to discover on a re-read.
I’ve been thinking about the awesome OIAR casts’ Spotify playlists and it got me thinking: what music do you think Martin/the Archives gang would listen to?
Send in the Clowns?
Do you like insects and what's your favourite insect? (Even if you don't like them I am curious as to what your favourite one is)
So although I am intellectually glad of insects because I understand their role in the ecosystem I must admit they mostly ick me in person.
That said, Scarab Beetles are pretty cool. From a distance.
Hey! Hope ur day is going well!
whats your favourite statement/case that you've had to read aloud, either archives or protocol?
Let’s just say that sitting on an uncomfy chair in a foggy house constantly resetting with no-one to help felt pretty special to perform.
hey man! any ideas to get rid of a nasty violent cough that feels all weird and spongy inside when I breathe?
Visit a licensed medical healthcare professional.
Who out of the tma/tmagp (your choice) crew would be better at monopoly?
Lena. Because Lena.
Hi Alex, will you and/or Jonny be joining any of the Live Drops on Patron? It was a super fun listening experience. 😁
Hope you’re doing well, and that you get to play Control with Jonny soon (stream scheduling on Nightmare mode, as Jonny put it!!)
I am not booked in for a live drop but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re asked to attend premieres/ finales.
Control stream is rebooked although I forget the specific date. (I think there’s an update about it on Patreon today.)
hello!!
this is coming out of the blue honestly but still,, have you ever read/heard about the locked tomb? i read it around the same time i started to listen to tma and it made me realize that while they are two completely different stories they have sorta similiar vibes???? like, in the "if you like one of these two things, you would surely enjoy the other too" way
it might be the body and existential horror and the mainly queer cast,, anyways hope you're having a nice day/evening/night!
I’m afraid I honestly haven’t heard of it before.
I’ll add it to THE LIST.
Alex- Sir- I have the biggest, mind-blowing question ever.
Whats your favorite ice cream flavor? Also, do you use the letter 'u' in flavor? Cause they do it in Canada and it's a bit off putting as no one does in America-
So bear in mind UK flavours tend to be subtly different from American etc.
I buy and enjoy Pish Phood (or however you spell it) most regularly.
That said my absolute favourite is probably fresh Gelato in Italy with as much chocolate as they can fit in a waffle cone because I am somehow both fancy and mid.
Hello Alex!
I just finished reading Lanark, which was a strange and fascinating read, definitely something that is going to stick with me for a while. But I was curious if you would be interested in sharing some more of your thoughts on the book? I'd love to know more of your thoughts on it.
Thanks!
Glad you read it. I think everybody should once.
I think from my end, the older I get the less it resonates with me interestingly enough. I think it speaks more to a desperate need for fulfilment that plagued me more in my 20s than my 30s.
I think it’s probably the best example of dream logic in written form I have ever found.
I am still unsold on the asynchronous chapters but I get what they were going for.
TLDR: It’s interesting and helped me understand some dream logic but it’s rarely a “fun” read.
Hi!
This is a random question, but I was wondering, do you have a favorite pokemon? And if yes which one?
So bear in mind I am an original run 90s kid so I always loved the lesser loved ones of the original 150 pokemon:
Golem, Golduck, Sandslash, Cloister, Magmar
But my runaway favourite was always Ditto even though in play it never quite felt like it measured up.
Hi Mr. Newall!!
I can't get this question out of my brain, and I would honestly really love to hear your opinion.
So, I'm autistic, and my special interest lies within storytelling--I love telling stories, consuming stories, and anything that has to do with a well-told story. Within my special interest, I have various hyperfixations; right now, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Magnus Archives, and Arcane are my big three.
I love collecting people's takes and opinions on these pieces of media, so my question is:
- Have you watched Arcane on Netflix?
1a. If you have, who is your favorite character, and--if you'd humor me--why (as quantified by how they are written, their quality of voice-acting, their character arc, character design, something else entirely, etc., etc.)?
If you do have time to respond, I would be honored to hear a reply from someone as well-versed in the mechanisms of telling stories as yourself. If you never see this, I will be no worse for the wear, and I can't wait for the s1 finale of TMAGP!
Cheers :)
- I have watched Arcane on Netflix and found it thoroughly excellent.
1a. Tough to say as the core cast are fabulous but probably Ekko. Reason: I spent some time studying the philosophy of “Obligation war and dissent” and found this character to be an excellent example of normally immoral behaviour becoming moral when contextualised in an immoral system. It’s not often you see the young tag-along helper archetype become as developed and rounded as they end up, becoming a role model in their own right that actively challenges your protagonists in such a way. I am also a sucker for flying skateboards and artificer type aesthetics. I did have a soft spot for Victor’s gothic vibes though and thought the costume/ prop design across the board was phenomenal.
Alesis Newman….. Alex Newell…. Self-insert? (Kidding, but man. That is one SIMILAR name)
Ironically I believe that was one of the fan-submitted character names from the Kickstarter so there is probably a listener out there right now reconsidering their opinions on coral!
Thoughts on garbage fires? There’s no subtext here I just like them
I dislike garbage fires.