69 - A Culture of Creation with the Moyer Brothers

Nov 3, 2023

Guest

Max Moyer

Guest

Eli Moyer

Eli Moyer, a collaborative worldbuilder, and Max Moyer, a writer and co-creator, share insights from their captivating Mindseye project. They highlight the importance of community in creative processes, emphasizing feedback and the humility needed to both give and receive it. The brothers discuss blending playfulness with serious work, the significance of creative boundaries, and their journey from childhood D&D to published novels. They stress that true creation is a collective effort, where readers and collaborators shape the world together.

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ANECDOTE

Origin In Basement Play

Max and Eli started worldbuilding as kids playing a quick Dungeons & Dragons-like game in a basement and on car rides they called "walking down a hall."
That improvisational play matured into a shared setting they kept expanding together over years.

ANECDOTE

Creativity Sparked Abroad

Eli's time in the Czech Republic reignited his creativity and led to mapmaking and language work for their world.
That chapter shifted the project from casual play toward purposeful worldbuilding.

ADVICE

Use Mutual Accountability

Respect each other's creative process and use one another as sounding boards to keep the world consistent.
Say no when something breaks continuity and keep accountability gentle and constructive.

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Possibly the most important question a worldbuilder will never ask themselves: How do I make room for someone else to add to my world? Community is underrated but critical to the creative process. At some point your work will interact with others, whether it's your family and friends, writers in a group you're part of, a creative partner, or an audience, those people will have thoughts on what you made. Eli and Max Moyer join Seth and I on the pod today to talk about this super important and usually underserved skillset of giving and receiving meaningful feedback, establishing boundaries for your imagined spaces, and engaging in serious play.

Key Takeaways:

A lot of writers talk to/form groups with/partner with other writers to hone their craft, develop skills and get feedback but have you tried reaching out to readers, fantasy enjoyers and others who can get onboard with your work and help you create it. Think about your circle and the kind of feedback your getting. Does it need to be broader?
The humility to recieve feedback is important but it might be even more important to know when to stop adopting it. Boundaries around your work and clear goal will help you to fully understand what you're trying to make.
Serious play might be the best thing I heard in this podcast. At the WorldCraft Club we're big fans of making stuff to share. Having practical outputs for your creativity. Honing skills requires play though, the sort of play that helps you enjoy the stuff your making with others on hand to share in the experience. In short, creating for the sake of creating does you more good than you might know.

Links and Sundry:

Bandersnatch by Diana Pavlac Glyer - the book Eli mentioned about the creative collaboration of the Inklings that informed the works of C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien.
Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (spelled just like it sounds) - the other book Eli mentioned about identifying creativity and how it operates within cultures.

Moyer Brothers' Stuff

Max's writing - If you wanna learn a little bit more about Max and grab a free download of his novella Throne Born set in Yiduiijn while you're at it, this is the place to go.
The future online home of their world - Currently this site will just direct you to Max's writing but pretty soon there's gonna be all kinds of stuff on here.

WorldCraft Club

The only link you’ll ever need: https://linktr.ee/worldcraftclub - this will take you to our link tree which has access to our discord and other great stuff for you to check out.