In this week’s episode, a listener asks a question about transitions and pacing, leading to a roving discussion of pacing, logistics, linearity, causality, and intentionality: what is significant—and how do you know? Creating the reader’s experience through character work in both writing and editing, and then trusting character to emerge through necessary scenes allows for the shaping of meaningful transition. Angie and Elizabeth compare and contrast their mothers’ carrot chopping methodologies to demonstrate how character comes through all actions. Other topics include scenes lists, transitions in screenplays versus prose, character expectations, jumpcuts, moments of change, grocery shopping, not working, and quantity versus quality in submissions as in all things, at certain times.

The Op-Ed Project

Devi S Laskar on Story Makers Show: Taking It Day by Day 

Katie Orenstein 

Lily King Writers & Lovers

AS Byatt

Josh Spector’s notes on Seth Godwin’s book

The Practice by Seth Godin

Fried Green Tomatoes film

Call My Agent

The Danish Girl and The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff

Questions? Email questions at storymakersshow.com 

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.