Story Makers Show

In this episode, Angie and Elizabeth answer a listener’s question about how to use poetic language to story's advantage rather than distraction. This requires teasing apart what, exactly, poetic language entails--compression, metaphor, white space, senstae detail--and what prose writers can gain from the poetic. Focusing on poetry’s clarifying power rather than a sense of it as obscuring, they ask: what are your artistic goals, and can you go deeper to get clearer? They delve into story, character, and setting as metaphor , and emphasize the importance of letting your intentional choices as a writer guide your response to a note about, for example, the poetry in your language. By noticing that one of the thing art does sometimes is to shock and bother us, the conversation swings through a look at imagery in film and the history of different movements in film. In short: There is no book everyone likes. Find the people who understand what you are trying to do. Make sure you are one of them. Do what you love. And keep trying!

Yu Yun-Li

Ann Carson

Bernardine Evaristo Girl, Woman, Other 

Rachel Getting Married 

Birdman

Russian Ark 

John Ashbery

Julianna Spahr

Jeanette Winterson The Passion

Sundance

Film: Coming Home in the Dark

Books about Henry James:

The Master by Colm Toibin

Author, Author David Lodge

Guy du Maurier

Tim Ferriss books Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice and Tools of Titans

Questions? Email questions at storymakersshow.com 

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.

Happy New Year! Angie and Elizabeth follow their “what are you working on” opening into a deep dive into the art and systems of submitting your work to literary journals, as Elizabeth has begun to do. This includes learning the markets, curating your own backlog, rejection, and representing a writer who is not as good as you are now--the you who wrote your finished work. They touch on the importance of quantity over quality for certain goals. And in “Steal This,” Angie explains how we can use math explorations to open our minds to multiple ways of illustrating information, opening to all the tools possible for a given problem.

Tiny Love Story

Submittable

Rankings of 500 Lit Mags

Lea Page podcast

Stockard Channing reading the Ramona the Pest books

Questions? Email questions at storymakersshow.com 

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.

With Elizabeth fresh off virtual Sonoma County Writers Camp, she and Angie discuss the technological opportunities of this moment and how it will carry into the future. This evolves into a consideration of the advantages of dictation and whether typing will turn out to be a brief technological phase. Angie doesn’t fall in love easily with books and, though she teaches story development based on screenwriting, the books she is drawn to tend to be quirky. She particularly appreciates narrators who accept the strange terms of their world. And the metaphoric resonances of that strange element. After a detour into an appreciation for amazing audiobook narrators and public libraries, the discussion advances the “one unbelievable thing” theory of near realism, looking at why it works to break one--and only one--rule and make everything believable.

Gil Dennis video

Leonora Carrington The Hearing Trumpet 

Kevin Wilson Nothing to See Here 

Stockard Channing reading Ramona the Pest series 

Ruth O. Saxton The Book of Old Ladies: Celebrating Women of a Certain Age in Fiction

Jennifer March Soloway

Muriel Sparks Momento Mori 

Tana French The Searcher

Meg LeFauve

Martin Seligman Authentic Happiness

Josh Spector For the Interested newsletter

Questions? Email questions at storymakersshow.com 

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.

Yay, you voted! And look, it worked. Now buy books from your local indie bookstore. In today’s episode, Angie and Elizabeth talk about voice and POV, including the theatrical element of voice, leaning into voice, and when analysis should kick voice into gear. They also talk about the differences between who we hoped we’d be and who we are, the impact of the kids being home all the time, and whether and when self-compassion can be a winning or worthwhile strategy. A debate on self-compassion v. pushing and deadlines concludes with the question of whether deadlines might be a form of self-compassion. Other techniques to get and keep you going: excitement about the work itself, the effort and possibility of making the world a better place. Other topics include omniscient first person, white-guy eighties authors, “characterness,” the storyteller in voice, voice in film and film-equivalents to voice, shameful obsessions (that don’t hurt people) and letting yourself embrace your own shameful(but joy harmful) obsessions...and journeys.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Nick Flynn

Writers on Writing Nick Flynn interview

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 

Remains of the Day, book and movie

Thor: Love and Thunder 2022

Everything Tiaka Watiti including TED talk

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Little Mutinies short

Conviction by Denise Mina

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

Questions? Email questions at storymakersshow.com 

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’s podcast mines for what we can learn about the moments we falter--as when Angie and Elizabeth stopped podcasting for a few weeks. The conversation wonders,

Who has more free time right now? And briefly explores revision—how do you know what’s needed when you already know the story so well. But mostly this is an episode about connection, permission, productivity, isolation, and meaning. Writing as activism, and life as performance art. If you feel like you are walking through knee-deep mud, maybe holding your breath, we hope this chat will help.

AnnieDillard

Thich Nhat Hanh

Pomodoro

Zadie Smith essays 

Robert Frost

Questions? Email questions at storymakersshow.com 

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’s episode features an interview with scientist and debut novelist Carole Stivers, whose new book The Mother Code launches this week. The discussion ranges over climate science fiction, genetic engineering, military biological warfare, parenting, and lots of writing tips. We discuss the challenges of launching a dystopian near-future novel into a world utterly changed by pandemic (which initially delayed the book’s pub date) and how Carole retroactively connected to her characters in their somewhat parallel plight. The episode answers the question, does imagination prepare us for dramatic change? And touches on loving characters...and making them suffer... and avoiding evil bad guys. We delve into drafting and editing, from beat/ scene lists and planning to beta readers through the manuscript’s expanding and contracting, the uses of theme, the necessity of cutting characters and events, and integrating research. Carole’s advice? If you have a story to tell or a desire to write—get started! 

Terminator (film)

I am Mother (film)

Robert McKee

Save the Cat Writes a Novel

Angie Kim episode

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (audiobook)

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Song of the Sea (film)

SFMOMA

FB: Carole Stivers author

CaroleStivers.com

Green Apple Book event

John Markoff (interviewing her)

Litquake

The Mother Code by Carole Stivers

Questions? Email questions at storymakersshow.com 

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, car packed to flee amidst the smoke of the Lightening Complex Fires, tackle what is too much plot? What is the difference between significant escalation in a story and the heaping on of chaos and disaster in the real world? Create meaning via choices and understand the ways events press on a character in need of a story journey. The conversation touches on multiple universes, individual stakes v. larger issues, immediate v. long-term danger, consequences, intersectional identities and vampires, not to mention MacGuffins, Casablanca, and Humphrey Bogart. What does it mean to write in a time of chaos, and how and where should we focus? There is no right or single answer, but let’s discuss! 

Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self

Link to Professor Crunk

Jewelle Gomez The Gilda Stories

One Tin Soldier--Link to song from my friend Danielle

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 is figuring out how to figure out what she’s working on, and Elizabeth is working on the external propeller of her novel while starting something new. They grapple with how character desire drives a story, and how a character’s limiting belief impacts that desire, and how both build the premise. Want versus need comes up, and much about story, character worldview, American expectations and desire regarding story, values in conflict, powerful stakes, dog love as a solution to all problems, and more!

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Room by Emma Donoghue

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Elf

30 Rock

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Distant Dead by Heather Young

FREE Class Weds. Aug. 5, Writing in the Time of Covid-19

Questions? Email questions at storymakersshow.com

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 is learning about teaching math and either making connections to learning and writing...or developing a unified theory of everything. Elizabeth is in diffuse, “what if” mode, exploring her real values. As they delve into conversation about premise--an expression of values in a story--and limiting belief--the thinking that needs changing in a character, Angie asserts that what can seem like a blunt tool in writing, can come across subtle, enriching ways in reading. They explore how to use these tools to brainstorm and tap into the unconscious, how to develop and understand the psychology behind a character’s behavior, and how structure might mirror premise.

Link to free class on Writing in the Time of Covid.

Book in a Year

Craft Class and Story Development 

Dorothy Allison sorry about Shannon Pearl/ fire -- is embedded in her novel Bastard Out of Carolina

Lindsey Doran

Tony Robbins

NLP

Lajos Egri The Art of Dramatic Writing

Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

Heather Young The Distant Dead

Story Makers Episode with Heather Young 

NYT What’s Happenjng in this Graph? Pandemic Consumer Spending

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’s episode brings the study of scene to a conclusion with a third scene, this one from Danzy Senna’s non-fiction Where Did You Sleep Last Night? A Personal History. Angie and Elizabeth look at the work an opening scene does in establishing vital information--here, establishing a relationship  dynamic, a core theme, and stakes. With deft details and action, Senna creates a strong cinematic scene while also allowing for a narrator grappling with the meaning and interpretation of a scene from the past, one of the strengths of narrative prose on the page. The discussion also covers action as dialog, the interweaving of researched history with personal history, and the power of ambiguity. The episode kids off with a look at the trials, tribulations, and pleasures of reviewing morning pages, and of completion-centric project planning, as well as learning, revision, and imperfection in writing and math.

Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser

Cal Newport completion-centric and Einstein theory

The Einstein Principle: Accomplish More By Doing Less

The Art of the Finish: How to Go From Busy to Accomplished

Scott Young UltraLearning 

Story Makers Show scene episodes:

Scene It All: What Makes Scene Work?

The Final Scene: Elizabeth Strout

Establishing Scenes: Setting Up Desires, Character, Theme in Action in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys

Denzy Senna Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

Danzy Senna New People

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.