Story Makers Show

Elizabeth and Angie talk about simplicity. How to strip out what isn’t necessary. Why simple motives are more convincing, according to Angie and Matt Bird. What Einstein might have said about simplicity. What Elaine Scarry might have said about reading. Why the 5-whys method from systems analysis can help you understand your characters, their world views, decisions, actions and emotions. And that Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island brings emotion to the fore.

Write to us a @[email protected] or post them on the Story Makers Show page on Facebook or hit reply to this newsletter and ask away!

Matt Bird

Einstein Quote

Elaine Scarry

5-whys method

Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island

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.

After Angie almost pulls an all nighter and while Elizabeth exists in a new waiting state, they find themselves with their own inciting incident and metaphor for character. Mice. People and characters tend to take the path of least resistance, and it is that inciting incident that pushes them into action. While Angie and Elizabeth take stock of which physical things “spark joy,” Elizabeth wonders if perhaps the same KonMari method could be applied to writing. When you are stuck about how the character would approach bringing equilibrium to their situation, imagine: what if they had mice?

“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

Marie Kondo

The Winters by Lisa Gabriele

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

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 discuss what we LOVE about writing. Because, why not? The conversation also touches on how much we retrain of what we hear v. what we teach, Ellen Sussman’s Rule of Three, thinking about what’s going to happen next in a story, the joy of learning, the pleasure of getting swept up in the story you are creating, entertaining yourself, aspects of pre-writing, the advantage of boredom and reveries, being a wierdo and not worrying about it, deep focus, paying attention, pruning (not prose but fruit trees), taking the train to Reno, nonsense writing, morning writing, editing, napping, and writing to get clarity about what you think. But there’s more! We also talk about what we hate about writing, about shame, about the beginning and end of writing, about being edited, about the critical voice and negotiating with sanbateurs and the benefits and life-saving aspects of having life coaches. Finally we touch on Kim Addanizio, Franz Kafka, and Oliva Coleman’s Oscar speech. It’s a rich half hour. Join us!

“It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.” --Franz Kafka

Kim Addonizio poem

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 talk with Christine O’Brien about her wonderful new memoir CRAVE. We tackle the challenges and techniques of shaping a memoir, applying formal structure to memory. Structure can also be a way to take risks and explore, if you can avoid perfectionism. What is it like to keep creating new work while juggling the promotion and publicity for your debut? What is it like to receive praise and notice in the literary world? Chris takes us on her journey into publication as she also discusses writing her next book. There can be a feeling of hubris about writing about yourself--and yet the adolescent female voice, for example, is not one that is overpowering the discourse about what it means to be human. And suspense--a page-turner--can be created by paying close attention. We think about what holds our attention, and about the power of letting the story unfold without trying to “hit a homerun” every time. Even--especially?--quiet, careful writing produces an exhilaration you can see on the face of a person who’s just written and risked.

Write to us a @[email protected] with your questions and comments!

BIAY(Book in a Year)

Craft Class

Free Solo (Documentary)

The Wife Between Us (audiobook)

Allen Kurzweil Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully

Crave by Christine O’Brien

Christine O’Brien is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Crave. The book has been praised as being “emotionally fraught,” “compelling,” and “thoroughly engaging,” while also earning praise from The New York Times for its ability to capture her father’s creative brilliance and her mother’s pioneering spirit with “loving generosity.” O’Brien earned a BA in English at UC Berkeley and holds a Double MFA in Nonfiction and Fiction. Her essay “Cul de Sac” received Honorable Mention in the Glimmer Train 2014 Short Story Award for New Writers, and her essays and short stories have appeared in The Seneca Review and The Slush Pile Magazine. This January she appeared on The Dr. Oz show, and she is the host of the upcoming podcast, Good Morning Writing!

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 is all about backstory and revision. Revision as the iterative process that helps you dig deeper into your story. Backstory as that which can be moved into the present action or withheld for revelation. Angie and Elizabeth talk about how to think about the information in your scenes as mobile, and how to find the best, most dramatic way to present it in the story. They also look at the use of a close POV it create secrets. The vintage and contemporary classics Rebecca and Room are two of the stories they investigate for use of backstory in revelation.

Send your questions, comments, etc. to  [email protected]. 

Rebecca
Room
Pilar Alessandra
Hyperfocus
Under My Skin by Lisa Unger
Rachel Howard Grottopod episode

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, Angie and Elizabeth chat with one of Elizabeth’s high school classmates, Daniel Jokelson, about being a maggid—a kind of wandering storyteller. Storytelling has worked its way into every aspect of Daniel’s life, from being a singer-songwriter to acting with a company in Ashland Oregon even to teaching stories with the local Jewish youth group. And while the modes of story are incredibly different, Daniel finds a common thread in seeing the big picture of each art form, and connecting that to the audience who is hearing it. His work is all about finding the curiosity, bringing authenticity to preconstructed story, and most importantly, finding the medicine each tale has to offer.

Rogue World Music

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

So I Married An Axe Murderer

Twelve Angry Men (1997)

Marathon Man

Article on Avoiding Cliches

Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister

Music & storytelling: reverbnation.com/danieljokelson

Blogging about sustainable agriculture: dannyfarmboy.blogspot.com

Current production: roguetheatercompany.com

Daniel Jokelson is a singer-songwriter, musician, actor, storyteller and improviser with a freelance residential garden biz keeping the lights on in Ashland, Oregon.  Daniel grew up in Berkeley, California in a Jewish family with an avid interest in the arts - his mother and brother are both visual artists, and the whole family were theater and movie fans.  Daniel studied acting at UMass Amherst and spent summers teaching theater at a day camp in Berkeley, which is where he also discovered guitar and writing songs. A wanderer and perpetual seeker, Daniel spent almost 2 years abroad, traveling and working in agricultural settings.  When he returned to the Bay Area, he continued working in agriculture and gardening while doing Soto Zen residential practice, absorbing the Buddhist approach and recording Ego Tofu, an album of original music. In 2008, he relocated to southern Oregon, where he lives happily with his partner Stephanie and has a life full of creative pursuits.  He completed a two-year Maggid training program in Ashland, learning both the craft of storytelling and the art of Torah interpretation (midrash).

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 and Elizabeth welcome back Devi Laskar to talk about how far she has come in a year. From finding an agent, to being about to be published, to hearing a sample from the audiobook of her debut novel, Devi is a powerhouse of creation. Since 2010, when her writing was seized from her by government agents, she’s found a way to persevere and generate more material. Angie asks about this material generating, and Devi talks about how she gets itchy and grumpy and upset if she’s not doing something every day, knowing full well that not every day will be as productive as the rest.

Episode 61 with Devi

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill

Citizen by Claudia Rankine

Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison

Tell Me How It Ends by Valeria Luiselli

Sonoma County Writer’s Camp

One Day At a Time theme song

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Women In Madness by Phyllis Chesler

Devi Laskar

Devi S. Laskar is a native of Chapel Hill, NC. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Atlanta Review, The Squaw Valley Review, The North American Review, Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel, among others. The Raleigh Review nominated “Untitled Western Country Song in Rubescent A Minor” for Meridian’s Best New Poets 2016. The Blue Heron Review nominated “Most Days a Passage” for Sundress’ Best of the Net Anthology 2016. Poet Jessica Piazza recently selected “Dissection” and “What Namaste Really Means” as the winning entries for the poetry prize at the 27th Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, and those poems are forthcoming in the next issue of Noyo River Review.

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 check back in to see how Angie’s experiment with “bad” writing went. When working to write badly, Angie found that she was not writing terribly enough. And that these kinds of judgements, be it failing to write well or poorly, limit creativity. Drop the wall of expectation and write. Think of it as an experiment or whatever makes most sense to you, and most importantly, play. Try not to limit yourself and instead reinvigorate the joy that writing brings. Quiet that little voice in your head and write. As the Bard says, “for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” If you have any questions, comments, or experiments you think Angie and Elizabeth should try, please send them to [email protected]

Annie Dillard

Steven Pressfield

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

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.

In this today’s episode, Angie and Elizabeth chat about Bad Writing and how sometimes purposefully writing “badly” can show you how much you know (or don’t) about writing. We often have a mystical approach to creativity, and if we lower our expectations some we won’t succumb to perfectionism. Angie accepts Elizabeth’s challenge to sit down and write “badly” in the upcoming week, in order to see whether or not the wording of the challenge will build an identity of a bad writer or provide a measure of freedom. And they both agree that art isn’t about good or bad, it’s about creating. So tell that little voice in your head that offers nothing but criticism to take a breather and just write.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

Love Simon

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott

Jody Picoult

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Why People Like Us Do This chat with Seth Godins

“I should hate forever to be a burden to you” Lessons in Love from Virginia Woolfe and Vita Sackville-West by Jeanna Kadlec

The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi Laskar

Crave by Christine O’Brien

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, Angie and Elizabeth talk about goal setting for the coming year. Questions such as, “Where do you want to be in a year?” and “What have you accomplished in the last year?” are a good first step and help us build upon our strengths. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the laundry list of things you did not accomplish or still need to do. Keep the long term objective in mind to help put these tasks into perspective. You are always doing work, so let’s talk about how to make sure the work you’re spending time will make you proud.

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee

Wishcraft by Barbara Sher

Bluestockings

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.