The Story Telling Podcast » STP Podcast Episodes

This week Z. C. and Garrett's new series, Realm Keepers, released! It's available for pre-order at http://therealmkeepers.com. We talked a bit about it, but we didn't want to dominate the whole episode with the series again like we did last week, so eventually we moved on to: ADAPTATIONS We talked adaptations. Books to film, video games to film, film to books, film to movies, etc. Give the episode a listen, or watch it on YouTube here:

In this episode of blatant self-promotion, we were supposed to talk about something. I'm sure we were. Adaptations, maybe? But instead, Zach and I monopolized the entire conversation and cockteased our new series, Realm Keepers. We talked about how it was coming out, when it was coming out and the release strategy. We didn't even mention Adaptations. I'm afraid if you don't like self-promotion, you'll be annoyed by this episode. But try to look at it this way: we're SO PSYCHED for this series. UPDATE: The first episode of Realm Keepers is available for FREE right now! You can download it at this link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWK765M/. Give the episode a listen, or check out the video right here:

So, you wanna talk about off-topic? This episode is ostensibly about writing science fiction. Actually, it devolved into a discussion about our favorite science fiction books and films—during which time we completely neglected to talk about The Matrix. Ah well. It's still got entertainment value. Give it a listen, won't you? Or watch the YouTube video here:

Continuing our "genre-a-week" series, this week we discussed Fantasy: what it is, how to write it, and all the different forms it takes. FANTASTIC We came to a general consensus that fantasy primarily has to explain things that can't be explained by physical laws; in other words, things that are supernatural or magical. TIMELINE Thing with fantasy is it can take place anywhere and in any time. There's historical fantasy, epic fantasy, contemporary fantasy, futuristic fantasy (Star Wars, anyone?). THE FANS The live audience interaction on this show was off the charts, and while it did somewhat distract us during the actual broadcast, it was well worth it for the Twitter shitstorm that followed, and I'm extremely proud to endorse a little podcast that should be starting next week, hosted by Carl Sinclair, where they will do a follow-up podcast...ABOUT this podcast. Sound dumb? We all agreed, Carl included—BUT IT ALSO SOUNDS TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME. Give it a listen, won't you? Or watch the video here:

In what was hailed as "probably the best episode to come out of this piece of shit show" by our fans, we had an interesting and in-depth discussion about writing Young Adult. Including what that even means these days. From Twilight to Harry Potter to everything else, we covered it all: What you shouldn't do What you mustn't do What you SHOULD do What you can do if you want I actually found the discussion super-enlightening, and I hope you will, too. Give it a listen, won't you? Or watch the YouTube video here:

On this Very Special Episode™ of the Story Telling podcast, we had on Jim Kukral, founder and CEO of authormarketingclub.com. Author Marketing Club is now sponsoring the podcast, which we're SUPER excited about, and they've released a new Premium Membership Package that should have any indie authors out there salivating and/or pooping their pants. AMC HISTORY Author Marketing Club has been around for a year and a half, and during that time they've offered a ton of free marketing tools for indie authors. They've never had a premium membership before now, because Jim's been working on developing the tools that authors actually need and want, and to do that he's needed to build contacts with as many authors as possible. Now, the tools are out, and they are AWESOME. ENHANCED DESCRIPTIONS This tool gave us all writer-boners. It automatically HTML programs your Amazon description to look totally kick-ass. This is major, because Amazon descriptions have a tendency to look all the same, and this will give you a leg up on the competition. REVIEW GRABBER This tool deflated our writer-boners rather quickly, but only because they were suddenly...emptied. This tool lets you look for similar books to yours (or books that you would maybe like to be compared to) AND ACTUALLY CONTACT THE TOP REVIEWERS WHO GAVE THOSE BOOKS POSITIVE REVIEWS. Yes, this is incredible. EVEN MORE! There were so many things in this release that we just couldn't get to them all. Check out the episode for more details, but the best thing to do is to head over to authormarketingclub.com and become a Premium member TODAY.

This week on the Story Telling Podcast we talked about the different character types, the archetypes that populate most every story in the world, from the most epic sci-fi and fantasy tales to more contemporary, literary fiction. You'd be surprised where you can find the most "typical" character types, even in the least typical stories in the world! Give it a listen or watch the YouTube video here:

The lastest Story Telling Podcast is out! This week the subject was "Show, Don't Tell," or how to reveal plot, character and story in your books and films without getting into a lot of exposition or hokey dialogue. NINJABREAD MAN Ninjabread Man, the totally awesome new story Zach and Garrett wrote after our brainstorming session, is going to be available Tuesday, 14 May. You should be super excited about this—we are! GARRETT UPDATE Garrett has escaped from The Man! That's right, he no longer has a full-time job and is working as a writer and editor full time. Be happy for him! Also, buy his books. Continuing his lifestyle depends on keeping his income up. If you're an independent author, check out the editing services he offers at his website: garrettbrobinson.com/editing. Give the episode a listen or watch it on YouTube here:

In this episode, Cristal had to bow out because it was late and she was too tired to join us (she's got a bit of an excuse, what with the pregnancy and all). Zach and I took the opportunity to brainstorm Ninjabread Man Part 2 and 3. Much hilarity ensued, with more gut-busting laughs by Garrett and some awesome ideas flowing in all directions. The sequels to Ninjabread Man will be every bit as awesome as the original (which comes out soon and is SO. FUCKING. AWESOME). Give it a listen or watch the YouTube video here:

This week we had on our second guest EVER, an outstanding gentleman who goes by the name Ed Ditto. (Sources tell us he goes by that name because that's what his name is). Ed runs a great blog over at edditto.com where he has TONS of resources for indie authors in terms of technology, marketing advice and formatting tips and tricks for the online author. Ed discussed with us the technique of studying art as an artist. We went into scene breakdowns, a fantastic director's tool by which you can learn lessons from the great filmmakers and apply them to your own art: similarly, Ed revealed his method for breaking down a novel in the same manner and becoming a better writer for it. Give the episode a listen. Also, check out these fiction and nonfiction titles by Ed:               Check out the episode on YouTube here:

This week we did a LIVE brainstorming session of a book that Zach and Garrett are now co-writing! It's hilariously titled "The Ninjabread Man," and it totally kicked ass. Absolute hilarity ensued as we discussed Grape Gangs, a past love with Tinkerbell, manic drunken Scottish pixies, and more. Check out the podcast to enjoy all of the hilarity (and hear Garrett nearly burst a blood vessel laughing). EDIT: Thanks, Crissy, for reminding me to link The Wee Free Men in the show notes! Give the episode a listen and subscribe in iTunes, or watch the video here on YouTube:

Cristal returned to us this week, which means that this show was spoiler-rich. As Cristal loves to say: "I love spoiling alerts." We discussed plot devices, how they can be used, and how they should not be used. Turns out that any plot device you can think of has an appropriate as well as an inappropriate application (yes, even the infamous deus ex machina). I also mentioned a truly excellent article for compiling books for CreateSpace using Scrivener, which you can find at this link: http://edditto.com/how-to-publish-a-manuscript-from-scrivener-to-createspace/ Give it a listen or go subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, or watch the episode here on YouTube.

This episode started off with a bang! Well, more like with a low, depressed moaning. Cristal couldn't make it to the recording tonight (curse that woman!) and so fellow indie author David Wright came through for us, filling in the gaping hole that Cristal left wide open! (giggity) It's almost a statistical certainty that you know who David is already. In case you don't, he's one of the hosts of the Self Publishing Podcast and also the author of Yesterday's Gone, WhiteSpace, Available Darkness and a whole host of other titles with his writing partner (and life partner) Sean Platt. Dave has earned himself an undeniable, globally recognized and well-respected reputation as "that guy," and brought his own unique brand of available darkness to this episode. Also, Garrett shamelessly plugged himself (off camera, since it's YouTube) and mentioned that Hit Girls Episode Two came out this week. BACK ON TOPIC So, anyway, this week we were talking about what makes terrible stories terrible. Not gonna lie, we spent a vast amount of time talking about M. Night Shyamalan (cursed be Devil) and Birdemic. But, with Dave around, the hilarity flowed fast and loose. Check out the full episode below.

We didn't feel like we got enough time in Episode 3 to cover all the different aspects of developing a character, so we tackled it again this week. We started off the episode with shameless self-promotion, as usual. Garrett announced the release of his latest book, the serialized novel Hit Girls. You can get it by clicking on that link. Zach got his Library of Congress number for Danny Calloway and the Puzzle House, and said he was doing a step-by-step writeup of it. As of press time, it still wasn't up on his website. What a dick, right? We delved into characters and all the ways to make them great (or not so great). We discussed antiheroes as a subsection of protagonists, the differences between characters who made no decisions and characters who made bad decisions, and went over some of our favorite developed characters of all time. Check out the episode for the full DL.

The third episode of the Story Telling Podcast has released! The crew got into the fine art of developing characters and how to go about it. First off, of course, we talked about how fucking awesome our last episode was (apparently we're all narcissistic fuckheads, and you should probably stop listening to us now). NAMES We spent, actually, an inordinate amount of time talking about character names, and how name origins, meanings and what the name evokes in your reader's mind all affects the development and growth of your character. It was revealed that Cristal, in fact, hates The Hunger Games. In fact, we talked about this too much and Garrett soon got Zach and Cristal to bail and actually get into, you know, DEVELOPING your character. CHOICES Undoubtedly one of the most important influences on your characters is the choices they make in the story, and we went over a variety of choices you can make that will influence your characters' growth. VILLAINS One of the best ways to make a great hero is to have a great villain, and we talked about great villains of past times, why they worked, and how you can take that data and use it on the villains in your own story. We all named our own favorite villains of all time (SPOILER ALERT: Cristal's is Cruella DeVille). Cristal also advised our listeners to kill themselves TWICE in this podcast, which doesn't seem like such a great idea, and I feel the need to stress again, we do not condone this behavior. Give it a listen here or subscribe via iTunes via the sidebar. You can watch it on YouTube here: