Today we tackle two topics: time management for writers, and which parts of a story should be told in scene. We discuss the process of identifying priorities and values, and touch on a cognitive behavior model Angie found inspirational. On the topic of scene, we delve into a deeper understanding of what show, don’t tell really means, the ways the montage is equivalent to prose summary, and the basic grammar of film and on-the-page storytelling, and offer some tips for writers working with this question.

Links Discussed:

CreativeLive/ Laura Vander Kim

Rhona Berens episode

Sere Halverson

Annie Dillard

Directory of Time Banks

Alice Laplante 

Sula by Toni Morrison

Adaptation's Evolution of a Screenwriter

Orson Welles Citizen Kane

Toni Cade Bambara

Han Kang The Vegetarian

Sonoma county writers camp

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, 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.

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.

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

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 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.