When you go to write, always remind yourself, nobody has to read it unless you show it to them.

And if you don't ever see it worthy of sharing with others, are you going to tell me you wasted your time by writing? That's never a waste of time.

Welcome back to Working. I'm your host, June Thomas. And I'm your other host, Karen Hahn. Karen, it is great to see you again, but I have to ask, the voice we heard at the top of the show, it sounded really familiar.

Who does it belong to?

I am delighted to report that that voice belongs to Tim Blake Nelson.

He is an actor who has appeared in movies like The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,

O Brother Were Art Thou, Minority Report, and shows like HBO's Watchmen and an upcoming episode

of Pokerface. He has also written and directed movies, including The Grey Zone and Leaves

of Grass, and he's a playwright as well, most recently of Socrates, which starred Michael

Stoolbarg in its run at the public theatre. Oh, good grief. Talk about a Renaissance man.

And why did you want to talk to him now? He just published his first novel, City of Blows,

which takes place in Hollywood and sort of focuses on the production of a movie.

Some people want to get it made and some people really don't.

And it's the intertwining lives of three characters and eventually four as they all kind of fight around this production.

So you mentioned he's written plays before, but writing a novel is pretty different, right? Yeah, very much so.

So we definitely get into kind of the differences between mediums and also like how his practice

in different fields, like informs the writing of this novel. And what's so special about writing

in the first place? And a few different tips to kind of keep yourself on track

and feeling good about your work. Yeah, well, if a guy like him who's so incredibly busy,

can write a novel and I think a pretty chunky one, right? Yeah, it's a big boy. Okay, so I'm sure

there's lots of good information there. And I believe you asked Tim some questions that are intended exclusively for Slate Plus members. What will they hear?

So we talked about the process of designing the book cover, including Tim's initial idea for what it would look like, which he self-describes as lame and his influences as he was working on the book.

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