Podcast Episodes

The Miracle Club: when the hero is also the villain

Season 15 Episode 1505

THE MIRACLE CLUB is a multiple protagonist, miniplot, story. That means that each protagonist is also an antagonist. Sounds cool, right? But how the …

8 months, 3 weeks ago

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She Said: constant characters

Season 15 Episode 1504

Valerie’s focus on the villain’s monologue in She Said was always going to be risky because we’d have to hear Harvey Weinstein's justification but ju…

8 months, 4 weeks ago

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The Mighty Ducks: weak villains

Season 15 Episode 1503

The antagonist drives the middle of a story, so what happens when the antagonist is a really weak character? Well, if you're a filmmaker and can cast…

9 months ago

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How to Avoid a Page-One Rewrite

Season 15

Melanie and I have both had to do page-one rewrites (actually, I've done TWO!!!), and they're not fun. Not fun at all. We want to keep you from suffe…

9 months, 1 week ago

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What A-List Authors Know that You Don't

Season 15

Announcing THE FUNDAMENTALS OF STORYTELLING on-demand course, available now. Visit storynerd.ca/courses and use coupon code CANADA50 for 50% off, now…

9 months, 1 week ago

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Mission Impossible: simple yet solid

Season 15 Episode 1502

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation is a great example of good, straight forward storytelling. Yes, it’s an action movie with big stunts. Yes, you have …

9 months, 1 week ago

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Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3: don't look too closely

Season 15 Episode 1501

It's a brand new season and that means two brand new study topics! In Season 15, I'm studying something called the villain's monologue and Melanie is…

9 months, 3 weeks ago

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Traditional and Indie Publishing Models

Season 14

Authors often ask us for our advice about publishing models and whether traditional is better, or worse, than indie/self publishing. So this week, we…

9 months, 4 weeks ago

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What Went Right: Juror #2

Season 14 Episode 1411

If you're writing a quiet, character-driven story — especially if it deals with questions of morality — Juror #2 is a film you must watch. The storyt…

10 months ago

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What Went Wrong: Ghosted

Season 14 Episode 1410

If you are wondering what kids mean when they say, “It’s cringe” then watch this movie. Otherwise save yourself some time. On paper everything about …

10 months, 1 week ago

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