Catch up on the latest episodes...

In today’s theme-park themed episode, we talk about what we can learn from amusement parks about story and more. Topics include the journey of waiting in line, the impact of production design, and creating the whole experience from start to finish using...

We had a terrific conversation with arts organizer, filmmaker, multi-media artists and writer Celeste Chan. We talked about The Queer Ancestors Project and the writing portion of the program for queer and trans youth that Celeste started this year. She...

The fabulous Vicki DeArmon of All Things Book joins us to talk about the publishing industry and what prospective authors need to know to succeed, and how to marshall your resources and see what you can do in the face of the short shelf life,...

It was great to catch up with Marian Palaia from her home in Missoula where she was a day or so away from a final, ready-to-submit to publishers draft of her next novel. We delved into the parts of writing we hate and why, the agony of waiting for a...

In today’s episode, we discuss non-traditional narratives and shaking it all up. Angie reviews the framework of the 7 Steps of Story and the importance of character psychology and the protagonist’s limiting belief in developing plot. Want to break out...

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...

A listener asks how we teach thesis/ antithesis/ synthesis and we tackle that from many angles, beginning with Elizabeth’s Marxist/ Stalinist grandmother, her one-time boyfriend John Howard Lawson, author of Theory and Technique of Playwrighting, and on...

Angie and Elizabeth look at how the busy person (and who isn’t?) makes time, finds time, steals time for writing. How to have your writer’s toolbelt stocked and ready at all times, walking and dictating with app advice, writing while asleep, writing...

Thrillingly, we talked with one of Elizabeth’s favorite story gurus (who would probably reject the title and certainly any authoritarian implications that might attend it), Matt Bird, the author of The Secrets of Story. We talk Game of Thrones and ask and...

Where does your novel start? How do you handle the parts that come before that start that feel relevant to the story? In this episode, we tackle these questions from a listener. We talk about the importance of finishing a draft before you’ll know where it...

We’re back after a long hiatus, and diving in with a topic all writers have to face, the successful most of all: rejection. Elizabeth shares the ups and downs of her publishing trails, and talks about responding to feedback versus holding to your own...

In this conversation with Molly Schulman, aa freelance editor who was the former in-house editor at a New York literary agency, we discuss what it’s like to edit authors such as Elizabeth Strout and Ruth Ozeki, as well as her own experiences as a poet and...

Angie and Elizabeth regroup after Angie’s intensive film production and Elizabeth’s recently completed novel draft to talk about iterations of projects, what to do in between, how to juggle vision v. footage/ pages, and the importance of knowing what you...

Our dear friend and talented writer Devi Laskar’s first poetry chapbook, Gas & Food, No Lodging, has just been published, and we celebrate with a far ranging converstaion about language v. narrative poetry, ad how story influences the organization of...

In this episode we get into the books we loved in college. Ecstasy ensues as we revisit Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldua, Jeanette Winterson, June Jordan, Adrienne Rich, Nikki Giovani and others who changed us, stretched us, challenged us, enraptured us. We...

Angie and Elizabeth discuss auditions, revision, our autobiographies in books part 2, balancing collaboration with your individual vision, getting feedback in film v. in prose, influence and the sharing of ideas, articulating your vision and trusting your...

"Mystery has really broadened its umbrella to include a lot of very complicated story telling. And I am happy to be under that umbrella. " – Heather Young Edgar first mystery nominee Heather Young, author of the wonderful novel THE LOST GIRLS, confesses,...

This podcast asks, "What does it take to let your imagination be as free as it needs to be to create story?” We touch very briefly on some traditional means of accessing the imagination, such as drinking, drugs, and writing naked... Somehow this leads us...