Story Makers Show

In the first episode of the New Year, Angie and Elizabeth dive head first into discussing the need for emotional logic to understand why people do what they do. Studies show that an explanation as simple as “I need to make copies” when cutting in line for a photocopy machine, even though everyone else is also waiting to use the same machine, is far more welcome than simply cutting in line sans explanation. With an explanation, the other people are able to recognize and connect with the feeling when it is being shared, giving them a story behind the action as opposed to action only. In narrative, if the audience is unable to connect with a character’s motivation or if the character’s actions are lacking context, the audience can get lost wondering why. Why are we able to connect with Medea in the slaughter of her children? Why is ordering food in her sleep a major plot point for a character in an acclaimed novel this year? Why does a difference in power change our perceptions about when to offer an explanation? As we set up ourselves for another year, take a moment to see what stories you are setting up for yourself, and make them your own.

Thaisa Frank

Welcome to Marwen

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Start With Why by Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek TED Talk

Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman

Sharon Olds

Personal Power by Tony Robbins

Cherríe Moraga

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 explore the relationship of story events to character as they respond to a listener’s question about how much each scene in a story must be shaped by the main character’s limiting belief. They discuss single protagonists and ensemble or roving points of view, and the emotional impact of a single death versus a million. Far ranging conversation takes them from Marvel comics to the Holocaust. Please note that Angie’s use of the term “muselmann” was slightly off: it is not someone who arrives at a concentration camp without hope but someone whose hope is worn out through the experiences there.

Modern Family

Eddie Izzard

“Bashert” by Irena Klepfitz

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

The Secrets of Story by Matt Bird

Black-ish (TV)

Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman

Barbara Kingsolver

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.

As Angie works on cover letters for her film and Elizabeth has a huge revelation on the next steps on her novel, they take a moment to chat with Irving Ruan about humour and his unique journey. Irving is a person of many talents—a playwright, a stand up comedian, and an engineer. Reasonably new to writing, his body of work is nonetheless impressive. Irving discusses the hardest part about writing: continuing even in the face of rejection and how trusting yourself will get you through. While he does not use his engineering degree in his writing, it has given him a strong sense of structure. In comedy writing there is the need to identify clear patterns and to combine two previously different universes. Perhaps stand up comedy and engineering? Just a thought. In short, steal relentlessly. Read other people’s humor pieces, make notes of what stuck out. And most of all, write.

Thomas Edison New Yoker

There There by Tommy Orange

Colin Nissan

I Miss You - Colin Nissan

I Work From Home - Colin Nissan

Irving Ruan Website

Irving Ruan is a writer, comedian, actor, playwright, and engineer. As a child of Chinese parents, Irving and his family first immigrated from China to Montana and settled down in San Diego during the second half of his childhood. He later went on to study computer engineering at UCSD and eventually landed in Silicon Valley, where he has worked as a software engineer, startup founder, consultant, and now as a writer and comedian. His work has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Funny Or Die, CollegeHumor, and elsewhere. He has also studied improv and sketch writing at The Second City in Chicago and is currently a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto.

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 sit down with actor and memoirist Peter Coyote, talking about his unique journey from counterculture to Hollywood in his 40s and beyond. After analyzing movie stars to determine his approach to auditioning, Peter shifted his thinking and found success. When Elizabeth heard this idea at Sonoma County Writer’s Camp, she was inspired by the idea, adopted the attitude, researched the agents of writers she admired, and consequently signed with her dream agent. In addition to discussing agents and publishers, we touch on the performance of politics, the difference between memoir and screenwriting, and even how the narratives we grow up reading shape us as storytellers.

Peter Coyote Website

The Rainman’s Third Cure: An Irregular Education by Peter Coyote

Sleeping Where I Fall by Peter Coyote

Light Years by James Salter

Sonoma County Writers Camp

Peter Coyote has performed as an actor for some of the world’s most distinguished filmmakers, including: Barry Levinson, Roman Polanski, Pedro Almodovar, and Steven Spielberg to name a few. He is an Emmy-Award winning narrator of over 120 documentary films, including Ken Burns, National Parks, Prohibition, The West, the Dust Bowl, and The Roosevelts for which he received his second Emmy nomination in July 2015.  Mr. Coyote has written a memoir of the 1960’s counter-culture called Sleeping Where I Fall which appeared on three best-seller lists. A chapter from that book, “Carla’s Story, won the 1993/94 Pushcart Prize for Excellence in non-fiction. His new book, The Rainman’s Third Cure: An Irregular Education, about mentors and the search for wisdom was released was second on the Marin County Best-Sellers list. From 1975 to 1983 he was a member and then Chairman of the California State Arts Council. During his Chairmanship and under his tenure, expenditures on the arts rose from 1 to 16 million dollars annually. He is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest who has been practicing for forty years and is currently in the process of receiving Transmission from his teacher granting him autonomy and the right to ordain priests and establish his own lineage. He is and has been engaged in political and social causes since his early teens. He considers his 1952 Dodge Power Wagon to be his least harmful addiction.

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 podcast, Angie and Elizabeth reconnect with Micah Perks and discuss her new book of linked stories. Micah has always been a fan of episodic work, and after working with a longer forms of writing, she decided to turn to a short story collection. She took short, stand-alone stories she had written in between projects and morphed them into something new and connected, realizing that working with completed drafts made for a faster process than she was used to. Micah admits that she can often be guilty of over-revising, wondering at what point the work is just different instead of better. Is she just wasting time? There are so many worries about what we “should” be doing. In the end, do what makes you feel the fullest.

True Love and Other Dreams of Miraculous Escape by Micah Perks

The Weird Sisters: William Shakespeare

Kelly Link - MacArthur Fellow

Tana French: The Witch Elm

Micah Perks is the author of a new book of linked short stories, True Love and Other Dreams of Miraculous Escape (Outpost19) and the novel What Becomes Us (Outpost19; 9/16), winner of an Independent Publishers Book Award and named one of the Top Ten Books about the Apocalypse by The Guardian. Her memoir, Pagan Time, tells the story of her childhood in a log cabin on a commune in the Adirondack wilderness. She is also the author of We Are Gathered Here, a novel, and Alone in the Woods, a long personal essay. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Epoch, Zyzzyva, Tin House, The Toast, OZY and The Rumpus, amongst many journals and anthologies. She has won an NEA, five Pushcart Prize nominations, and the New Guard Machigonne 2014 Fiction Prize. She received her BA and MFA from Cornell University and now lives with her family in Santa Cruz where she co-directs the creative writing program at UCSC. More info and work at micahperks.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.

This week, Angie and Elizabeth chatted with Laurie Ann Doyle about her process transitioning from writing short stories to writing her first novel. From doing research, to choosing the right words, both short and long stories are all about crafting a narrative. They focus on one of Laurie’s stories Or Best Offer from World Gone Missing, a collection of short stories with the theme of people going missing. Angie and Elizabeth asked if the theme came first, Laurie believes that the theme should evolve naturally, and that people can disappear in more ways than one.

Laurie Ann Doyle - Website

Nina LaCour - Interview

Barbara Oakley - Learning How to Learn

Wayne Dyer - Before You Go To Sleep video

Laurie Ann Doyle is the author of the book WORLD GONE MISSING,  praised by New York Times bestselling author Edan Lepucki for delivering “powerful portrayals of people desiring connection, hope, and renewal,” and named a top book pick by the East Bay Express. Winner of the Alligator Juniper National Fiction Award and a Pushcart Prize nominee, Laurie’s stories and personal essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Timber, Jabberwock Review, Under the Sun, and many other literary journals. She co-founded the long running literary series Babylon Salon and teaches writing at the San Francisco Writers Grotto and UC Berkeley. Find her online at www.laurieanndoyle.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 we discuss the editing process on macro and micro levels. While Angie gets color and sound ready for her film, Elizabeth exists in a waiting period as equanimical as ever (ha ha), and the Book In A Year course gets underway, editing is on all of our minds. Whether we prefer sentence by sentence editing or big picture, it all eventually needs to be done. A listener asks how to go macro with an edit and get out of the weeds that sentences can become… so we talk about how to take a step back and look the project as a whole, considering theme, logic, premise, etc. Make an outline of your scenes, and then look for causality. Ask what function it serves, what would I lose if it were missing, and why is that scene where it is? While it may not be pretty, sometimes we have to kill our darlings. So take out your book, put on your reading glasses, and ready your chainsaw.

Episode 70: Breaking the Rules - 7 Steps of Editing

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

The Comedy Bible by Judy Carter

Sonoma County Writers Camp - Scene Workshop with Elizabeth Stark and Ellen Sussman from October 10-14

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 we delve into the functions of scene while taking a few detours to touch on apostrophising as well determining what exposition really is. Angie continues to put all of her ducks in a row on her film as the deadline steadily approaches, and Elizabeth is recovering from her most recent novel deadline before launching into the next project. We chat about the relationship between the author and the reader, we give away a few SPOILERS for Angie’s film, and we readily admit how hard the creative process can be at times. Challenge yourself in those areas. It is worth it every time.

San Francisco Writers Grotto

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

“Speech is what people do to each other.” Elizabeth Bowen

Before and After Florence, New York Times Video

On the Page with Pilar Alessandra

The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

The Art of Fiction by John Gardner (The Barn Exercise)

Jeanne Stark and Trailer

Sonoma County Writers Camp - Scene Workshop with Elizabeth Stark and Ellen Sussman from October 10-14

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, we discuss the art of not being subtle as well as the merits of exaggeration. Elizabeth is working towards the deadline of her newest draft by revamping crucial scene, and Angie is working on her new script for a PTA heist. Angie talks about pushing beyond your original idea because sometimes it can give you exactly what you’re looking for. We chat about ballet and how similar that can be to a writer's process, making your art seem effortless. And in these discussions of exaggeration and pushing it further, we look at subtlety as delicious tool instead of the mark of a master.

Wired for Story by Lisa Cron

Russian Ballerino Bad Boy (Sergei Polunin) dancing to modern music

The Art of Fiction by John Gardner (The Barn Exercise)

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz

Learning how to Learn by Barbara Oakley

Sonoma County Writers Camp - Scene Workshop with Elizabeth Stark and Ellen Sussman from October 10-14

Judi Scherrer, advocate for saying "and" not "but"

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.