Story Makers Show: Recent Episodes
Book Writing World
This conversation with Aya inspires me every time I hear it--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.
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.
Caille Millner is an award-winning writers across genres, writing memoir, fiction, and, for the San Francisco Chronicle, cultural columns and opinion pieces. When we met, just after the election, she was already collaborating on a list for Bay Area writers of ways to volunteer your writing skills to help people made especially vulnerable by the election.
In this week’s Quick Fix Q & A, Angie and Elizabeth discuss:
6 steps to creating a scene 4 tests for: is it an event? Plot complexity and genre expectations Your personal thematic Decision fatigue Automating your routine
FREE Craft Class
Friends' week is coming up in the Book Writing World, November 15 & 17! Join us in-person in Berkeley OR Online from anywhere via Zoom's video conferencing for a free 2-hour craft class on Backstory--when do you need it, how do you work it in, and what can and can't it do for your story?
You and your friends can sign up here:
http://bookwritingworld.com/friends-week/
Spread the word: it is solely through word-of-mouth that BWW finds its exceptional, talented, warm, bright students. Thank you for being part of our community!
Join our far-ranging, fun and fascinating conversation with Lucy Jane Bledsoe on the occasion of her brand new historical novel, A THIN BRIGHT LINE, based on the true-life story of her aunt.
Kirsty Starkey works as a producer at BBC Radio 4’s acclaimed show Woman’s Hour, “the programme that offers a female perspective on the world.” She researches and develops stories, finds and interviews potential subjects, prepares the presenters for live on-air interviews, and more
We were thrilled to sit down with Book Writing World alum Gretchen Atwood to discuss her newly released book, Lost Champions: Four Men, Two Teams, and the Breaking of Pro Football's Color Line, and get some great tips about balancing research and writing, evaluating and choosing your sources, making use of research to create scene, and where the line between imagination and invention falls in nonfiction.
This week we started a new element in Story Makers Show. Interspersed with the in-depth interviews with authors, filmmakers and industry professionals, we are going to offer brief podcasts that answer your questions about writing
With a deep background in both deadline journalism and mindfulness meditation, Jennifer Mattson teaches classes in getting unstuck that emphasize an acceptance of the cycle of getting stuck and unstuck.
Jean Kawahara is a documentary editor as well as a writer, and she had great insights into the process of shaping real life events into a story.
Joyce has an amazing, important story to tell about an artist, Joyce’s twin sister Judy, who had so much against her--undiagnosed deafness, Down’s Syndrome in a time when differences were institutionalized, and years away from her family--only to find her artistic “voice” when in their middle age Joyce gained guardianship of Judy and brought her to California and to Creative Growth.
Guilt, failure, negative reviews… We dig into the good stuff and the hard stuff with the wonderful Brian Hurley, a publisher, editor and passionate reviewer of books, including what authors need to know going into publishing. We discuss why, when a book wins an award, it's Amazon ratings will actually go down!
We had an inspiring and far-ranging conversation with feminist economist Myra Strober about her new memoir, Sharing the Work:What My Family and Career Taught Me About Breaking Through (and Holding the Door Open for Others). We examined differences between memoir writing, fiction, and academic writing, and how Myra used theme as a filter to shape and cut her memoir.
We broke open the traditional publishing/ self-publishing dichotomy in this conversation, having the most exciting discussion on platform building, purpose, marketing and creativity that maybe we’ve ever had. Nina straddles traditional publishing and self-publishing, doing well in both. Here, we really dig into those worlds and where they meet, where they part, and how they can work together. Nina showed us how to pitch fiction and non-fiction, what it really means to build reach and visibility as an author, and how to get inspired to do it.
Visit: http://www.storymakersshow.com/episode-36-breaking-down-traditional-and-non-traditional-publishing-with-nina-amir to learn more.
It was an honor and a joy to sit down (virtually) with Jabari Asim and talk about just how a man with five children and a big deal job manages to be so productive across so many genres.
Best-selling author of three novels and two story collections, Ann Packer sat down with us to talk about writing for herself on her own schedule, about two different kinds of revision, about having a sense of the emotional shape of a book before she begins.
Adam Wolpert is a painter who blogs beautifully about the creative process, and our conversation began by looking at the moment when you're shifting out of a big a long extended project and finding the next one--something writers certainly face as well. This led into an exploration of the powers of creative constraints, of setting limits on your projects--and the unexpected and deep freedom that produces.
Heather Haggerty and Nanou Matteson are a superteam of film producers who brought us the recent award-winning comedy starring Rita Moreno and previous Story Makers podcast guest Steve Goldbloom. Their film East Side Sushi has also had remarkable success. We dig into the creative side of marketing your art and its connection to your values, about when and how to consider your audience, about keeping your budget small and your quality high.
We had a lively and important conversation with author, publisher and literary curator Peg Alford Pursell, about the publishing landscape and how writers can successfully interact with it. Peg, who runs the popular reading series Why There Are Words, is launching an independent press with the same name.
My conversation with Angie Powers, co-host of Story Makers Show, began with the process and pleasure of telling yourself a story. We discussed what she did and did not get from her MFA program, including an understanding of structure and revision, which led us into the art of revision and the relationship between revision and planning or structure.
We had such a rich and helpful conversation with the multitalented Janis Cooke Newman, author of memoir and novels, editor of the newly launched Technically Literate column of fictional short stories on CNET, and leader of LitCamp. We talked about the isolation of writing and ways to undercut that.
We had a far-ranging conversation with the multi-talented author of the trilogy The Wolf Chronicles, professional developmental and acquisitions editor and now, first-time screenplay writer Dorothy Hearst. She shared how her ideas and inspirations arrive and develop, how science can thicken a plot, negative self-talk (the downfall of many writers), and so much more.
Problems with sound? Extras don’t show up? In this far-ranging conversation with filmmaker Juan Davis, a writer/ director with experience in sound, editing and just about every other area of film, we learn just how projects morph and problems can shape a stronger film in the end. From giving voice to the voiceless and showing a film about terrorism in troubled times to the art of transitions, arc and ambiguity, this conversation will inspire story makers of all stripes.
This was such a helpful and inspiring conversation with new literary agent Jennifer Soloway, who went to grad school with Angie and who shares her journey to becoming an agent, how she fell in love with the work, her process for selecting clients, how to pitch your work, what she looks for, how she edits, and so much more.
Nicholas P. Taylor has an alias. The acclaimed author of two historical novels, Nick took up with mysteries under the name T.T. Monday.
What of the storyteller who stands before a live audience, to entrance, to entertain, to warn, to engage? What can we learn from the most ancient form of story making? Today we talk with acclaimed storyteller--and former psychotherapist--Hari Meyers about the art, archetypes and activism of the storyteller.
This week Angie interviewed Elizabeth, just to get really meta or, you know, narcissistic. Actually, we thought this would be a good way to introduce us to our listeners: Who are these people asking these questions? Why are they so hungry to know everything about story?
In this honest conversation with Meredith Maran, prolific memoirist, book reviewer, novelist and editor of the newly released Why We Write About Ourselves, we dive into the risks of writing a memoir whose story you are still living.
What does it feel like to be an overnight success after 17 years of publishing? In our lovely conversation with novelist, memoirist and essayist Paul Lisicky, we discuss the benefit of low expectations and the liberation of not worrying about having a huge audience followed by the surprise of getting one with his new memoir, The Narrow Door.
What do you get when you cross a novelist and a screenplay writer? An 80 page outline of a movie! Author Jacqueline Luckett always dreamed of her book being turned into a movie, and now a known actress has bought the screenplay.
What do animal tracking and writing have in common? More than you think, as we learn in conversation with Sylvia Lindsteadt, a prolific young author of fiction and non-fiction and a certified animal tracker.
Have things gotten worse for mothers who want the time to write? Former non-fiction editor at Literary Mama, now SF Grotto-ite, solo performer, writer, host of a yearly contemplative creative retreat at Santa Sabina and more, talks about the prohibitions against mothers leaving their children for extended writing retreats, the challenges and process of fielding submissions, time management, juggling projects, navigating Medium.
Janet Harvey brings together savvy from advertising and invests it in indie filmmaking and comic books--and she told us the key to a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Diane Fraser had a remarkable niece, predicted to die in her first week of life who lived through 40 surgeries and more brushes with death but also through wild adventures, seductions and transformations, for almost three decades.
Web series and feature films are all about collaboration, and Florencia, who’s been at the helm of both as a writer/ director, goes into the good, the bad, the ugly . . . and the pleasures of that process, from generating ideas and developing characters to co-writing to getting strong readers to working closely with a trusted editor.
Nina LaCour just finished her fourth YA novel when we sat down to talk about everything from traumatic grad school workshops to tips for getting an agent to the difference between writing under contract and writing before publication.
We had a fascinating conversation with journalist and self-published author of a “long piece” on heterosexual, mixed HIV status couples who get pregnant through sex, Positively Negative.
"Part of your job is to be rejected," Steve Goldbloom says, and offers great inspiration for developing chutzpah and surviving failure and thriving.
Anthony Lucero is the writer/ director of the indie feature hit East Side Sushi, and he joins us to talk about storytelling in film.
Our conversation with Nina takes place as she launches into the writing of a new novel, beginning by exploring whether it is, indeed a novel--or a short story.
Lea Page is a wonderful writer and long-time Book Writing World student whose first book--Parenting in the Here and Now: Realizing the Strengths You Already Have--was recently published by Floris Press.
We met with Carolina just after she sent her work-in-progress to its first, early readers. The main questions she had, she told us, was: is it a book?
Mary is a master of many forms, and we discuss and compare writing screenplays, poetry and novels.
Talking with Meliza Banales is like riding some amazing, brightly-colored roller coaster through the church of creativity.
Rhona Berens is a life coach extraordinaire. We should know--we’ve worked with her, as have many “creatives.” She’s also got a background in film, screenwriting and writing for television, and writes poetry and other forms as well--so she was the perfect guest for Story Makers.
The wonderfully named Indigo Moore is three artists in one--at least. He’s a poet and a playwright who is now writing the screenplay for a play that was optioned for film. (Not to mention that he’s got a high-tech day job we talk about a little bit.)
"I don't get stuck," Jillian Lauren says. She tackles resistance. Pray to write the most mediocre page, she told us. Write through your writer’s block.
Christine is one of those overnight successes that is a decade in the making. Her essay about having a stroke at age thirty-three lead to a two-book contract: a memoir will be out in 2017 followed by a novel in 2018.
Boris is charismatic, one of those charming, larger-than-life, generous-hearted human beings who is also a brilliant writer.