Today’s podcast is all about growth mindset, from the very beginning checking in about what they are working on. Angie is learning a lot as she re-created the Book in a Year curriculum videos, and Elizabeth teaches best when she is at her own edge. Brain plasticity is the topic, and how it applies to writers, filmmakers and other artists. They dig into giftedness v. the trainable brain. “You,” Angie proclaims, “could become the writer of your dreams.” It’s a matter of practicing to be better in your chosen field, expanding your brain’s capacities. Struggle is a key component to learning and growing, so find your challenge, your edge, look for it, and enjoy it. They touch on parenting as an art where struggle is a key component, and look at the power of being internally driven. They mention a tool they advocate: writing a letter to self about your book before getting input from others. Elizabeth claims that the theories and science Angie lays out would make a good Pixar film, a follow up to Inside Out but about neurology rather than emotions. You heard it here first.

Links Discussed:

Jo Boaler Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers

Carol Dweck Mindset: the New Psychology of Success

Nassim Nicholas Taleb Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Daniel Coyle The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.

Light This Location Contest

The Golden Girls

Writing advice was from https://twitter.com/Massawyrm

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.

Today on the show, Angie and Elizabeth discuss burnout--what it feels like, where it comes from, whether it matters where it comes from, what to do about it, if there is anything to do about it, and more. What is productivity and how are we managing it? Are the things we are checking off our to do lists the things we want to check off our bucket lists? Included in this episode: permission to set boundaries, take time off, say no, go outside, work with your hands, read and rest. The curative properties of the real, sensual world. Being unapologetically emotional.

Links Discussed:

Donna Tartt

Tiny Love Stories

Film: More Beautiful for Having Been Broken

Writers on Writing podcast interview with Ann Patchett

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.

A listener asks about setting up expectations and then defying them in the use of scene. This leads to a deep dive into expectations--how turning them, upturning them, overturning them is what story is all about. Patterns and meaning. Why story relies on expectation, why we seek learning and when we seek novelty, what motivates us and our characters and our readers. Elizabeth and Angie touch on the difference between an action’s being out of character versus reflecting a character change. They also get into the art and suffering of submitting manuscripts, the professionalism of collecting rejections, the importance of getting feedback in a timely fashion--and the role of submission and rejection in that loop. Wrestling with the math around submissions and success, they decide to launch a contest between them--and open to Story Makers Show listeners--to complete and submit a short story by the next podcast. This episode also points to theme as a sandbox, creating parameters in which to play with and juxtapose ideas.

Links Discussed:

Ira Glass This American Life

Italo Calvino on classics

The Bible

Joyce Carol Oates Masterclass trailer

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.