Story Makers Show

In this week’s episode, Angie and Elizabeth discuss the question, can fiction save your life? Elizabeth rapidly fires off a few examples of fiction that served as sign posts for her as she grew up. They once again discuss whether or not we are wired for story, and Angie muses about what purpose story serves. Representation? Teaching us how to live? Saving a life? Perhaps not. Changing lives however… perhaps.

Anne Patchett

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Brené Brown

Later The Same Day by Grace Paley

Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson

Alice Walker

Oz Series by Frank Baum

David Bowie

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes and Jeanette Winterson

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Herman Hesse

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

Wired for Story by Lisa Cron

The L Word

Keep Going by Austin Kleon

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 share 3 (or is it 7?) tips and tricks for using this summer (or any time you are in between routines) to be a productive writer. They discuss Elizabeth’s continued revisions and how to look at beginnings, as well as some finer details on Angie’s summer project of an improvised 24-hour feature film.

Lauren Goff

Thich Nhat Hanh

The Biggest Little Farm

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Educated by Tara Westover

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 episode, while Elizabeth finishes up this latest round of edits, while Angie turns her attention to her summer project. She’ll be creating the scaffolding of a short film and, with a small number of actors, will work on improvising a film. Improv is a tool, be it short form improv like Who’s Line Is It Anyway, or even Harold, a more long form improv game. Improv with actors and a director and film however, will be an interesting balancing act of not squashing opportunities while letting moments happen naturally.

Hmong Language

Shoot and Direct an Improved Film in 24 Hours - Udemy Class

Richard Linklater Interview by Same Jones

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley

Chemistry by Weike Wang

I Know Why the Caged Bird Laughs - Maya Rudolph SNL Sketch

Who’s Line Is It Anyway?

Harold

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 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.

This week’s episode is episode 100!!! In "Story is a Side Effect," Angie and Elizabeth discuss how story engages the same things that therapy does in order to catalyze growth. Both modes focus on human beings changing. Angie and Elizabeth dive into talking about reframing, pattern interrupting, and timeline therapy, in the contexts of both therapy and narrative. Elizabeth champion story as a human need, while Angie claims that story is merely a side effect.

Conjunction Junction

The Life of Brian - Monty Python

Wired for Story - Lisa Cron

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

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 are sitting outside at a restaurant as they discuss how the 7 steps can be seen even in a short scene. They take an excerpt from The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai and look at how each beat is a different step, perhaps one through seven, or a waltz of one-two-three one-two-three. The level of details create a more precise picture, explaining how in this situation, with these individuals, the stakes remain incredibly high.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Comin thro’ the Rye by Robert Burns

The Keep by Jennifer Egan

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 podcast Angie and Elizabeth discuss how the quality of writing is not as markedly varied as our emotions tell us. This came up because Elizabeth is currently retyping her novel, something she has never done before and adores, and during the process she found a section that sounded awkward as she wrote it. After letting the “problematic” section sit for a few days, she read it aloud to Angie and they both found it better than Elizabeth had felt while writing it. There is always a difference between how you feel when you write it, and how it is when you read it. And just like any other work, there will be moments that writing doesn’t feel as pleasant, but you buckle up and keep driving forward.

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

The Keep by Jennifer Egan

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.

While Angie is prepping an after dinner chat for Sonoma County Writer’s Camp and Elizabeth continues to revise, they talk with Rachel Howard about her process. First having worked on a memoir, Rachel recently launched novel The Risk of Us. They discuss the “why now” aspect that is in both novels and memoirs, as well as the rhythms of three and how they can translate to books and not just on screen. They end with the idea of how writing is about paying attention to the world and making it into something. As ever, continue writing!

Rachel Howard

Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Maggie Nelson

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

storymakersshow.com/raffle

RACHEL HOWARD earned her MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College and is the author of a memoir, The Lost Night, and a novel, The Risk of Us. She is the recipient of a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and her fiction, essays, and dance criticism have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.

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 continues to re-write and Angie is preparing to “collect rejections” as she begins submitting her film Lost in the Middle to festivals. They discuss complicated versus complex stories—is the difference in the eye of the beholder?  Elizabeth reads 16 tweets by author Mira Jacobs about her experiences in the literary world as a woman of color writing stories deemed to have “too many elements” and brings up Hilton Als’ recent review of Suzan-Lori Parks’ new play, White Noise. Story Makers Show is also holding a raffle to determine their new sign off!

Mira Jacob

Suzan-Lori Parks

Hilton Als

Association of Writers and Writing Programs

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

storymakersshow.com/raffle

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 podcast Angie and Elizabeth discuss brevity. Briefly.

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.