David Olive Jr's guest appearances

David Olive Jr

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

OwlTail

Mark interviews David Olive, Jr (AKA David Grimdark) author and one of the engineers behind Penspyre a tool to help writers tackle writer's block and productivity. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes, and word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In the interview, Mark and David talk about:  David's love of reading as a young child and his love of fantasy novels Begining to read eBooks on a dedicated reader, and reading Webnovels Starting to write when interning in University Putting some of his work up on Wattpad The Systems Design Engineering program David recently graduated from at University of Waterloo The final year project that David and his fellow engineering students put together, which resulted in Penspyre The procedural documentation of identifying problems related to the writing process Reaching out to local writers from the Cambridge Writer's Group as part of their research and investigation Learning the Google Spring method How Pensypre offers up AI-generated writing prompts to help a writer with their productivity The research they'd done with writers leading them to believe they didn't want a tool that would give them something they'd take word for word but that they needed something to help "get the ball rolling." The metrics they looked at for their research with how writers engaged with the tool Their study's results showing that writers typically wrote 15% more in a 20 minute writing sprint using the tool than when not using the tool How Pensyre is a tool David wanted to make as much for himself as for other writers The "Continue the Story" option where you can focus on action, dialogue, or inner thoughts of the characters with various styles or moods The "Link the story" feature for briding two different scenes or moments or actions together The "Describe" function that allows you to draw upon one or more of the five senses Penspyre's availability as a Google Docs extension How writers during the test kept the prompts unedited about 15% of the time The element of the software that suggests the level of "originality" score to the prompt Advice David would offer to beginning writers David's thoughts on why writers shouldn't be afraid of this new technology    After the interview Mark shares a few of his own reflections, thanks Patrons for their support and reminds them there'll be a video walk-thru of Penspyre available for them at www.patreon.com/starkreflections.   Links of Interest:  David's Author Website Penspyre Website   Penspyre Extension on Google Chrome   Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author  Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct   Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries &amp; Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books  This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City   The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard    David Olive Jr is a recent graduate from the University of Waterloo, Canada who has a passion for reading and writing fiction. As an aspiring writer he and some classmates decided to try and tackle writing productivity as their final year design project. The result was Penspyre, a tool that utilizes AI to give the writer contextualized writing prompts and help them be more productive.     The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews David Olive, Jr (AKA David Grimdark) author and one of the engineers behind Penspyre a tool to help writers tackle writer's block and productivity. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes, and word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at <a href="http://starkreflections.ca/Findaway" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">starkreflections.ca/Findaway</a>. In the interview, Mark and David talk about: <ul> <li>David's love of reading as a young child and his love of fantasy novels</li> <li>Begining to read eBooks on a dedicated reader, and reading Webnovels</li> <li>Starting to write when interning in University</li> <li>Putting some of his work up on Wattpad</li> <li>The Systems Design Engineering program David recently graduated from at University of Waterloo</li> <li>The final year project that David and his fellow engineering students put together, which resulted in Penspyre</li> <li>The procedural documentation of identifying problems related to the writing process</li> <li>Reaching out to local writers from the Cambridge Writer's Group as part of their research and investigation</li> <li>Learning the Google Spring method</li> <li>How Pensypre offers up AI-generated writing prompts to help a writer with their productivity</li> <li>The research they'd done with writers leading them to believe they didn't want a tool that would give them something they'd take word for word but that they needed something to help "get the ball rolling."</li> <li>The metrics they looked at for their research with how writers engaged with the tool</li> <li>Their study's results showing that writers typically wrote 15% more in a 20 minute writing sprint using the tool than when not using the tool</li> <li>How Pensyre is a tool David wanted to make as much for himself as for other writers</li> <li>The "Continue the Story" option where you can focus on action, dialogue, or inner thoughts of the characters with various styles or moods</li> <li>The "Link the story" feature for briding two different scenes or moments or actions together</li> <li>The "Describe" function that allows you to draw upon one or more of the five senses</li> <li>Penspyre's availability as a Google Docs extension</li> <li>How writers during the test kept the prompts unedited about 15% of the time</li> <li>The element of the software that suggests the level of "originality" score to the prompt</li> <li>Advice David would offer to beginning writers</li> <li>David's thoughts on why writers shouldn't be afraid of this new technology</li> </ul> After the interview Mark shares a few of his own reflections, thanks Patrons for their support and reminds them there'll be a video walk-thru of Penspyre available for them at <a href="https://www.patreon.com/starkreflections" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/starkreflections</a>. Links of Interest: <ul> <li><a href="https://www.grimdark-books.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">David's Author Website</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.penspyre.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Penspyre Website</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/penspyre-creative-product/cnpfmakpjcaecknpfhhljipmfbkdlpie" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Penspyre Extension on Google Chrome</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="http://starkreflections.ca/findawayvoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Findaway Voices</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/markleslie" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Buy Mark a Coffee</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Patreon for Stark Reflections</a></li> <li><a href="https://juliewroteabook.com/category/podcast-all/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Best Book Ever Podcast</a></li> <li><a href="https://loversmoon.ca" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Lovers Moon Podcast</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/relaxedauthor/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Relaxed Author</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/w7Gg1" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Buy eBook Direct</a></li> <li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/QK4ks" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Buy Audiobook Direct</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/b/publishingpitfalls" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Publishing Pitfalls for Authors</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/b/workingwithlibrariesandbookstores" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries &amp; Bookstores</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Wide for the Win</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">This Time Around (Short Story)</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">A Canadian Werewolf in New York</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stowe Away (Novella)</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Fear and Longing in Los Angeles</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Fright Nights, Big City</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/loversmoon" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Lover's Moon</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/hexandcity" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Hex and the City</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/b/thecanadianmounted" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/diehardtrivia" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard</a></li> </ul> David Olive Jr is a recent graduate from the University of Waterloo, Canada who has a passion for reading and writing fiction. As an aspiring writer he and some classmates decided to try and tackle writing productivity as their final year design project. The result was Penspyre, a tool that utilizes AI to give the writer contextualized writing prompts and help them be more productive. The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of <a href="https://incompetech.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.incompetech.com</a> and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Attribution 3.0</a>