Episode 1
RM Landry spills how he accidentally became a fiction writer (thank NaNoWriMo and a wild opening scene)
Episode 1
RM Landry gets nerdy about craft without ever sounding dusty. He frames his writing process as a mix of seat-of-the-pants intuition and a root-cause-analyst’s appetite for cause and effect: he sets plausible conditions, then follows the messy human dominoes. He talks about character surprises — the delicious moments when a line or decision appears that even he didn’t predict — and uses a concrete example from Anastasium to show how family echoes can explode onto the page. He’s candid about whom he actually roots for (Anna, not Joe) and why: Anna’s arc of trauma to rebirth — a Phoenix Rising, as he puts it — gives him emotional investment and drives the narrative stakes. He also explains how varying choices (light branch vs dark branch) create texture and avoid cliché, and how intuition fills the gaps when multiple paths seem believable. The tone is conversational and wry, like a chat over coffee where craft talk meets existential musing and occasional self-aware chuckles.
Takeaways:
- He switched from nonfiction and technical writing to fiction after a NaNoWriMo whim, when an opening scene whooshed into his head.
- He writes as a pantser, literally by the seat of his pants, letting characters surprise him and derail his neat plans.
- His craft borrows cause-and-effect thinking from quality root cause analysis to set believable chains of choices and consequences.
- He admits Joe becomes unpleasant while Ana grows into the story's heart, a phoenix-like transformation that stole the narrative.
- He says fiction helps him explore human complexity and invite a little compassion without excusing truly rotten behavior.
- He closes informally, inviting listeners to ask about creativity, process, and the writing industry so they can poke his brain.
Keywords: RM Landry podcast, RM Landry interview, fiction writing process, how to write fiction, pantser writing tips, NaNoWriMo advice, character development techniques, creating believable characters, cause and effect storytelling, root cause analysis in writing, writing character arcs, developing protagonists, Anastasium novel, Ana protagonist analysis, exploring existential themes in fiction, transitioning from nonfiction to fiction, technical writer to novelist, writing by the seat of your pants, Phoenix rising character arc, podcast about writing craft
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the RM Landry Podcast.
Speaker:I'm your host, RM Landry
Speaker:For this first episode, I thought I'd start with a few questions
Speaker:about the person behind the writing, how I got into fiction,
Speaker:and what keeps me interested in it.
First question:Who is R.M.
First question:Landry?
First question:Well, R.M.
First question:Landry is a pseudonym I adopted for my writing persona, but there's
First question:a genuine human being behind it.
First question:While the name is manufactured, the personality is decidedly me.
First question:I'm a father and husband, I love the outdoors and nature, and I love creativity
First question:and exploring deep existential themes through both fiction and non-fiction.
Next question:How did you get into fiction writing?
Next question:That's actually a pretty interesting story, at least I think so.
Next question:I've always been a decent writer, but my background was in non-fiction.
Next question:Growing up and well into adulthood, I wasn't even a big fiction reader.
Next question:I generally read non-fiction adventures like Seven Summits.
Next question:I read for knowledge more than entertainment.
Next question:Professionally, I became a technical writer and managed document control.
Next question:Then, a few years back, I came across the National Novel Writing Month initiative.
Next question:On a whim, I decided to try writing some fiction as an
Next question:exercise, an experiment, really.
Next question:What ensued surprised me.
Next question:I started brainstorming a general plot, and the idea excited me.
Next question:An opening scene kind of just whooshed into my head, and I started writing.
Next question:From there, the story and its characters developed organically.
Next question:I found myself almost as an observer, watching what the characters
Next question:would do as the plot unfolded.
Next question:That really energized me.
Next question:I could explore some of the existential ideas that intrigued me and
Next question:experience character types I wouldn't naturally embody in my own life.
Next question:It's like being in and creating a whole world from the safety of a desk chair.
Next question:Has a character ever surprised you?
Next question:Well, I consider myself a pantser, I write by the seat of my
Next question:pants, so very little of what my characters do is planned in detail.
Next question:But that's a bit of a cop-out answer.
Next question:There have been moments when I thought one thread was unfolding, and then
Next question:a new direction came out of nowhere.
Next question:I'll be careful about spoilers, but one of the most notable happened
in Anastasium:The Dawn of Eden.
in Anastasium:Joe has a rough relationship with his father.
in Anastasium:His own gradual descent was something I had in mind, but there's a moment
in Anastasium:when Christina confronts him, and I expected him to be dismissive,
in Anastasium:to rationalize his behavior.
in Anastasium:Instead, he blurted out, "We're not trying.
in Anastasium:We're doing, because trying is for losers."
in Anastasium:That was something his father had said to him at the beginning of the book.
in Anastasium:The callback just shot off the page.
in Anastasium:After all his efforts to prove he wasn't his father, there it was, Joe Sr.,
in Anastasium:right in our face.
in Anastasium:It still gives me chills.
in Anastasium:Did you recognize something of yourself in that moment?
in Anastasium:Not in that moment, no.
in Anastasium:I don't generally approach my characters as reflections of my inner state.
in Anastasium:Their personalities may be inspired by people I know or
in Anastasium:characters I've encountered, but I'm following their story.
in Anastasium:Reflecting on it now, though, it's easy to recognize that experience of growing
in Anastasium:up thinking, "I'll never do that," and later finding ourselves repeating
in Anastasium:something our parents said or did.
in Anastasium:What interests me is that our perspective changes too.
in Anastasium:Sometimes, as we get older, we begin to understand why they did what they did.
in Anastasium:To be clear, I had a loving, supportive family, and I'm grateful for that,
in Anastasium:and understanding someone's behavior doesn't dismiss truly rotten behavior.
in Anastasium:But fiction gives us room to investigate how human experiences
in Anastasium:can lead to poor outcomes.
in Anastasium:We can see the humanity in the inexcusable.
in Anastasium:Is that something you deliberately try to teach through your stories?
in Anastasium:Well, I wish I could say my writing had that level of perspective design.
in Anastasium:The reality is that I'm following a plot, an arc, or a concept that
in Anastasium:interests me and seeing it unfold.
in Anastasium:The characters have backgrounds.
in Anastasium:They make choices.
in Anastasium:Those choices have consequences.
in Anastasium:Something I use fairly casually comes from my work in quality
in Anastasium:systems, root cause analysis.
in Anastasium:You look at an underlying cause and the contributing factors
in Anastasium:that unfold over time, leading to an unintended consequence.
in Anastasium:That's a useful mindset when I'm writing.
in Anastasium:If that, then this.
in Anastasium:I establish a set of conditions and follow the cause and effect.
in Anastasium:That's part of how I can feel like a bystander watching the story develop.
in Anastasium:Now, I hope that exploration entertains people and resonates with
in Anastasium:them, and perhaps they recognize some of those relationships
in Anastasium:in the world around them too.
in Anastasium:If we understand how someone arrived at a particular place, maybe we can
in Anastasium:have a little more compassion for the human being, even when we can't
in Anastasium:excuse or forgive the behavior.
in Anastasium:Does following cause and effect leave room for intuition?
in Anastasium:Absolutely.
in Anastasium:At any impasse, there's rarely only one possible choice.
in Anastasium:Perhaps I choose a lighter path rather than a darker one.
in Anastasium:That variation creates texture.
in Anastasium:If a character always takes the light branch or always takes the dark one, they
in Anastasium:can become one-dimensional, a bit cliché.
in Anastasium:There's an element of feel to it.
in Anastasium:What interests me?
in Anastasium:What feels plausible?
in Anastasium:What makes the story engaging?
in Anastasium:Cause and effect helps me follow the possibilities, but it isn't algorithmic.
in Anastasium:Do you feel invested in all your characters?
in Anastasium:Not all of them.
in Anastasium:There are characters I have an affinity for and arcs I'm invested in.
in Anastasium:The others are entwined with those stories.
in Anastasium:They're part of the world, and I'm stuck with them until
in Anastasium:those entanglements play out.
in Anastasium:Joe isn't a particularly enjoyable character, especially as the narrative
in Anastasium:progresses, but Ana's story is where my emotional investment lives.
in Anastasium:What's interesting is that when I started writing, I thought
in Anastasium:Joe was the main character.
in Anastasium:As it turned out, Ana was the central protagonist, so my investment is in
in Anastasium:her journey and the world around her.
in Anastasium:Some characters oppose her, some support her, and their
in Anastasium:stories intersect with hers.
in Anastasium:Even whose story I was telling was something I discovered along the way.
in Anastasium:What is it about Ana that makes you care so much?
in Anastasium:I think there's a twofold answer there.
in Anastasium:First, there's her journey.
in Anastasium:She begins as a soft character with a traumatic background.
in Anastasium:In some ways, she's highly emotionally mature while also
in Anastasium:being imaginative and childlike.
in Anastasium:She's looking for safety, and she finds it in Joe.
in Anastasium:Without giving too much away, that search for safety becomes a much more difficult
in Anastasium:journey and eventually a transformation.
in Anastasium:There's a phoenix rising quality to it, an emerging identity, strong and confident.
in Anastasium:That arc inspires me, and I hope it inspires others.
in Anastasium:But then there's the personal side.
in Anastasium:Ana is partly inspired by someone very close to me, not because that person
in Anastasium:experienced Ana's traumas, those are part of the fictional exaggeration,
in Anastasium:but because of that combination of maturity and childlike qualities.
in Anastasium:I find something beautiful in imagining those qualities developing
in Anastasium:into a strong, confident identity, and I think I imagine a bit of that
in Anastasium:rebirth for this person as well.
in Anastasium:So that's a little about me and the person behind the name.
in Anastasium:I hope this was interesting and entertaining for you.
in Anastasium:I would love to hear from you all and connect through your questions.
in Anastasium:Please submit any question you may have on things like creativity, my
in Anastasium:writing process, the writing industry, or anything else in that lane.
in Anastasium:Thanks for spending some time with me today.
in Anastasium:I'm R.M.
in Anastasium:Landry, and I'll see you next time.
