139:Scene It All? What Makes Scene Work

Today’s episode informally kicks off a series where Angie and Elizabeth will be discussing scene, that key unit of storytelling across many formats and genres. As an overview, they present a number of elements of scene, including purpose, new information and forward movement of the story, character’s desire, and an acute focus on significant detail and action the two discuss. They are fans of scene and illuminate the power of scene, of moving from abstractions and generalizations to vivid action in your revisions. In addition, they discuss voting, videos, deadlines, focus and exploration, linearity v. simultaneity, and pre-writing time--how much is enough? Links in this episode: Angie’s one-minute voting video Samantha Bee Ann Napolitano Dear Edward Brandon Taylor Real Life Lily King Writers & Lovers Adaptation film Susan Orlean The Orchid Thief Uta Hagen Respect for Acting James Baldwin “Sonny’s Blues” in Going to Meet the Man John Gardner The Art of Fiction 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.