The Story Biz Podcast

The Story Biz Podcast

By Chris & BrockArts
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The Story Biz Podcast episodes

  • 32. An Interview with Danielle Hitchens

    Danielle Hitchens had an idea for a book, she found her artist and then lead a successful funding campaign on social media that also resulted in a publisher picking up the book and creating a best selling series.

    18 min
  • How Community Is Key in Tough Times
    Brock and Chris catch up and talk about what has kept their writing and business lives going during tough times. Your hero relies on community to pull them through adversity...and so do you.
    19 min
  • 30: StoryMap Part 7: Tests, Allies & Enemies
    Your hero’s journey of transformation has begun at last and it begins by learning the new rules of this new world. Who are your allies? Who are your enemies? What are the new skills you’ll need to survive? It’s all part of the first scenes of Act 2. Let’s dive in to adventure together.
    17 min
  • 29: StoryMap Part 6: Crossing the Threshhold
    It’s time at last to leave your hero’s ordinary world behind. No more debating. No more delay. It’s Action...and time to throw this story into full throttle. Chris and Brock draw out the moment your story “breaks into two” and ushers your main character into a whole new world.
    20 min
  • 28: StoryMap Part 5 - Meet the Mentor

    Great stories are filled with great characters. One of the most common characters in any story is the Mentor, a must-include character if you’re writing a Hero’s Journey story. In fact, the next step of the Hero’s Journey is Meeting the Mentor. Who is your hero’s Mentor, and how do they challenge them? Meeting the Mentor occurs after the hero has been Called to Adventure and discovered that the task ahead will be incredibly difficult. The Mentor then provides the hero with training (physical, mental, spiritual, or a combination thereof) and often accompanies the hero on the journey. 

    The mentor is frequently an older or “wiser” character no longer able to fulfill the heroic role on his or her own. If you don't have a character in the mentor role yet in your story...it's time you got one!

    15 min
  • 27: Five-Minute Focus: Capturing Inspiration
    Inspiration and ideas don’t always come when we need them. They often come at the most random of times. I have so many ideas for stories I sometimes wonder which ones are worth pursuing. Ideas abound...But if I’m not careful, that is all they will ever be...story ideas are not stories. So how do you capture those moments of inspiration and what do we do with our ideas when they hit us? That’s our five minute focus today.
    9 min
  • 26: StoryMap Part 4 - Refusing the Call

    Refusing the Call is the first step in our character's eventual acceptance of the journey our story will take them on. Our heroine refuses to break out of her shell and go on an unsupervised camping trip with her friends because...well...she just isn't ready for that kind of adventure. The jock blows off the spring play auditions because he's not ready to try something new and set aside his friend's and parent's expectations of who he is. Every decision to leave the ordinary behind comes with a healthy debate of what is really at stake. Give your heroine something to chew on before diving into the adventure, and let us watch her wrestle with it for awhile.


    Download our StoryMap at http://thestorybiz.com and follow along with us.

    22 min
  • 25: Writing Love Stories with Angela Ruth Strong
    We needed help with Valentines Day so we turned to amazing Romance Fiction author Angela Ruth Strong for advice. Learn how to write better love stories, what kind of topes to include or avoid and how to impress your date using these tips from an amazing Romance Novel writer. If you're in need of help this Valentines, look no further than our expert Angela Ruth Strong.
    1 hr 4 min
  • 24: StoryMap Part 3: The Call to Action

    What wakes your character up? What puts them into motion and pushes them to explore something new? This is the Call to Adventure!


    The thing that calls your character from their ordinary world into the world of the story can come in a variety of ways. Like I said, it's a question. So, it might come in the form of someone asking a question. Think of Hagrid showing up to offer Harry a spot at Hogwarts. That someone often becomes a mentor to the MC--Hagrid, Obi Wan Kenobi, the White Rabbit, are all characters who serve as mentors and deliver the question of the Call to Action.

    The call might be internal. A longing inside the hero, like an itch they are compelled to scratch. Dorothy is literally picked up by an act of God and put back down in the special world of her story, but the reason she isn't safe in the storm cellar where she should have been is because she was drawn to run away by an inner longing for something she couldn't find at home. Anyone who watches The Wizard of Oz feels Dorothy's longing when she sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow.


    Let's dive in and explore what makes this moment in your story essential to getting things moving!

    19 min

About The Story Biz Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Your guide to the business of modern day storytelling and StorySELLING. Award-Winning authors Chris Miller and Brock Eastman bring you strait-forward strategies you can put into action today to make your creative writing and sales skyrocket.