Story Makers Show

In today’s show we discuss Curtis Sittenfeld’s short story, “The Prairie Wife,” which appeared in the New Yorker, January X&X issue. Spoiler alert! We reveal everything about the story. You can listen to or read it at the links below. Angie breaks down the story into its seven steps, and we revisit James Scott Bell’s definition of short story--"A great short story is about the fallout from one shattering moment."--to examine this tale and a few others in passing. We then discuss the midpoint of a story, how to create a midpoint large enough to shake up and recalibrate the story. How about the idea of starting in the middle. We talk about ways to make sure your middle is not forgettable and does not flag, including misdirection, indirection and other more subtle ways of creating change besides high drama.

More about Curtis Sittenfeld and her new books

Curtis Sittenfel reads "The Prairie Wife."

The Lori Moore story "Terrific Mother" about dropping the baby is part of her collection, Birds of America

Start Your Book in the Middle by James Scott Bell

Sarah Waters' Fingersmith

Gospel Song in Dorothy Allison's Trash

Heather Young's The Lost Girls

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.

In today’s episode, we grapple with confidence, the lack there of, and working toward it. We dip into the question of what makes a book sell, and we give you James Scott Bell’s definition of a short story. This leads to a conversation about the importance of having a feedback loop when you are writing, and what constitutes good feedback, as well as the importance of a deadline, and how to give it leverage. To top it off, we touched on the pleasurable/ funny unreliable narrator, intuition and exploration, and novelizing a screenplay.

We’d love your thoughts on the definition of a short story, or anything else you’d like to share at questions at StoryMakersShow dot com.

James Scott Bell, How to Write Short Stories

Emergency Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

Finishing School

Ellen Sussman

Sonoma county Writers Camp

The Rosie Project by Grahame Simesion

Creative Filmmaking

The Happy Brain Book

Don't forget to send in your questions!

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.

Today we tackle two topics: time management for writers, and which parts of a story should be told in scene. We discuss the process of identifying priorities and values, and touch on a cognitive behavior model Angie found inspirational. On the topic of scene, we delve into a deeper understanding of what show, don’t tell really means, the ways the montage is equivalent to prose summary, and the basic grammar of film and on-the-page storytelling, and offer some tips for writers working with this question.

Links Discussed:

CreativeLive/ Laura Vander Kim

Rhona Berens episode

Sere Halverson

Annie Dillard

Directory of Time Banks

Alice Laplante 

Sula by Toni Morrison

Adaptation's Evolution of a Screenwriter

Orson Welles Citizen Kane

Toni Cade Bambara

Han Kang The Vegetarian

Sonoma county writers camp

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.

Today, Angie and Elizabeth discuss arrogance as a necessary component to creating something from nothing--what does it take to create? What gives you permission? What gives you cojones?

We also read through and talk about The Cult of Done Manifesto. What does it take to finish?

10 Minute Writers Workshop 

Jonathan Lethem

Rhona Berens episode 

Shy girl by Elizabeth Stark

Dennis Johnson

Maggie Nelson

Argonuats

The Oz Books on Indiebound   

The cult of done manuscript 

Todd Henry 

Ira glass on the gap between our aesthetic and our capabilities 

Sonoma county writers camp website

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.

This conversation with Aya still inspires me--it is a necessary look, for writers, at what we can do to effect political change, as well as a motivating look at structure, deadlines, and momentum. Aya gives us a view into the experience of having a commercial publisher and four books under contract, and her thoughts on the pros and cons and consequences of literary apartheid between literary and commercial fiction. And then we talk politics, progressive politics for the era that is being inaugurated tomorrow. This is a vital, must-hear talk to get your hopes up and your pen into action--creative and political action.

Poetry for the People UCBerkeley

NaNoWritMo

Robin Benway

Ally Carter

The Hero's Journey as described by Christopher Vogler

Linda Villarosa

Jewel Gomez

George Lakoff (re terms of the conversation)

Steve Phillips Brown is the New White.

Life after life by Kate Atkinson

Aya de Leon directs the Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley. Kensington Books published her debut feminist heist novel, Uptown Thief, in July 2016 and will publish the next book in the series The Boss in June 2017. Her writing and performance work have received acclaim in the Village Voice, Washington Post, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, SF Bay Guardian and the East Bay Express. A graduate of Harvard College, with an MFA from Antioch University, Aya has been an artist in residence at Stanford University, a Cave Canem poetry fellow, and a slam poetry champion. She publicly married herself in the 90s, and from 1995 to 2012 hosted an annual Valentine’s Day show that focused on self-love. She has written for for various media outlets such as xojane, Ebony, Huffington Post, Guernica, Huffington Post, Reductress, Essence, Writers Digest, Bitch Magazine, Racialicious, Fusion, Quartz, and The Toast. She also blogs and tweets about culture, gender, and race. Visit her at @ayadeleon.

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.

Angie and Elizabeth discuss the pros and cons of the dictum to write everyday, the benefits and drawbacks of social media to the writer/ creative type, and whether art requires an audience.

Links Discussed:

Finding Vivian Maier documentary

From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler

Our podcast episode interview with and  Packer

Samantha Bee

The Daily Show

Pilar Alesandra

Tim Ferris/ Tools of the Titans

Meg LeFeuve Personal thematic

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.

Caille Millner is an award-winning writers across genres, writing memoir, fiction, and, for the San Francisco Chronicle, cultural columns and opinion pieces. When we met, just after the election, she was already collaborating on a list for Bay Area writers of ways to volunteer your writing skills to help people made especially vulnerable by the election. We talked about the pros and cons of novels as a response to the political world, and the question of whether everything in non-fiction should be personal--and how to reach beyond that dictum and trust your instincts beyond, and against, the current market. We learned more about her job shaping the public opinions of the Chronicle, and talked about the differences between perfectionist creating and deadline writing where everything is essentially a first draft, and how to keep the job writing separate from the at-home writing. We talked about the short story form and the 18 drafts she did for her Best American short story, chosen by Junot Diaz for the 2016 collection; how to do research for fiction and how to find the details of the perspective that will bring the world alive to life; time, motivation, and productivity; he need to be writing about what you're passionate about, not what you think you should be writing or what you think someone else think you should be writing; and the importance of embarrassment as a way of taking risks. An inspiring conversation in difficult times!

Mauro Javier Cardenas 

Junot Diaz 

Roland Barthes 

Ann Patchett 

Caille Millner 

Anthony Walton Mississippi 

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.

In this week’s Quick Fix Q & A, Angie and Elizabeth discuss:

Friends' week is coming up in the Book Writing World, November 15 & 17! Join us in-person in Berkeley OR Online from anywhere via Zoom's video conferencing for a free 2-hour craft class on Backstory--when do you need it, how do you work it in, and what can and can't it do for your story?

You and your friends can sign up here:

http://bookwritingworld.com/friends-week/

Spread the word: it is solely through word-of-mouth that BWW finds its exceptional, talented, warm, bright students. Thank you for being part of our community!

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.

In this episode we sit down with author Micah Perks. Our conversation went all over the place, and we hit on a number topics.

Elizabeth McKenzie

Author, Professor

The Los Angeles Times called Micah Perks’ first novel, We Are Gathered Here (1997, St. Martin’s),  “a tightly woven story that is as fanciful as it is grimly real.” Her memoir, Pagan Time, came out in paper in 2009 from Counterpoint, has been translated into Korean and is an audio book from audible.com. In 2010 The San Francisco Chronicle listed it in Best Summer Reading and Adirondack Life listed it as Adirondack Required Reading.  She’s published short stories and essays in Zyzzyva, The Massachusetts Review, Tin House, OZY, Kenyon Review on-line and Epoch, amongst many others, and her stories have been anthologized in The Encyclopedia Project, Viz Inter Arts, The Best Underground Fiction and others. You can find several of her stories on audible.com. Five of her stories have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She has been given multiple residencies at The Blue Mountain Center and received a Saltonstall Foundation For The Arts grant. She won an NEA and The New Guard Machigonne Fiction prize for excerpts of her new novel, What Becomes Us.  Micah lives with her family in Santa Cruz California, where she co-directs the creative writing program and is a professor in the Literature Department at University of California, Santa Cruz.

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.

Join our far-ranging, fun and fascinating conversation with Lucy Jane Bledsoe on the occasion of her brand new historical novel, A THIN BRIGHT LINE, based on the true-life story of her aunt. We cover shaping historical fiction, balancing research and writing, dealing with problems with historical dialog and voice, and chucking out parts of your book in revision. Lucy gives us line-editing techniques and research tips. We discuss risk and the market, creating meaningful events and readings, building a community of writers, and the trials and tribulations of staying quiet through your morning writing time. We also talk about queer history, transparency of language, and forms of humor as models for structure, and more.

Ann Bannon

Lillian Faderman

Juliana Delgado Lopera

Transparent

James Wedmore

Willa Cather

Lucy Jane Bledsoe's new novel, A Thin Bright Line, was just released. She's the author of a collection of short stories, a collection of narrative nonfiction, and four novels, including The Big Bang Symphony. Her recent short story, "The We of Me," published in The Rumpus, was chosen by Ploughshares Magazine as the best story published in lit mags that week.

Her fiction has won a Yaddo Fellowship, the 2013 Saturday Evening Post Fiction Award, the Arts & Letters Fiction Prize, the Sherwood Anderson Prize for Fiction, a Pushcart nomination, a California Arts Council Fellowship, an American Library Association Stonewall Award, and two National Science Foundation Artists & Writers Fellowships. Her stories have been translated into Japanese, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Chinese.

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.