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Today we are answering a listener question about making ordinary actions significant in a story–the moments such as having dinner v. the moments of jumping off a bridge to save your own life. What makes readers care? What makes readers pay attention? We dig the importance of character: character change, character reaction to the given events, and the breaking of a character’s cardinal rules. We examine the roles stakes and history play in making a moment matter. Cliche, expectation and subtext feature as factors. And we muck about in Elizabeth Strout’s brilliant short story “The Sign,” from her linked collection/ novel ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Angie asks, How do you chose the detail that signifies?
Other topics include:
the courage to make/ let a lot happen on the page.
ways to fill the well, including artist dates, inspiring websites, and shaking up your own routine
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.