Catch up on the latest episodes...

Episode 143:The Intersection of Premise and Limiting Belief

Episode 143:The Intersection of Premise and Limiting Belief

Angie is learning about teaching math and either making connections to learning and writing...or developing a unified theory of everything. Elizabeth is in diffuse, “what if” mode, exploring her real values. As they delve into conversation about...

Episode 142:A Non-Fiction Scene from Danzy Senna

Episode 142:A Non-Fiction Scene from Danzy Senna

Today’s episode brings the study of scene to a conclusion with a third scene, this one from Danzy Senna’s non-fiction Where Did You Sleep Last Night? A Personal History. Angie and Elizabeth look at the work an opening scene does in establishing vital...

Episode 140:The Final Scene: Elizabeth Strout

Episode 140:The Final Scene: Elizabeth Strout

After kicking off a series about scene in the last episode, Angie and Elizabeth introduce a specific scene, the final scene in Elizabeth Strout’s short story “The Sign” in her book Anything is Possible. The discussion reviews the criteria established in...

139:Scene It All? What Makes Scene Work

139:Scene It All? What Makes Scene Work

Today’s episode informally kicks off a series where Angie and Elizabeth will be discussing scene, that key unit of storytelling across many formats and genres. As an overview, they present a number of elements of scene, including purpose, new information...

Episode 138: Change in Story and in the World!

Episode 138: Change in Story and in the World!

On today’s episode, Angie and Elizabeth talk about what changes between the ordinary world that starts a story, and the new ordinary world where the characters end up, their limiting beliefs having been utterly challenged, and either changed or tragically...

Episode 134: Salting the Soup: Getting Metaphor Right

Episode 134: Salting the Soup: Getting Metaphor Right

Angie and Elizabeth fumble toward answering a listener’s question about metaphor, at first blaming the heat in their pandemic garage studio, but later, if you will, warming to the topic. They consider whether everyone thinks metaphorically, discuss common...

Episode 131:The Baby and the Bath Water: What to Throw Out

Episode 131:The Baby and the Bath Water: What to Throw Out

In this episode, Angie and Elizabeth consider strategies for staying connected to your creativity in this extreme moment. What’s changed and what hasn’t, and what needs to change? Tools considered include the social urge, countering boredom, writing...

Episode 132: Rule Britannia: the Queen’s Speech

Episode 132: Rule Britannia: the Queen’s Speech

Live from our garage, a day late and a dollar short, in the middle of a global pandemic, Angie and Elizabeth have the following, just for you: An update on middle school math and distance learning; the asymptotic process of editing and how to cooperate...

Episode 131:She’s Got Help: Sheltering in Place

Episode 131:She’s Got Help: Sheltering in Place

Today’s episode asks, how do you find your writing passion while you’re hiding out at home. Routines? Extreme measures? What is called for? Angie and Elizabeth answer a listener’s question. Some of the answers include: doing the part of writing you think...

Episode 129: Giving Notes: What You Need to Know

Episode 129: Giving Notes: What You Need to Know

This week, Angie is cognitively processing while Elizabeth is rereading her manuscript on hardcopy yet one more time. In this episode, Angie and Elizabeth explore whether their newly cleared yard is a metaphor for anything relevant to writing, and...