What makes a good story? Interview with EJ Carroll

EJ Carroll is a children’s book author and a student of narrative and story. In this interview we read one of her beautiful stories called ‘Eggs’ and explore what makes a good movie narrative. Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/egrG-Ny9bBo ------------------------------- FOLLOW EJ https://ejcarroll.com https://www.instagram.com/ejcarroll https://www.facebook.com/ejcarroll DISCERNABLE Our Private Community: discernable.locals.com The Crew Mailing List: https://discernable.io/crew The Video Archive: https://www.youtube.com/discernable The Podcast: http://discernable.io/listen ------------------------------- 2:15 EJ Reads her children’s story: Eggs 12:11 The meaning behind the book 13:26 The moral of a story should not be the goal 17:10 How to craft a story 22:08 Should stories be more Disney-like or closer to reality? 26:00 Movie hits and misses 29:21 The Matrix 31:24 The Big Short – Learning facts through comedy 33:57 After Life and The Invention of Lying - subconscious morals without compromising creativity 36:48 Inception – do stories need a conclusion? 39:31 EJ’s other books 42:17 Don’t preach at people! 44:21 The 20% High Spirited Child 52:34 Songbird – Covid 23 53:08 Matt’s disdain for untethered reality 56:29 Don’t talk down to your audience 1:00:34 Awkward Yeti Comics 1:03:37 Chasing the heights of emotion 1:05:15 The nervousness that comes with being real 1:06:34 Matt’s gets real 1:08:32 Kids need risky play! The 6 forms of risky play 1:14:45 EJ gets real 1:20:31 Float Tanks and Shakti Mats