Story Makers Show

In this episode, Angie and Elizabeth consider strategies for staying connected to your creativity in this extreme moment. What’s changed and what hasn’t, and what needs to change? Tools considered include the social urge, countering boredom, writing morning pages, lowering expectations, setting real deadlines, finding readers and following the fun. The conversation also touches on the way structure, story and characters are inextricably linked, and the power of being explicit about your choices in your story. They discuss the ways learning is a narrative. The big takeaway: keep supporting yourself to find what works for you now (hint: it probably looks like what worked before, but different), and stay safe.

Book in a Year

The Artists Way

Kara Cutruzzula’s Brass Ring Daily newsletter

Dear Edward

Desmos: Beautiful, Free Math

Blinkist 

Scriptnotes Phoebe Waller-Bridge episode 

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.

Live from our garage, a day late and a dollar short, in the middle of a global pandemic, Angie and Elizabeth have the following, just for you: An update on middle school math and distance learning; the asymptotic process of editing and how to cooperate with and counter your perfections; internal obstacles v external ones. Have we let go of the expectations of our normal reality? Have we accepted the radical not knowing of our situation? What free time? We compare Angie’s youthful two weeks alone in Mexico writing with sheltering in place during a global pandemic with work and kids…The episode also touches on point of view, perspective, premise, protagonists, and the narrative uses of The Royal We. Angie and Elizabeth express deep gratitude for Book Writing World and Book in a Year students and the worlds they are creating and recreating, taking them out of their limited rooms! The power of the word to connect all of us when we are far apart…

Crisis teaching is not home schooling

The Living Annie Dillard

Episodes that touch on subtext

Seth Godin

The Queen’s Speech

Elaine Scarry

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’s episode asks, how do you find your writing passion while you’re hiding out at home. Routines? Extreme measures? What is called for? Angie and Elizabeth answer a listener’s question. Some of the answers include: doing the part of writing you think is fun when times are challenging; handling the mean voice that can rise up when you write; and understanding the role of anxiety and empathy in what we do. Angie suggests that doubt about writing right now might come from struggling with meaning, with the value of your work as a writer, the purpose of what we do in the face of global crisis. Go onto the page instead of the Internet. People need to hear what you have to say. Other topics touched on include theme, grief, and Captain Marvel.

Sherlock BBC

Writing from Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler

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 shelter-in-place episode delves into what survival strategies teach you about your writing lifestyle and offers a plug for reading and a metaphor, advice from Northern Italy, a couple of writing prompts, a discussion of opportunity cost in plotting, and an answer to the question, why am I not less busy if I can’t leave my house? Summary word for the episode: kindness.

Aibo

Parro

Sloan Film Program

Free Craft Class with Elizabeth

Sign up for Spring Quarter Class with Elizabeth

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Barry

Pre-suasion by Robert Cialdini

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.

This week, Angie is cognitively processing while Elizabeth is rereading her manuscript on hardcopy yet one more time. In this episode, Angie and Elizabeth explore whether their newly cleared yard is a metaphor for anything relevant to writing, and conclude, by the end, that landscaping definitely provides insight into giving great notes on a manuscript. As does this episode. They touch on the importance of readers, how to become a strong editor, why what works matters as much as what doesn’t, and how prescriptive readers should be. In addition, Angie offers gratitude to all the first responders to all the crises our world is facing, they discuss social media in fraught times, and Elizabeth confesses to an early brush with eminent fame. Correction: Elizabeth actually met Angie the fall before that summer she went to Bennington, so Angie falls in the category of people Elizabeth met before her launch into inescapable writerly fame.

Email us at [email protected]

Links in this Episode

The Daily Dose: Feminist Voices for the Green New Deal
Devi S. Laskar on Story Makers Show Episode and Episode
Austin Kleon
Carolina De Robertis Cantoras -- in conversation with Elizabeth Stark at Copperfield’s
Bob Shacochis
Erin Morgenstern The Starless Sea
David Mamet On Directing Film
The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais

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, Angie and Elizabeth discuss the use of narrative in the art of persuasion. Coming back to Lindsay Doran’s rules of story, they check them against various politicians' appeals. This leads to an examination of competing stories, hyperbole, lies, character change, and audience. What kind of story does an audience need or is an audience ready for? Finally, they touch on the crucial role of writers in moving us and our world forward. steal this suggest sponsorship patches for politicians and the Booker Prize-winning book Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo.

Email us at [email protected]

Links in this Episode

The Daily Dose: Feminist Voices for a Green New Deal

Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Don’t Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff 

Lindsay Doran's three rules of drama

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth 

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.

tarting with the Harry Potter theory of gamification, Angie and Elizabeth dive into the ways that attaching story—including costumes, pets, and props as well as wins and losses—to learning motivates students, much as story drives characters and readers. Growth is what excites people, not grades, and gamification builds resilience and perseverance—the kinds of heroic qualities we seek in our heroes. This leads into ties to want v. need and the important strengths and understanding them, and the ways people are designed to struggle and removing struggle removes people’s sense of self-mastery. And then, because everyone’s abuzz with the primary, they touch on politics as story, too.

Email us at [email protected]

Links in this Episode

Linsey Doran’s three rules of drama

Tetris

NY Times video on productivity

Tiny Habits: the small changes that change everything by BJ Fog 

Gameful Pedagogy (University of Michigan)

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.

The inimitable, brilliant Aya de Leon joins us for an inspiring conversation about regime change, the American Dirt controversy, genre, including the elements of a heist plot, and story structure--from the hero’s journey to politics to football and rugby. But that’s not all! We talk how Black/ Latina/ mixed-race girls occupying the center of the teen girl spy drama (one of Aya’s myriad exciting projects); the heart of productivity: the JOY and FUN of writing; fires and rebuilding and capitalist individualism v the big picture; the power of the treadmill desk, and more. Memorable quotes from Aya: “202020 climateclimateclimate;” “I really love writing.” Just go listen, and enjoy!

Email us at [email protected]

Links in this Episode

Aya de Leon

American Dirt controversy article by Aya 

Cave Canum

DailyDoseDeal.com

Naomi Klein on Fire 

Mary De Mocker The Parents' Guide to Climate Revolution:100 Ways to Build a Fossil-Free Future, Raise Empowered Kids, and Still Get a Good Night's Sleep

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, Angie identifies as the quintessential dilettante while Elizabeth lays out her process of revision. They debate whether the horror genre has shifted or Angie has changed. Most of all, they consider the potential for understanding both learning opportunities for writers and character growth of Rubrics such as: emerging, progressing, personal mastery, mastery. How do you consciously and creatively spend time in areas where you’re emerging and progressing? They look at when and where and how we take risks, and why it matters. The episode also features hints of a showdown on theory between the two hosts and touches on authority and accessibility in prose.

Email us at [email protected]

Links in this Episode

Jordan Peele

Penny Arcade

Just Mercy film

Wendy Brown

Bettina Apteker

Donna Haraway

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

Ira Glass: “I thought this would happen and instead this happened.”

Pixar 

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor 

Stephen Fry Sherlock Holmes

Jeanette Winterson “I’m telling you stories. Trust me.”

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 episode delves into the art and craft, indeed the very definition, of chapters--in books and a little bit in film, too. Angie and Elizabeth discuss what we need and want to know, narratively; how to play wondering out across a whole novel; the difference between a story and a novel; raising and answering reader questions and worries; making jumps; tension and release; scene v. chapter and chapter v. episode, unity of time and place, story question. They also touch on generating ideas and diffuse mode. In the end, what do you want your reader to feel? There’s a dinner party metaphor that really gets at some stuff. Hence, the title of the episode.

Email us at [email protected]

Links in this Episode

Sonoma County Writers Camp--sign up here!

Kenneth Atchity A Writer’s Time

Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache Series

Ann Patchett The Dutch House

Anthony Doerr All the Light We Cannot See

The Sebastopol Rialto

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.