It was a blast to have Angie Kim on the show talking about her now-in-paperback legal mystery MIRACLE CREEK, and rich and compelling, Edgar-award winning book that touches on themes of motherhood, special needs kids, and immigration, as well as a sweeping legal drama and mystery. Her writing is informed by dual backgrounds in law (including an overlap with Obama at Harvard Law School) and theater (“method writing” and first person explorations of character). We talk about revision, especially precision editing, or cutting, which Kim embraces enthusiastically. Lots of juicy insights into the logic of thrillers. Kim didn’t know for a year into drafting who’d done it, going back in to layer suspects, motives, and red herrings. Other topics include rhythmic homage, confessing to the reader, writing comedy (other Angie), and the advantages and importance of getting your voice out via short pieces. After a whirlwind 2-year  tour for the hardback and now a virtual paperback tour (and we compare both modes), Angie Kim is diving back into her second novel this week! You can get a signed paperback of MIRACLE CREEK from her local indie, Scrawl in Reston, VA now.

Links in this episode:

Angie Powers’s Late Night show

Russel Banks The Sweet Hereafter

Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live

Angie Kim Miracle Creek

angiekimask (Instagram)

Angiekimwriter (Twitter)

Angiekimbooks.com (web site)

Visit Scrawl books for signed copies!!

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.

Recorded on Mother’s Day, this episode is about revision and getting notes. After a brief look at the revision process of Angie’s feature screenplay for Lost in the Middle, including a horizontal notebook, other tangible tools, haptic feedback, and table reads, Angie grills, I mean interviews, Elizabeth on receiving and making use of notes. The discussion tries to go step-by-step and includes understanding notes and making them useful, the importance of not exploding at your readers, the power of lists, the possibilities of editorial brackets, and examples of small systems such as one for tracking cuts and pastes. Offering a glimpse into one person’s workflow, the episode extols one underlying principle: do what works for you! Other topics today include the design process and demystifying creativity, frameworks and constraints, the wild what-ifs v. a logistical execution process.

Links in this episode:

Designing for Growth by Liedtka and Ogilvie

Josh Spector “For the Interested” newsletter 

“Don’t Think Outside The Box. Create The Box.”

“How To Start A Creative Project When You Don’t Know Where To Begin”

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 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 and dead metaphors, explore the ways metaphor builds character and visa versa, and touch on the ways every story is a metaphor, and the ways metaphor operates in film. Poetry is extolled as a rich teacher of effective metaphor. Angie and Elizabeth also spend some time improvising bad metaphors and debating spoilers. Other topics include the uncomfortable side of working to deadline while giving up perfection, and the eternal question, Have I done enough?

Links Discussed:

John Cheever “The Swimmer”

Frank L. Baum The Wizard of Oz (Here with Judy Blume introducing it!)

Janet Burroway Writing Fiction

Shakespeare King Lear

Daphne du Maurier Rebecca 

Susan Choi Trust Exercise (now out in paperback!)

Neil Gaiman Art Matters

Curtis Sittenfeld Rodham (out this month!)

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.

Angie and Elizabeth dig into some forms, frameworks and rules that can sustain a creative practice in trouble times, including the practice of freewriting, the three rules that run Elizabeth’s craft classes, and opening and closing rituals. An exercise reminds us of the encouraging tenents of positive discipline. Other power tools include the spirit of experimentation, the impact of literary examples, and the inspiration of having an immediate audience when you write. They also discuss why people apologize for their writing, whether not allowing apologies lowers expectations or raises them, and how we can offer ourselves the structure of a group even when we are alone. And the importance of pushing through resistance, even dread to launch into activities that in the end sustain and enliven us.

Send your comments and questions to questions at storymakersshow dot com

Links Discussed: 

Episode on giving notes 

Natalie Goldberg Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life 

Mary Mackey on Story Makers Show 

Martin Seligman Authentic Happiness

Audiobooks—Libro.fm

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.

On today’s episode, Angie and Elizabeth delve into conflict in crisis, and what we can learn about story--and history--from the moment we are muddling through. They acknowledge that growth can be uncomfortable, and examine what turns conflict into growth. Also examined: grief, archnemeses (who is right for your hero?), how many things can be creative processes (almost everything!), and how many things a book is about (one). Shout outs to the global community of story makers, local papers, frontline workers, and everyone sheltering in place. Action is the antidote to worry. Go do it! Claim what you are doing as your creative work. And don’t miss Earth Day Live online...unless you want to go hug a tree--that’s great, too.

Links in this episode:

Charlie Swanson The Bohemian 

Dorothy Allison

Black Panther

Frozen

Superman

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

The Daily Dose: Feminist Voices for the Green New Deal

Earthday.org

Sbaearthday.com

 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.