The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 18 - Write to Impress Your Collaborator
Release Date: 05/22/2026
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 18 - Write to Impress Your Collaborator
The Smarter Artist Show
SUMMARY Sean, Dave, and Johnny open with Something Cool, including Sean's announcement that he's finished his first album and wants early listeners before it drops publicly next month. Then they get into the real subject: collaboration. How it starts, how it breaks, how it makes you better when it works, and what happens when you write with someone who can see your blind spots before you can. By the end of the episode, three collaborations are on the table. Sean and Dave on Yesterday's Gone. Sean and Johnny on The Beam, Unicorn Western, and Future of Sex. And the specific mechanics of how each...
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 17 — How to Write Fast (With or Without Robots)
The Smarter Artist Show
Dave spent twelve years writing bits and pieces of stories at a gas station. He never finished one. Sean spent three years nagging him to publish his first book. Now they've written more than 60 novels together. In this episode, Dave and Sean dig into the real reasons writers stall, why AI won't save you if your process is broken, and the one habit Sean says matters more than any tool or technique. WHAT THEY GET INTO The vomit pass. Sean breaks down the system he's used since his blogging days: brain drain first, clarify second, polish third. Never try to write something you're proud of on the...
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 16 - Your Back Matter Is Costing You Readers (And You Don't Even Know It)
The Smarter Artist Show
Sean, Dave, and Johnny dig into one of the most neglected pieces of real estate in any author's catalog: back matter. The highest-leverage moment you have with a reader is the thirty seconds after they finish your book, and most creators waste it with a generic thank-you and a mailing list link that goes nowhere. This episode is a post-mortem on real mistakes from the Sterling & Stone catalog, including a back matter page that thanked readers for a book they didn't read! The practical takeaway is simple: every book you publish should know where to send the reader next. Not a list of...
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 15 - The Smarter Artist Method
The Smarter Artist Show
Sean Platt built a publishing company that shipped hundreds of titles over 14 years. And somewhere in the middle of all that output, he realized the model was broken. In this episode, Sean, Dave, and Johnny introduce The Smarter Artist Method: the idea that most working creators are stacking inventory when they should be building IP. One produces diminishing returns. The other compounds. They're not the same thing, even if they look identical from the outside. They cover what the shift actually means in practice, why the exhaustion most creators feel is a structural problem rather than a...
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 14 - Writing Tomorrow When Tomorrow Is Already Here
The Smarter Artist Show
This week we talk about writing science fiction in an age where sci-fi feels more like science fact. How do you write sci-fi while the world feels like it’s falling apart? How do advances in AI and robots change our stories? We also talk about classic sci-fi, like Twilight Zone, and how it dealt with issues and questions of the day. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction to the Sci-Fi Discussion 11:47 Exploring Modern Dystopia and Its Impact on Fiction 17:55 AI and robots as depicted in sci-fi 22:17 Evolving Sci-Fi Tropes 26:38 The Nature of Truth in Sci-Fi 32:35 Consequences of AI and Technology...
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 13 - Claude Interviews Us
The Smarter Artist Show
In this episode Sean and I decided to experiment and let the AI Claude ask us questions. It was a surprisingly fun conversation, touching on writer’s block, and the story we hated most that the other presented or worked on, how we collaborate on writing books, and (fittingly) whether AI will ever be at a point where it writes better than us? So, join us for another fun, expletive-filled episode. TIMESTAMPS SOMETHING COOL Dave — Jim Wilbourne’s YouTube channel. Sean — The Jury Duty show on Amazon Prime Q&A SEGMENT 18:00 — How did you two actually start writing...
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 12 - Maturing as Storytellers
The Smarter Artist Show
Note: This isn’t the show we’d planned. Our “useful” episodes will be here in two weeks as we take care of some behind-the-scenes website stuff, and put the finishing touches on something we’ll show you in 2 weeks. For this week, we talk about how growing older has changed our writing, and what we want to write. And the things we won’t write anymore. We also discuss content from our youth vs. today, and the effects of content on kids today. And lastly, we talk about the role of hope in stories in dark times. TIMESTAMPS INTRO 0:00 — The opening song and some nonsensical talk for a...
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 11 - Making Habits as a Writer
The Smarter Artist Show
In this episode of The Smarter Artist Show, we talk about making and breaking habits. Specifically making and breaking Dave’s habits. Dave has never kept a habit up for more than 30 days. So Sean challenges him to pick a habit and stick to it for that long. What habit will he choose? Will he succeed a 30 day streak or will he fail miserably by Day 6? Join Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, and David Wright for a discussion on habits, along with lots of ball busting. **note: For the first 10 minutes of the show, Sean’s audio sucks. Sorry! 00:00 — Introduction and...
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 10 - Editing a Movie Script
The Smarter Artist Show
In this episode Sean and Dave go over a few pages of Sean’s corrections on the rough draft of a movie script they’re working on. Dave was rusty having been away from scripts for a bit, as he’s been working on other things and the podcast. So tune in and hear some of the things he got wrong and how to fix them. Most of these lessons can be applied to any kind of writing.
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The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 9 - Reclaiming Your 1,000 True Fans
The Smarter Artist Show
In this episode of The Smarter Artist Show we’re talking about reclaiming your 1,000 true fans. Additionally, Sean talks about the best/worst story I’ve written with him! Four words: “____ _____ on Christmas.*” *longtime listeners can fill in the blanks at home! TIMESTAMPS 5:00 — Dave’s Christmas story. SOMETHING COOL 7:50 — Johnny’s writing revelation 13:24 — Dave’s movie watch — Caddo Lake 15:54 — 1,000 True fans 19:00 — How do you start rebuilding your mailing list? 23:29 — Understanding your audience’s needs 26:35 — Cultivating...
info_outlineSUMMARY
Sean, Dave, and Johnny open with Something Cool, including Sean's announcement that he's finished his first album and wants early listeners before it drops publicly next month. Then they get into the real subject: collaboration. How it starts, how it breaks, how it makes you better when it works, and what happens when you write with someone who can see your blind spots before you can.
By the end of the episode, three collaborations are on the table. Sean and Dave on Yesterday's Gone. Sean and Johnny on The Beam, Unicorn Western, and Future of Sex. And the specific mechanics of how each partnership works differently, from character-by-character chapters to skeletal reference beats to the value of a calling out Sean’s old bobblehead ticks in the writing.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Cold open, Piss Daddy, the email, and why YouTube apparently wants them to lean into it
14:04 Something Cool: Johnny's early read of How Music Works by David Byrne
6:00 Dave's Something Cool: the TV show Something Bad Is Going to Happen, and the soulmate vs. soul match debate
14:31 Sean's Something Cool: Ethan's graduation, and the announcement that Sean's first album is done
20:01 How to get early access to Sean's album before it drops (reply to the Dispatch with one sentence)
25:21 The Piss Story, origins of Piss Daddy, and what it revealed about how well Sean actually reads Dave's work
28:14 How Dave and Sean's collaboration started, and what Dave's instincts gave Sean early on
29:57 The Ira Glass gap, pattern recognition, and the bobblehead note that cured Sean of a writing tick forever
33:06 How Sean and Johnny's collaboration process works, and how it's changed over 10+ years
35:18 Unicorn Western: the reference Western method and why they didn't hide the homage
36:05 The Beam's world-building and how Johnny invented Shift by interrogating the premise
43:06 Yesterday's Gone: how Dave and Sean each took characters independently, the serial killer collision, and the Boricio revelation. What a great collaboration actually demands: writing to impress your partner, not just your reader
48:45 The Future of Sex cliffhanger that cut off all possible escape routes, and why neither of them worried about it
50:54 Pattern Black, overbuilding, and when a collaboration spools out too much rope
52:11 Knowing your strengths and weaknesses as collaborators, and the new script Dave is nearly done with
56:35 Outro, Smarter Artist song
LINKS MENTIONED
How Music Works by David Byrne (book/audiobook): https://www.amazon.com/How-Music-Works-David-Byrne/dp/1938073533
Sean's album (early access): Reply to this week's Dispatch email with one sentence about why you want to hear it. Public release next month.
Comic Palooza Houston (Johnny's appearance): https://comicpalooza.com
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