e5b6ac17b4c1ba3c478cec7411e303d9ab84bc94 (1)

The podcast hosts discuss their plans to write a book, sharing ideas for possible story prompts and discussing the challenges of starting a new project. They consider different genres and themes, including dark and psychological elements. They also discuss the fear of losing momentum and the difficulty of letting go of characters and storylines that no longer fit. They brainstorm ideas for a character who discovers a photo they shouldn't have seen, considering both dark and supernatural possibilities. Hi everyone, welcome back to another podcast. Today, me and Ellie are going to attempt to try and write some form of book. Well, part of one anyway, we're not going to be able to write a whole book in an hour. Oh, we can try. Yeah, we can try, but we'll see how we go. Obviously, you won't be able to see what we're writing, but obviously we'll chat about it and everything. We will definitely share it. Yeah. Somehow. Definitely, with that one. So, have you got any ideas what you're going to be doing yours on? Well, so it's right in the prologue, right? Yeah. That's how I understand it. Yeah, yeah. Okay. No, normally when I start writing a book, I've already got an idea in my brain, but I've come home from work and the only idea I have in my brain now is, I don't even know, but I've got my docs open. Yeah, normally you start at the prologue and normally I find all my book prompts on Readsy, which is the best place to find them actually. I might have to look at that one. Definitely, it's the best place to go. Yeah, recently, ever since we've been starting doing these podcasts, not once have I ever seen an advert for it. Ever since I've been online and everything, it keeps popping up. Oh, I get an ad there every five seconds. It's the only one that runs on YouTube. It will not go away. It's there all the time. That's why I see mine as well. Yeah, it's like you've used the site once. Now, I'm just going to not leave you alone. I've actually never used it. It's just a coincidence that you mentioned it once to me before, then all of a sudden it's popping up. Oh, it is. It is one of those prolific sites that you click on the site once and then suddenly it's everywhere. It's like Readsy editor, Readsy prompts, they're sending you emails. It's like really weirdly stalking-ish. I find most things do that though, especially if you've looked it up on the same device or something, you suddenly start getting all these adverts for this thing. Yes. I searched you once on my phone. I don't need it. I just was curious. Yes, exactly. Do you have any idea what you're going to do your prologue on? Not a clue yet, but don't roll with it because I've already got two books currently on the go, so why not make a third? Why not indeed? Why not? I mean, have I got one on the go? I don't have a book on. I have a book on the go, but I've already started that one, so that doesn't count. That doesn't count. Here we go. We're just going to put possible story. That's going to be it. No, possible book. That's going to be it. So, what have they got on Risi, prompt-wise? Let's have a look. Let's indeed have a look. It's actually all right. So, they've got write about a character who treats everything like a game and struggles to be serious when they most need to, or vice versa. Write a story about someone who takes a joke way too far. I thought I was going to say a way too far, and that's not it. I thought I was going to say a way too far, and that's not it. Write a story about somebody, someone participating in a seemingly innocent game that suddenly takes a turn. Set your story in a playground. Two characters are having serious conversation while on a seesaw in the jungle gym or on the swings. Write a story that includes the phrase, it's all fun and games, and then that's the live one, but it goes on for quite a while. It goes on for 106 pages, so I mean, you can also filter them down, so like, there's a lot, there's quite a fair few. Yeah, I might, you know, I've not written a dark one for a while. I actually haven't, yeah, I haven't written, maybe we should write in genres that we don't normally write in. That would be a good one. Yeah, definitely, yeah. Okay, um, oh no, which genre do I not normally write in? Romance. I'll move you on that one. I normally write in, like, ghost and horror books, so that's way out of my thing. Romance is like, oh, I hate it, I hate it so much. No, thank you. There's this, because I work in a, I work in a hotel, these elderly people always read the same type of book, not to discriminate, I don't, I'm not offending anyone, but they always read the same type of book. It's always 1950s, two housewives and children, and it's always the same book with characters with very similar names. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me. Oh my god, there's a Valentine's Day one, what's that? Oh god, do I want to know? Is that Valentine's one suitable for the podcast or not? Oh yeah, no, it's not Valentine's. Ew, no, we can't have Valentine's. We can't have Valentine's, it's bad. What's dramatic? Oh no, um, oh, write about characters and see the photo they shouldn't have seen. Oh, I wanted to do this one for a while, actually. Maybe that might be, um, one to do. That might be one to do. Write about someone who's convinced they're going to be betrayed. Story of my life. Set your story during a month of drought, whether literal or metaphorical. Oh, include in your story a scene about a family's last meal before a significant change. Oh. These are all really saucy. Not in that way, but they're all really saucy. I always find it intriguing about children seeing things that they shouldn't have seen. Yeah, that does happen quite a lot. Not yet, I'm just, um, having a look on Reads here. I looked on the, um, like, spring option. There's a spring option? Yeah, um, and one of it, one of them, um, one of them came up is your crusher worker's developed a habit of setting a fresh boutique of flowers on their desk once, once spring has started and you have allergies. Oh, that could be really funny. Oh no, that could be both really funny and really bad. Nobody submitted, uh, nobody submitted a prompt for this. Maybe you should do this one. Maybe then. Oh, that's cute. It could be really cute and really annoying at the same time. I'm happy to make it both. Yeah, imagine you really like them as well and you don't have the heart to say, look, I have severe allergies. Especially if you like him as well, that's going to be even more awkward. Yeah, you're just sniffling, trying to inhale as much like this. Yeah, I'm fine. I'm absolutely fine. But once you didn't know something did happen between two, both of them and went around his house and then have flowers everywhere. Can you imagine? He's like, Oh, by the way, I'm going, I've got a, I've got a botanical class. You want to come? It's all about rearranging flowers and poking flowers and dissecting flowers. To be honest, I can kind of relate. I, um, I have pretty bad hate people, but I just like it and love it anyway. I would be really scoffed if they left like the smelliest flowers that smelled really nice, but also gave me the worst cold. Yeah, that would be awful. Well, that's really like ominous. Wait, you think to yourself, something's wrong. It's April and the leaves haven't grown back on the trees. It'd be very, very awkward and weird. If that didn't happen, which it has the possibility of not happening, um, being late because the climate change, I reckon I would fall into a ball and cry because my, I'd be so confused. A lot of people think that's dramatic, but it's not dramatic. It's very, it's very scary. People should be more scared of like subtle changes in the environment than anything else right now. Definitely. I hate starting. I really do. Starting a story is the worst thing. I don't know. You don't know where to start. I know it's awful, but I know I've got people like, oh, sorry. No, don't carry on. No, no, you got it. You got it. I was just going to say, I've got like five or six notebooks just full of ideas and none of them have yet turned into writing a book or anything. Oh no, that's the worst thing, especially when you lose momentum. I think what a lot of people get scared of also is they start a book and they get really attached to these characters and then they have no momentum to do the rest or they realize that it's going in the complete wrong direction or there's something else wrong. Like it's just not the genre they like anymore or, you know, they, you know, they don't write like it anymore and you have to, you have to leave the characters and the story. You have to walk away from it and that's very, very difficult. Yeah, that's the only thing. Once you've like created and done all that like hard work that you've got to do to be able to sit down and get that far anyway then to be like, well actually I don't like this anymore. Yeah, it's uh, yeah, it's pretty, pretty sad but you just gotta, because then you can implement those characters elsewhere. Yeah, that's true. Like you can go back to them and revisit them and then put them in something else. Yeah. Might be, might be the best idea. Yeah. That's what I've done before. Oh, how do I start? How do I start? A character. Could we have a family member discover a photo they shouldn't have seen? Or like a random stranger? Oh no, that's a bit dull. Oh no, you could make it dark. We can make it dark. It can be dark. It can, definitely, depending on what the photo is of. I don't know. I normally go darker with these things, like things they shouldn't have seen. But then like you could always go more psychological, more like a photo of like, especially if it's a family photo, a photo of like a family member that's, I don't know, like a, like a, oh, I've got it on the tip of my tongue and now it won't come out my mouth. God damn it. Like a sister that was, that died or something that you weren't supposed to know about or like a, like an uncle you never knew about or something like that. That's normally the route they go in it. Yeah. It's a good route to go. Or like you could go darker where it's like like something weirdly phenomenal or supernatural, like a spaceship or an alien, which I'm definitely not going to do because I don't do those things. I go more cryptid route. I like cryptids way better. Yeah. Okay, let's pick a name for the better. Yeah. Okay, let's pick a name for the character. His name shall be random name generator is another really good site. Very good site. Another one, I'm gonna have to look at that one. It's called behind the name and you can look up a random name with pronouns, you know, well with masculine, feminine and ambiguous or either either first name, middle name, generate life story, avoid rare and avoid diminutive. So yeah, you can have an optional surname or random surname. But normally I just go for a first name, middle name. And it's normally either. Oh, well, we're gonna have this as a mess. Let's do that. Sorry, I'll make one up. Yeah, we don't need that. We're doing that ourselves. Thanks. Yeah, we're doing that right now. Oh, no, it's not that. Okay, when I said generate name, I didn't mean these Sylvester is a good name. It sounds a bit weird, though. I mean, it's all right, but depending on what kind of don't know how to put it what kind of I know what I'm trying to say. More of if it's more of a like, recent kind of name that I don't really think that's gonna be. It's not really a popular name unless it's like, like, sometimes they have family names. I don't even know how to say this name. In fact, I'm gonna take a picture and I'm gonna send it to you at some point. Because I don't have a damn clue how to say this name. I'm not using it. But I just have never seen this name in my entire life. I don't even know what letter that is. I'd be as serious. What? How do you say that? Oh, that's supposed to be an A. That does not look like an A. Well, it is apparently. Yeah, apparently it is an A. Have you seen any that tickle your fancy? Not yet. I'm just looking. The same as you, I've been getting names I can't even say and I won't be using. Yeah, a lot of them are like German names that are supposed to be said really aggressively. My English accent can't do that. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. There's a really, really strange name behind the name. Oh, I need to... Oh, come on. Come on, come on. The second name of this character would be Bartholomew. I actually like the name Bartholomew. Okay, we're gonna keep him as something Bartholomew. Because we are fancy. It's so many random names. I know, even names you've never heard of before. I regret choosing this name because I don't know how to spell it. There we go, that's better. Sheetan. Sheetan? Is that how you say it? That's probably not how you say it. I was gonna say, just be careful how you say it. Yeah, you've got to be really, really careful. Reign. Reign? Is that how you say that? Reign. That is Reign. It's English? How is that English? Oh, from reign, as in someone's reign, someone's dynasty, meaning queen. Oh, now I like that. I like that name. Oh, he might have to be a woman. Okay, this guy's now a woman. Oh wait, it's masculine and feminine, and it's rare. Oh, apparently it's been used quite recently, and it's been used in Brazil. Okay, his name is now Reign. That's a very chunky name, but we're gonna call him that because I like both of them. Yeah, sounds good. How do you spell it? That's not it. Oh, that's because I didn't put B. Did I spell it right? Did I? I feel like half of the time, I spell things incorrectly, and then I know I spell things incorrectly, and I have to go all the way back to correct them. All right, get in there, slowly. I really wish autocorrect followed you. That sounds strange. I really wish it followed you as you typed. Yeah, that would be helpful. Yeah, as you went, it changed the key that you put in the wrong place or something, like as you went, like it went like a little thing alongside. That'd be so much better. Yeah. So then it just means I need to go all the way back, and then click on it, and then, you know, it's just, I can't do all the two of that. I know that sounds lazy, but if you've written like 30 pages, and then you have to go all the way back to do it, it's, oh, how old is this guy gonna be? Have you seen that some people have been using AI to write books? I have, and I don't know how to feel about it. I get that it's there to like help and whatever, and you can get ideas with like, I can see how it can help with like content and everything, I get that, because it makes it, makes everyone's life a bit easier, especially when you don't know what to put, but to write a book, so using AI to write a full blown book, I don't think writing's for you, especially if you're going to be publishing a book, because then is it really classed as your own book, because you've used, as such as a, let's call it a robot to write your book, because you haven't technically done any of it, really, it generates everything for you. Exactly, it is one of those things, AI can be a very, very useful tool, it can really, really help you out in certain situations, but again, I like you said, writing a whole book with it, it's just maybe it's not for you, if that's how you want to, you know, go about it, because to write a book, you've got to, the point of writing a book is to create characters that people can relate to, and take them through this very long and very drawn out story, using AI just chops all of that effort that you put into it, you know, and a computer cannot, you know, feel human emotions that you put into the story, and the situations that you put the characters through, are situations that you yourself have been through, and you understand that, I mean, unless you're writing fantasy, then it's a bit different, but you still put them through the same stuff that you that you can relate to, and that other people can relate to, you're just taking all that struggle and all that effort away from not just the characters, but also yourself. Yeah, exactly. Maybe it's not for you at that point. Yes, I just think that at the minute AI has been taken a bit out of too much, like it's alright for some things, but other things, it's just a bit like, why? Why are you using it? Yeah, I agree. That's why the union in America, I think, did we have one over here? Well, it's the writers went on strike, because they thought that their jobs were at risk because of AI. I think I heard about that. I think, yeah, our jobs are at risk because of AI, well, not our jobs, but jobs are at risk because of AI. Yeah, I think someone, not writing as such, but I think a lot of people have said, like, music artists have said similar, that their jobs could technically be at risk, because a lot, rather than people, like, buying CDs and everything like that, a lot of people now use streaming services, in which they either make very little or don't make anything from. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I do get that. I do. I think the creator of AI should not be held accountable, because it was, it's what people do with it, that ruins it, like a lot of things, like, the majority of people do not use it correctly. Therefore, they use it to cheat on exams, they use it to, like, you know, write whole books, and then take all of the credit. You know, they use it for that purpose. And I'm like, the purpose really of it was not that at all. It was supposed to be used as a tool of such to help students and to help, you know, other professions, like writers and that sort of thing. It wasn't really meant for what people are using it for. But then I feel like that's a lot of things, like any sort of, not to compare, but it's a bit like vapes, or smoking, or drinks, people don't use it correctly. And therefore, you know, it causes damage. Not to, you know, compare, but that's the closest thing I can compare it to. Yeah. I get where you're coming from with that. And if it's used in the right ways, then fine. But when you're using it for pretty much anything and everything, that's where you need to look out where you're going wrong. Yeah. Yeah, that is where you need to look out. Yeah. And you know, you've got to be careful because you never know when AI is going to become intelligent, which is going to be for another hundred years. But you never know. So then it might want that credit from the book that you wrote 100 years ago back. Yeah, exactly. We're going to have a Detroit become human situation up in here. And I don't think people want that. No, definitely not. Did you know there's a book title generator to help you come up with book names? Yeah, Ruthie has one of those as well. Believe it or not, this is not sponsored by Ruthie in any capacity. It's not sponsored by anyone. It's not sponsored by anyone. We don't even sponsor this ourselves because we are broke. But Ruthie has a very similar thing. I'll have to send you the link to it. Or maybe it's on the Ruthie thing. But that also has a book name generator. I've got my book name from there, which I've gotten about 50 book names from there because I can't title one. Yeah, I just thought I'd have a look. I couldn't decide on a book title and a book generator name came up. So just thought I'd have a look. But I'll have a look on read as well. See if they've got any other ideas as well. It's relatively simplistic, but maybe sometimes you need a more simple name to, you know, get it out there. Yeah. Not a lot of people like the whole thing of long titles. It can put a lot of people off. No, no. The book that we are reading, what was it called? One of the present city books. It's very good, but the name's a bit chunky. Yeah, I'll see if I can get it up. I've got it on my Kindle. So I'll see if I can get it up. Actually, I can look on my Amazon account. I've got my laptop open. That'd be a better idea, wouldn't it? That would be a better idea that you've got it open. I thought it might be at some point. Yeah, I didn't. When I was looking, there's quite a few in that series, and she's written quite a lot, hasn't she? Yeah, because she wrote A Court of Thorn and Roses. How many has she written for present city? Oh, she's written three for present city, but then Throne of Glass has eight books, and then A Court of Thorn and Roses has five books, and they're thick books as well. Yeah, because I think she said they're quite big books, but I actually cheated and downloaded it onto my Kindle, so. No, that's A-OK, because it's a thick book. It's very thick. It's 700 pages thick. Yeah, I just thought it'd be easier to try and read, because the last few weeks I've been on and off trains and everything, so it's just easier to carry it, so. Oh, yeah. No, no, that's understandable. It's the book we're reading, and we will be doing a podcast at some point on this book when we've read a bit more of it, House of Earth and Blood. Yes, that one. We will be doing a podcast on it. We've just got to get through a bit more of it, because it's a thick book, so there's a lot to get through, and it's throwing information at you thick and fast. I actually read more than I thought I was going to read. I think I've read about 80 or 90 pages, I think. I've read an embarrassing 18-year-old amount, but I've been busy just trying to find the time to pick up a book, especially if it's a thick one. Yeah, because you always convince yourself you're too busy to pick it up, even though you're not, but you are. One of the book titles that's come up to do the generator thing is, it says, it says, add to my secret admirer. Oh, that would be cute. Yeah, so I haven't looked, I don't know what kind of vibe I want to go for yet. I very rarely name my stories. If you know my blog, my stories don't have names. Very rarely do they have names, but they do have prompts, and that's all I give them. Yeah, I do give them names at some point, but yeah, I don't, for some reason, I don't give them names anymore. Yeah, I have Rachel's blog, and I have noticed that. Yes, there's quite a few without names. Then again, they are short stories, so... Get away with it. Yeah, it's just very good to write things you can finish. That's a very good thing also. Yeah. If you are struggling to write, oh my god, my dog has just decided to bark, and bark, and bark. If you've just, if you've decided to write, and you cannot think of a, you know, you get to write a book, and you're like, I don't even know what to do, or how to do it, or why to do it. Yeah. Then, you know, just write short stories that maybe are a thousand words. You know, build yourself up to my dog barking her head off downstairs. Yeah, build yourself up to like more one thousand, then two thousand, and then you can get longer and longer into like short novellas, novellas, which are like novels but shorter, so they're around three thousand to five thousand words. And then you can just keep going, you know. Yeah, just a few words, but there's always that, like, debate thing of how long, like a short book, like short story books should be, and how long, say, a novel long one should be. But, yeah, it depends. If you're doing a series, you don't want it overly long, but then you don't want to give it too much away, but then you don't want to leave it too short either. Yeah, because my thing is, I really, I don't know whether or not I want my book to turn into one book or multiple books. Because if you do a series, then you've got to, you've got to pace it so that you get to the end of the first book, and then you've got enough material for the second book or third book. So it makes sense if you weren't sure about how, if you wanted to do a series, write a book, get to the end of the book, and then, you know, if you've got enough material but don't really want to write another one, you could do a prequel rather than a sequel, a bit like a, the Priory of the Orange Tree has a prequel rather than a sequel. Yeah, so that's definitely something to consider with that. The current two books I've got, well, not officially finished, written, but what I'm working on, I'm not sure whether, I think one of them I've decided that it's not going to go any further than just the one, the one, but the second one I'm not sure. What are your books about? You haven't told me about your books. One of them is the one I sent, emailed over to you, what I'm going to do with it, so it's that one, and then the other ones are like, more of a, what one did I send over to you now, I can't remember. The one about Ellie, well me, and someone else. Yes, so that one is more of a, like, haunted graveyard kind of thing, and these two girls are trying to get it looked into, and they bring these, like, paranormal investigators in and everything as well, so I'm not sure if I want to make that into a sequel book or not. You could do, a bit like The Conjuring. Yes, so I might do that with that one, and then I've got another book, it's based off a hotel in the same kind of vibe, it's like a haunted hotel kind of thing, and this group of friends go up for what they think is to be a holiday, and then they essentially stay longer to try and investigate this hotel, because no one, people, other people who've stayed have had these hauntings when they've stayed, and that's put people off, but this group of friends want to take it further and investigate it and everything else, so I'm not sure if I want to make that into, like, oh, they turn into, like, paranormal investigator groups themselves, and then they go on to, like, investigate more places or not, I haven't decided yet. It would be, you know, a bit like that, there's a horror game, and I've completely forgotten what it's called, but it's a bit like that, there are ghostly ghouls in a hotel, and the killer is chasing you, but it's a very good game. Yeah, so I'm kind of just debating all of that one at the minute, but let's see how it goes. Yeah. I've got so many, you know when you have too many book titles? Yeah, I've got that problem. I've got too many, too many. Yeah, I don't know whether I want to go for the allergic reaction and crushes one, or there's a, but then I'm not sure, then there's another one that's called allergic to love, which I'm going towards a bit more. Allergic to love? Yeah. Allergic to love has a better ring to it. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, I might go for that one instead, because the other ones will come off, I'm like looking at them, looking at them, they look all right, but it doesn't really, me personally, I don't really read that kind of book anyway, but to me they don't seem like I'd go and pick it up anyway with them titles. No, but I do like allergic No, but I do like allergic to love, it's very catchy, very like, oh have you read allergic to love yet? Yeah. That's better. Yeah, so I think I'll go with that one. None of mine relate to a photo, but I've got about one, two, three, four, five, five. I've got considered for failure, king of aces, which I don't like as much now, savage shadows, darling dearest, and after the past. I don't know which one I like more. I've got a list, so we're going to keep them there, because I don't really know, I don't know which one I like yet. Yeah, you can always come back to it, that's what I've done with some of mine, I couldn't think of like a title, so I just started writing and then gone back to a title. The name will come to you at some point. That's the thing, sometimes you just gotta keep writing and it'll come up. Oh no, where's my hashtag key? I'm looking at this like I've never seen a computer before, what is going on man? Oh, I found it, that's not it. There's um, I just had a quick look of title generator ones for your one, I don't know if it'll be any good, but I can send them over to you. Yes please, go on please. Because I think I'll come, mine's come up with about 10. Damn, I know I said I would love those if you would not mind. No, I'll email them over to you, they might be of use. If you're going on the road of it being a like family member they didn't know about, a suggestion has come up as not mine, yet mine. Oh that's good though, I like Darling Dearest as well. That one's good, oh no, I'm stucky stucky. Too much choice. My list, my list, not mine is really good and Darling Dearest is very good. Darling Dearest could be like a code name and not mine is just good because it's nice and short and sweet. Yeah there's also um, one called Stranger's Keepsake, but I'm not really sure that's the kind of. No, I like, I like, I like not mine better. Yes, but um, I'll email them over to you and then you can have a look. Yes, before I keep punching my mic, that's not what I mean to do, just gets in the way, I forget that it's there. Oh that's not a full stop. Right, we're getting somewhere. We are getting somewhere, where are we getting? I don't know, but we're getting somewhere. We're getting somewhere, I've got 50 words. Oh you've got more than you've got. It's in my face. So let's do that one. That's the point about plugging that up in other words, it's going to um, die on me. I don't want that. Don't, don't die on me now, otherwise it'll just like turn off and then I'll just hear nothing. Yes, that's not what we want. Yeah, no definitely not. Not yet anyway. Give it a bit longer, give it about 10-15 minutes longer, we might be alright. Laptops just, the more that you use them, the less they hold the charge, it's so bad. I know, it's awful. This laptop just doesn't hold it anymore and I'm like, that's okay. I need a new one really, but Jesus, they are too expensive right now, Matt. Yeah, they're not um, cheap, but apparently there's like some websites, whatever, like, they're like refurbished old like laptops and everything, people have like given them and everything and they're like apparently brand new. They've made them like, so they're like brand new and everything, so. Very good, I might have to try that. I've got a load to sell as well, so I need to look into selling them. I've been hoarding computers, like not even proper computers, like Chromebooks and stuff for so long. I've got like three computers, no four computers and like three Chromebooks that all need to go. That's the only thing, you end up like collecting all the stuff and then don't use them and then you're like, oh yeah, I need to sort through that, then don't. Yeah, and that's, see, I hate it when I go to work and then my boss just, English is not our first language and sometimes that's very evident and I just went to write his self and I was like, that's not a word, that is not a word, that does not exist. Because that's how she says it. Instead of saying herself or himself, she says his self, herself. Herself is a word, isn't it? That is a word. Oh, it's not. Yes, it is. No. Yeah, herself's a word. But his self is not a word. No. That's not a word. Yeah, that's not a word. I swear to God, I know English, it is my first language, I promise. Yeah, well, English isn't always the greatest language to be speaking, though, is it really? So, sometimes we can't speak English and we live here. Yeah, exactly that. So, we've got that one. Oh, I'm not deleting that one from that, it's the one I need to email to you. Not deleting that one. I was going to say, we're not in America, we don't call it stereo, we call it radio. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, that's a odd thing as well, a lot of people still get confused with the American and English spelling of some words. Yeah, like aluminium, it's not aluminum, it's aluminium. Grey, but with an A, which is wrong. What else do they spell incorrectly? Stereo, which is a radio. Fries, which are chips, and chips, which are crisp. They spell a lot of things incorrectly. Just on the subject of Americans, I was watching this on TikTok and this person and their child moved over here from America. Anyway, you know we get Marmite and stuff like that here. Anyway, someone said to them, oh, you need to try that on toast. Anyway, this child, the child's old enough to speak and everything, I'd say about nine, ten, pushing it. Anyway, they thought that Marmite was some form of termites and bugs. No, you don't, like, smush up some termites and smush up some spiders that we find on the path. Mix it with a bit of water, put some oxo in it, and there you go, that's Marmite. Exactly that, but there we go. I know if you don't know, you don't know, but really? I heard it all. And I think they were saying as well, like, the pies that they get over there is more like, they have, like, fruit. They're more like fruit pies and stuff like that. So, anyway, when they came over here, when they heard of, like, you get, like, meat pies and everything, they had no idea that that sort of thing existed because that's not what they used to. They used to, like, having stuff like apples and cherries and everything else in it apart from that. They're not used to the steak and ale, the chicken and this. No. Chicken and ham. There's something else they tried as well. Oh, they tried a, um, the lady tried a pork pie. She absolutely hated it because she didn't know what the jelly was, like, inside of it. Oh, no. That's probably not the best pie to start with, you know. No. Not a good way to, like, lean into pie. No. You know how the pork pie is not good. Pork pies, a lot of, unless you get, like, a 50 pound pork pie, a lot of them are not good. No. So, I think the jelly might put her off. Yeah, we have some really unhinged things in Britain. Like, we do have marmite and people forget that bovril exists and bovril is nasty. Bovril is, and you can get it in a spread as well, and I think it's the most disgusting thing ever. And suet. A lot of people don't know what suet is or dumplings because American dumplings are different. But, like, suet is like a, it's like dumpling dough wrapped and it's got a filling in it which could be honey or could be ham or could be meat. Then you wrap it up and then you steam it for, like, 40-50 minutes and then it comes out looking like this mush, this mushy brain thing. I mean, none of us eat brains here, just a disclaimer. That's not what we eat, but for context, that's what it looks like. We don't eat suet. We don't do it. We don't eat suet. We don't go that low. No, definitely not. But my granddad really likes suet and I think it's really disgusting. It's a bit like how most Americans, because I was watching my, not most Americans, I don't mean to marginalize, but I was watching my favorite YouTuber and she's American and she was making a figgy pudding and I was like, I don't know what this is. I'm gonna watch it because I don't know what a figgy pudding is. They were making a Christmas pudding, but the Christmas pudding has a lot of different names. Oh, does it? Yeah, they were like, it has, I don't know if you know Christmas pudding names, but they called it a figgy pudding and I was like, what? It's not a figgy pudding, it's a Christmas pudding. Well, there's loads of different names for that. Plum pudding or figgy pudding, as it is misunderstood. I love, I love Christmas pudding. I'm with you on that one. I love it. It's the best thing ever. Just a shame with the different names. Yeah, it's a figgy pudding and plum pudding don't sound half as nice as Christmas pudding. Then again, maybe it was originally called plum pudding or figgy pudding and then people were like, nah, we're gonna have to rename it. Okay, let's have it Christmas and call it Christmas pudding. Maybe, we don't know. We'll have to look into that one. I'm just gonna take two seconds, just one minute. I need to pee. Stop laughing. Well, I'm gonna have to wait another two minutes because someone's in the bathroom. That's fine. That's fine. We're nearly up to an hour anyway. Yeah, we're on 49 minutes recording. Yeah, how many words have I done? I've only done 99 words. I need to do this more often. It's the most I've written, sitting down just out of the blue light. Honestly, Sam, I don't know what it is about sitting down any other time. I just sit down, I stare at my computer and I'm like, right, Ellie, do something. Don't just sit there. And I sit there and I can't do anything. Yeah. I did have another random story idea, randomly at work. I always get them at work and then I get home and I forget. That's always the way though. It's always when you're doing something else and you don't have anywhere to write it down. Then by the time you've got somewhere to go home, it's gone. Yeah, you're like, I need to write that story idea down. I need to write it down now. So yeah, I had an idea. It's in my mind. Alexa, stop. The thing started talking for no reason. You said you can join it. To be honest, I had a friend and her Alexa did that and I was like, Alexa, stop. What are you doing? I was like, thanks, I don't need your help. Yeah, I know. What was it saying? I don't know why, but for some reason it decided that at a random time it would start telling me if I want to listen to this radio thing I've never heard of and then asks me what language I want it in. All of them, every language apart from English. It was like, why have you just started doing that? It's like my settings have not changed since I have had that Alexa set up. I've had it for years. I haven't changed the settings on it once and then all of a sudden it starts doing that. I don't know how to change it. Would you like to listen to a classical music FM in Spanish? Not really. Would you like to listen to the greatest hits in time? No, I'm going to have it in English. No, any other language. I typically have to mention it when we're in the middle of this. The dog started barking like literally 10 minutes ago. Why? It's always a way when you're doing it. It's always when you've got to do something and then it starts going off like, yeah, thanks, but no thanks. Literally, it's very aggravating. I think, oh no, to be honest, I got rid of our Alexa for that reason, of like it just would wake us up at 3am saying, would you like to do this? Did you know? I did know and now I didn't know and now I do, but I'd know at 3am in the morning when I don't want to be up. Yeah, exactly. It's when it starts talking, you didn't even ask it to start speaking. I didn't need your opinion. Thanks. Not this time. No. You know, the funny thing is though, I should have mentioned this earlier, but I was doing one of my rooms today and I bent down for something and I bent down and got back up and then I went to have a break. I turn and my colleague is like, Ellie, what have you got on your overall? And I was like, I don't know. What have I got on my overall? I looked and there was paint all over my overall. I was like, are you serious? And she was like, yeah, there's paint on it. Paint on like an entire side of it and all over my tuck. And I'm like, really? Where did this come from? I just bent down to clean a toilet and suddenly I'm covered in paint. Did you find out where it came from or not? No, it just appeared. I'm like, are you serious? But it's still wet paint or had it dried? Well, it was clearly wet when I bent down and then it dried as I was sat down eating, but there's like maintenance men doing like maintenance work in the hallway, but that's nowhere near the room I was in. Maybe one of them accidentally went in the room and it was wet for a reason and was doing something in there. Maybe they sabotaged it and they put paint on the floor and then they said she's going to dunk herself in it and get her overalls dirty. That's what it was. Yeah, probably. Wouldn't put anything past her. Oh, no. Oh, no. My dog has decided to grace me with her divine presence. Hello, mate. Don't eat those. Hello, mate. Please do not swish on the keyboard. Mate, what are you doing? This happens more often than not. No, mate. Mate, no. I'm so sorry. This is she's derailing the whole podcast with her cuteness. Again. Derailing it. Always. Oh, mate. Oh, no. We're going to put you in the gulag now. You've got to go in the gulag. You've got to go in time out. You do. You've got to go in time out. Oh, she is a silly girl. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. All right. Let me take the dog creature downstairs so the dog creature doesn't get in the way. Which she always does. And look, now she's rolling on the keyboard. Mate. There you go. There you go. That was her hollow stomach. Can you stop? Can you cooperate, please? Can you cooperate? You're a log. Never. She was so small at one point and she could fit so nicely into my arms and now she can't do that because she's ecking big. She's not fat. She's just ecking big. Are you done derailing the podcast? Do you want to make this your episode? She's cute, so we'll let her off. Yes, we will indeed. Now she's got slobber on the mouse pad, so now her tail and leg is on the mouse pad. May, can I move my mouth? Maybell. Maybell. Let me move my mouth. No, I need to move my mouth and your leg. Get it away. It's fine. We can keep this in and the audience will never know what I'm talking to or talking about and they'll just have to trust that May is an adorable creature. Yeah, definitely. No, I don't want your foot. I want to move my mouth. Oh, my mouth is gone. My mouth is non-existent. Oh, no. Uh-oh. That's not good. Well, my mouth is frozen. I am frozen, so I'm just going to rely on you to tell me exactly what's happening. It's fine. Do you want to wrap it up now, then? We're getting near on and out. Indeed, wrap it up. Yeah. So, did you manage? You did manage to get some writing done, didn't you? Yeah. I did. I did. Did you manage to get any done? Yeah, I've got about 60-ish words, so that's a bonus. Oh, so like a little smidge in a paragraph, which is good because any progress is progress. Yeah, definitely, even if it was a random one. But, yeah. So, thank you all for joining us and we'll see you next week. Awesome. Bye, guys.