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After kicking off a series about scene in the last episode, Angie and Elizabeth introduce a specific scene, the final scene in Elizabeth Strout’s short story “The Sign” in her book Anything is Possible. The discussion reviews the criteria established in the last episode and uses these as a framework for analyzing how the scene works, touching on sequence, build, goal, desire, need, want, unexpected outcome, surprise and discovery, change, subtext, complications, secrets and misunderstanding, obstacles, setting, details and action—and where we don’t need detail. It ends by encouraging you to write a scene–and “steal” anything that inspires you to write!
Links in this episode:
“Sonny’s Blues” in Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
“The Sign” in Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
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.