Monthly Archives: February 2022

Season 17, Theory and Technique

17.9: Let’s Talk About Structure

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Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peng Shepherd, and Howard Tayler

We’re beginning another eight-episode deep-dive series, and this time it’s a fresh approach to story structure, led by our guest host Peng Shepherd.

Join us as we zoom right through the overarching frameworks defined via things like the Hero’s Journey, Freytag’s Triangle, Save The Cat, and Seven Point Story Structure  to look at the microstructures  which both define and obscure these general narrative shapes.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:48 — 13.1MB)

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Pick a favorite book with an interesting structure. Can you identify how the author’s chosen structure enhances the tension, plot, and/or character development of the story?

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, by Zoraida Córdova

Season 17, Theory and Technique

17.8: The Alchemy of Creativity

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Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd

How do you translate things from the spark of inspiration into a work that someone else can consume? Like, instead of turning a movie into a book, you’re trying to create a book out of the movie in your head. And what if your “spark” isn’t a movie in your head, but instead a suite of emotions?

In this episode we discuss how we do it. That might not answer the question for you, but hopefully it’s a good start. Alchemy is pretty magical, after all.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

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Choose a scene from a film and write up a “novelization”.

Every Frame a Painting (YouTube Channel)

Career and Lifestyle, Season 17, Theory and Technique

17.7: Dissecting Influence

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Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd

What are your influences? What pieces of art, music, literature, or other media have inspired you? In this episode we’ll talk about making that inspiration deliberate, and consciously learning from our influences.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:39 — 14.4MB)

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Take a slice of something that inspires you (book, movie, art) and break down a list of the specific elements you find appealing.

Hobbes Sakuga : This YouTube channel is a curated collection of the very best cuts of hand drawn animation compiled into category-specific videos.

Career and Lifestyle, Season 17, Theory and Technique

17.6: Hitting Reset Without Getting Hit Back

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Your Hosts: Howard Tayler, Kaela Rivera, Sandra Tayler, and Megan Lloyd

Oh no! You’re in the middle of a thing (a novel, a series, a career) and you suddenly realize that the expectations you set early on are not the expectations you’ll be meeting. What do you do now? ,

We’re talking about how go about resetting audience expectations, whether mid-story, mid-series, or mid-career, including some strategies for communicating “everything is changing now, forget what you know” without making the audience feel like they’ve been betrayed.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:01 — 15.4MB)

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“Eight Expectations” would have been a great title for this eight-episode dive into expectations-as-a-structure, but it would have required a different outline. Your homework? Write up the course outline that Howard couldn’t.

Circle: Two Worlds Connected (Korean TV series)
We’re not sure where you can watch it in your locale, so we gave you the Wikipedia link.