Story Makers Show

A listener asks about setting up expectations and then defying them in the use of scene. This leads to a deep dive into expectations--how turning them, upturning them, overturning them is what story is all about. Patterns and meaning. Why story relies on expectation, why we seek learning and when we seek novelty, what motivates us and our characters and our readers. Elizabeth and Angie touch on the difference between an action’s being out of character versus reflecting a character change. They also get into the art and suffering of submitting manuscripts, the professionalism of collecting rejections, the importance of getting feedback in a timely fashion--and the role of submission and rejection in that loop. Wrestling with the math around submissions and success, they decide to launch a contest between them--and open to Story Makers Show listeners--to complete and submit a short story by the next podcast. This episode also points to theme as a sandbox, creating parameters in which to play with and juxtapose ideas.

Ira Glass This American Life

Italo Calvino on classics

The Bible

Joyce Carol Oates Masterclass trailer

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.

In today’s episode, Angie and Elizabeth discuss what it might mean when someone says a memoir is like a novel or a novel is like a movie. Hashing through the elements of shaping a true story into a compelling narrative, and the pros and cons of cross-genre identification, they look at what “good writing” means when lobbed at a television show. They play “novel neener”  (a kind of “would you rather”), where Angie pushes Elizabeth to articulate which elements most make a story “like a novel.” The conversation digs into causality v. thematic organization, dramatic changes, definitions of creative nonfiction, stakes--and whether the blockbuster superhero movie glut stems from a failure to imagine stakes other than life-or-death. Elizabeth pitches her novel and Angie analyzes why people might say it sounds “like a movie.” Angie makes a claim that movies are more emotionally distant than novels. Steal This focuses on productivity this week. Finally, join Angie this Friday, Sept. 27, at 5 pm at the Mary Pickford in Cathedral City!

Lost in the Middle at Cinema Diverse, Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival

For They Know Not What They Do a documentary by Daniel Karslake

Tara Westover Educated

Cheryl Strayed Wild

Annie Dillard The Writing Life

Mary Karr Lit

Jeanette Walls The Glass Castle

Maggie Nelson The Argonauts

Karen Russel Swamplandia

Natalie Saurotte Childhood

Scott Young Ultralearning

Stever Robbins Get It Done Guy on Mark Forster’s Speed-dating Your Tasks

Blake Snyder Six Things that Need Fixing

Emma Thompson in Remains of the Day

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.

By what method to you guide and structure story? This episode aims to take down any dichotomy between planning and accessing your intuition. Angie and Elizabeth delve into right- and left-brain approaches and exercises that can help you dig a framework out of your unconscious. Yes, make lists, but gut check them. We resist intuition because it’s vulnerable and scary, so they offer strategies for moving forward toward fear. Let the constraints lead you to greater freedom, and connect deeply with what matters to you most, because that will sustain you.

Book in a Year: http://bookinayear.com/classes-available-now

Free Kick-off Party and 7-step Lesson: https://bookwritingworld.com/free-BIAY-kickoff-lesson/

Broad Humor Film Festival: https://www.broadhumorfilmfest.com

D.A.R.E. book and program on anxiety: https://dareresponse.com/

 The 21st Century Screenplay: http://www.lindaaronson.com/21st-century-screenplay.html

Lost in the Middle at Cinema Diverse in Palm Springs https://psculturalcenter.org/filmfest/movie/lost-in-the-middle 

Antifragility by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/176227/antifragile-by-nassim-nicholas-taleb/9780812979688/

The Life Coach School podcast where Elizabeth heard about Antifragility

https://thelifecoachschool.com/podcast/284/

Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

Film: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2365580/

Book: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316204262

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.

Angie and Elizabeth focus today on answering a listener’s question about when to use scene, when to use summary, and how/ when you should know which one is right. Hints: if there is no fundamental change and/ or a lot of repetitive action, summary is a good bet; if you can cut a scene, summary or section, cut it or find a reason why it’s indispensable. The conversation generates several tips about summary, scene and editing, as well as good reminders of the difference between drafting and revision, the importance of build and arc, the distinction between tools and restrictions, and the ways once you’ve mastered your tools you can “go McGyver on them.” Also: What are the ways that film does summary and what can prose writers learn from those approaches? How can scene detail and character behavior set expectations and clarify the rhythms of the world in a story? And: scene lists, waiting for feedback, besting yourself (v. competing with others), electronic press kids, the small things we give up to make time for writing, and the way that art is also a learning project.

Becoming Michelle Obama

Scott Young

Middlesex Jeffery Eugenedies   

Adaptation (film)

The Orchid Thief Susan Orlean

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.

 Elizabeth and Angie explore Angie’s journey to story development, which she’ll be offering a free class on Monday, August 19, 2019, 7 to 8 PM Pacific. Join us or sign up for a video by registering here:

http://bookwritingworld.com/free-story-development-class/

Maria Poplova Figuring 

Brainpickings.org

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, fresh off a week of making an experimental short film, discusses the lessons learned. She and Elizabeth look especially at how some set design lessons apply to setting in fiction, memoir and narrative non-fiction. They also touch on Angie’s collaborative process of creating and shooting the script, as well as operating as a largely one-person crew...with the help of some awesome tweens! And how to build the ideal 3-person crew. The podcast opens with a discussion of revision approaches and distractions, the problems with dictating to your phone, macro v micro, editing v fixing, creating a list of actionable items, and scene lists and their uses and definitions.

Getting Things Done// David Allen 

Sonoma County Writers Camp

Independent Ed by Ed Burns 

Y Tu Mama Tambien 

The Fitzgerald Family Christmas by Ed Burns

Broad Humor screens Lost in the Middle

Normal People by Sally Rooney  

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.

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 In today’s episode, Angie received her first film festival acceptance and Elizabeth finally got notes back from her development editor, moving her out of the waiting phase. Elizabeth surprised Angie with this week’s topic which effectively boils down to… Do you follow the same kind of process in both grocery shopping and in creating art? Some people shop with lists but create art as if it’s a Jackson Pollock painting, while others create a multistep outline for creative work and yet wander aimlessly through the grocery store while on the phone with their spouse. Is how you do anything how you do everything? Maybe, maybe not. Some people are always list people while others are always creative spheres of chaos. Angie also talks about how judgement, even positive judgment, can get in the way of noticing.

Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Julia Margaret Cameron

Ellen Sussman

Sonoma County Writer’s Camp

The Inner Game by Timothy Gallwey

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 Elizabeth finds still more lessons in the “still waiting” process while Angie continues to work on her rapidly approaching end-of-July film experiment, wondering if she’s procrastinating or gathering from a variety of sources. They discuss how it is different to be on the side of a “judge” rather than of the person submitting writing to a contest or an actor standing an audition, the one who, hat in hand, responds to the call. The judge is not looking for submission of what the applicant thinks the judge wants to see; the judge is in fact looking for the core of what the applicant is giving them. Authenticity.

Pennies from Heaven

Lost in the Middle

Coursera

Christine Hyung-Oak Lee

Richard Powers

Devi Laskar

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

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, Elizabeth is working on what it means to wait and Angie is getting out of her comfort zone. They discuss how it’s harder to be successful if you’re focused on the product instead of the process. Going between a focused view on a project and then a more diffuse view tends to lead to greater productivity and overall growth. Taking smaller forays outside of the comfort zone highlights how a moderate amount of discomfort is proof of growth (embrace the “un-comfort” zone). Like working out your body, it’s the little tears that make the bigger gains over the long term.

Elizabeth Gilbert

Keep Going by Austin Kleon

Super Mario

Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Pavarotti Documentary Trailer

Henri Matisse

Philip Roth

Sigrid Nunez

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.