In today’s episode Angie and Elizabeth discuss reaction shots and how they differ between screen and prose. In film, reaction shots are indispensable. The audience turns to the reactions of others to understand how they should react themselves. In a novel, however, “reaction shots” take on different forms. Elizabeth reads two snippets from her book to highlight how specificity helps to make the characters more relatable.

A Visit From the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan

The Keep by Jennifer Egan

Empire Strikes Back Recut Scene

Jhumpa Lahiri

David Mamet

Chemistry by Weike Wang

Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.