Select Page
Episode 52:Creative Arrogance and the Cult of Done

Episode 52:Creative Arrogance and the Cult of Done

Today, Angie and Elizabeth discuss arrogance as a necessary component to creating something from nothing--what does it take to create? What gives you permission? What gives you cojones?

Ideas include:

  • Focusing on creating a body of work
  • Sitting with discomfort
  • Faking it and taking action
  • Apprenticing yourself to others you admire
  • Wearing the master’s hat
  • Embodying success
  • Pretending you know what you are doing
  • Imagining your ideal reader

We also read through and talk about The Cult of Done Manifesto. What does it take to finish?

 

Links

10 Minute Writers Workshop 

Jonathan Lethem

Rhona Berens episode 

Shy girl by Elizabeth Stark

Dennis Johnson

Maggie Nelson

Argonuats

The Oz Books on Indiebound   

The cult of done manuscript 

Todd Henry 

Ira glass on the gap between our aesthetic and our capabilities 

Sonoma county writers camp website

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.

Episode 51: Creative and Political Action: an inspirational guide to momentum for the writer

Episode 51: Creative and Political Action: an inspirational guide to momentum for the writer

This conversation with Aya still inspires me--it is a necessary look, for writers, at what we can do to effect political change, as well as a motivating look at structure, deadlines, and momentum. Aya gives us a view into the experience of having a commercial publisher and four books under contract, and her thoughts on the pros and cons and consequences of literary apartheid between literary and commercial fiction. And then we talk politics, progressive politics for the era that is being inaugurated tomorrow. This is a vital, must-hear talk to get your hopes up and your pen into action--creative and political action.

 We also discuss
  • the hero's journey
  • genre expectations
  • outlining and organizing
  • second drafts
  • scenes and plots
  • sexy feminism
  • the black girl spy novel
  • writing quickly

 

Links:

Poetry for the People UCBerkeley

NaNoWritMo

Robin Benway

Ally Carter

The Hero's Journey as described by Christopher Vogler

Linda Villarosa

Jewel Gomez

George Lakoff (re terms of the conversation)

Steve Phillips Brown is the New White.

Life after life by Kate Atkinson


Aya de Leon

Aya de Leon

Aya de Leon directs the Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley. Kensington Books published her debut feminist heist novel, Uptown Thief, in July 2016 and will publish the next book in the series The Boss in June 2017. Her writing and performance work have received acclaim in the Village Voice, Washington Post, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, SF Bay Guardian and the East Bay Express. A graduate of Harvard College, with an MFA from Antioch University, Aya has been an artist in residence at Stanford University, a Cave Canem poetry fellow, and a slam poetry champion. She publicly married herself in the 90s, and from 1995 to 2012 hosted an annual Valentine’s Day show that focused on self-love. She has written for for various media outlets such as xojane, Ebony, Huffington Post, Guernica, Huffington Post, Reductress, Essence, Writers Digest, Bitch Magazine, Racialicious, Fusion, Quartz, and The Toast. She also blogs and tweets about culture, gender, and race. Visit her at @ayadeleon.

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.

Episode 52:Creative Arrogance and the Cult of Done

Episode 50: Does Art Require an Audience?

Angie and Elizabeth discuss the pros and cons of the dictum to write everyday, the benefits and drawbacks of social media to the writer/ creative type, and whether art requires an audience.

Links Discussed:

Finding Vivian Maier documentary

From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler

Our podcast episode interview with and  Packer

Samantha Bee

The Daily Show

Pilar Alesandra

Tim Ferris/ Tools of the Titans

Meg LeFeuve Personal thematic

 

 

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.