Daystar and Alexander discuss the unique aspects of the various mediums of prose fiction, and how new technologies introduce new opportunities and challenges. Timestamps 5:03 Technological limitations 11:01 Conventions 16:45 New Media 19:27 Music 24:45 Subjectivity 31:45 Mediumception
Daystar and Alexander discuss how to plan out and navigate different power dynamics to keep your stories engaging. Time Stamps 0:42 Power in Fiction 3:46 World vs Protagonist vs Antagonist 11:14 New Dimsensions vs Power Creep 14:34 Rationalist Fiction 22:25 Power Differential on a Different Axis 32:55 Powers as Part of Identities 37:01 Protagonist vs Antagonist 47:58 Power in Romance stories
Daystar and Alexander explore brainstorming, and how trope lists, patterns, and symmetry can be used to come up with new takes on old ideas.
Daystar and Alexander explore how to "break the story" when outlining its plot and character arcs. Time Stamps: 00:49 What is Breaking the Story? 5:12 Example 13:38 Character Arcs 28:40 Plot and Endings
Daystar and Alexander review Alex's latest NaNoWriMo book, The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk. Time Stamps: 1:12 Magic Systems 9:18 The Twist 15:53 Spirit Magic 20:47 Potential Sequel 25:17 Plot Threads 28:33 Villain 31:49 The Prophecy
Daystar and Alexander review some of each other's writing, starting with Pokemon: The Origin of Species 3:30 Planning the story 8:36 Present Tense 10:15 Viewpoints 16:39 Goals/Defeats 23:41 Cycles 28:24 Interludes 34:55 Criticisms
Daystar and Alexander are joined by special guest Duncan Sabien (TK17) to discuss multiple perspectives in fiction, including common pitfalls and benefits. 1:30 Archetypes vs Whole Characters 5:34 Choosing Who Gets what Scene 14:45 Shifting Focus and Disorientation 25:06 Different Character Dialogue 35:30 Differentiating Characters
Daystar and Alexander discuss action scenes and how to ensure they're engaging and meaningful. Timestamps: 1:23 Action Scenes in Different Mediums 5:38 What Makes a Good Action Scene 11:22 Avoiding Repetition 17:01 Rational Action Scenes 20:07 Pacing and Flow
Daystar and Alexander discuss literary fiction, its values and failure modes, and its similarities and differences from rational fiction. 01:20 What Qualifies as Literary Fiction? 15:06 Pretentiousness 25: 03 Literary Fiction and Rational Fiction 35:50 Writing Literary Fiction 45:43 Recommendations
Daystar and Alexander discusses the value of new settings opposed to using an established one, and the idea of others using their own stories and ideas. 01:24 Taking Ideas vs Fanfic 7:17 Stealing Mechanics 11:33 The value of something new 19:36 Taking our ideas 27:09 Guardian
Daystar and Alexander discuss creative appropriation, aka "stealing," and the philosophy and benefits behind it. 01:03 How to not be original 11:10 Adding something new 16:01 Stealing details 22:10 The argument against copywrite 28:38 Artistic distinction for using
Daystar and Alexander explore the differences between good description and bad description, and analyze examples of descriptions from novels. Timestamps: 01:16 Why is description important? 8:53 What is good description? 14:40 When to put the description? 22:12 Alexander's notable examples 30:00 Daystar's notable examples Advertisement: This month, the podcast is being sponsored by Scrivener! It's a great program to help better organize writing projects, from novels to research papers and more. ...
Daystar and Alexander explore the differences between GMing a tabletop RPG and writing a story. 01:04 Gaming creds 05:10 Starting a story vs an RPG. 15:50 Railroading 28:36 Players as Characters 35:23 Exposition 37:51 Source Books
Daystar and Alexander explore what makes endings satisfying, effective, or just annoying. 2:41 What makes endings satisfying? 15:23 Alternate endings 18:38 Bad endings 25:56 Ambiguity in endings 32:07 Downer endings 37:58 Endings we've enjoyed
Daystar and Alexander discuss the beginnings of stories, and what goes into an effective or boring start. Time Stamps: 0:35 What's in a Beginning? 5:00 Two Types of Prologues 9:15 The Third Type of Prologue 17:16 So what, if it works? 20:01 How to make the beginning engaging 30:08 Beginnings We've Enjoyed 35:10 Setting Tone
This week, Daystar and Alexander do their first review by comparing the various rationalities and irrationalities of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One, along with general things they liked and disliked about the movies.
Alexander and Daystar discuss Bottom Up Storytelling, bring up common pitfalls to avoid, and explore some homespun examples. Timestamps 00:35 Top Down vs Bottom Up 08:24 Natural Stories in Premises 11:06 Pitfalls in Bottom Up 24:20 Homespun Examples
Daystar and Alexander discuss how authors explore social and political systems through top-down storytelling. Timestamps: 0:25 Top Down World Building 2:29 Science Fiction for Social Commentary 18:41 Top-Down Writing in Our Work 25:30 Fitting Story to Genre 33:28 Tips for Top-Down
Daystar and Alexander discuss the common pitfalls and problems surrounding religious beliefs in fiction, and how to avoid mistakes that can turn off readers, whether religious or not. Time Stamps: 00:31 Personal Backgrounds 05:52 Religion in Fiction 10:05 Real Religions vs Fictional Religions 13:28 Religious or Atheist Strawmen 23:19 The Role of Faith 27:24 The Problem with an Afterlife 31:13 Do's and Don'ts 40:49 Examples
Daystar and Alexander discuss exposition: the good, the bad, and the common pitfalls. Timestamps: 0:45 Exposition vs Narrative 4:38 Bad Exposition 17:00 Exposition as Story Character 18:22 Exposition Timing 24:30 Good Exposition
Special guest Eaglejarl joins Daystar and Alexander to discuss their experiences of the dreaded writer's block, including ways to avoid and get through it. Timestamps 00:52 How does Writer's Block manifest for you? 9:07 Avoiding Writer's Block 20:15 Getting out of Writer's Block 27:20: Everyone Dies
Daystar and Alexander finish discussing serial fiction, namely, chapter length, serial structure, and the need for continuous character growth and new conflicts. Timestamps 00:34 Chapter Length 03:56 Overall Length 6:18 Dangers of Stretching Stories Out 10:06 Serial Structure 12:33 Continuous Character Growth 17:23 Continuous New Conflicts
Daystar and Alexander discuss serial fiction's history, pros and cons, and how to navigate scheduling. Timestamps 0:45 Features and History 10:30 Pros 15:31 Cons 18:14 Transitioning to Publishing 21:00 Scheduling
Daystar and Alexander explore the different types of Multiverse stories, and how to make them compelling and rational. Timestamps: 0:40 Why we enjoy multiverses 5:54 Types of multiverse stories 10:58 Realism of multiverse stories 16:16 Multiverse and Fanfiction 19:53 Bound vs Unbound Multiverses 34:22 Writing Multiverse Stories well
Alexander and Daystar discuss the ways Time Travel manifests in fiction, and the various challenges and story space created by each. Timestamps 0:30 Types of Time Travel 7:00 Static Timelines 13:29 Multiple TImelines 25:54 Ripple Effect 35:21 Hybrids and Opportunities
Daystar and Alexander discuss some of the major problems with prophecies in stories, and ways to potentially avoid the major pitfalls. Timestamps: 1:22 Prophecy as a way of Spoiling Tension 5:56 Creating Conflict 10:35 Developing Characters 11:45 Prophecy Tension 16:45 Predictable Attempts to avoid Prophecy 19:00 Shallow Intrigue 22:10 How to make prophecy work 30:55 Tricking Prophecies 37:03 Conditional Prophecies 39:20 Prophecy in the Real World 47:23 Being Clever in Subversion
Daystar and Alexander go into detail on ways to adjust story structures to more rational stories. Timestamps 00:35 Story structures in rational fiction 7:07 Non-standard endings 14:15 Balancing Endings
Alexander and Daystar explore the different ways of planning out and structuring stories, and give examples of their strengths and weaknesses. Time Stamps 00:37 Story Circles 12:40 TV show structures 20:54 Chapter by chapter planning 24:01 Alternative story structures
Daystar and Alexander explore how to match antagonists against protagonists, how villains should push heroes, and other ways to structure compelling antagonists and conflicts. Stay tuned after the ending music for a book recommendation and our first advertisement! Time Stamps 00:34 Matching Antagonists against Protagonists. 04:08 Fixing Doomsday 6:42 Villains push Heroes 14:49 Reality vs Fiction 20:13 Understanding/Removing Antagonists 23:35 Multiple Antagonists
Daystar and Alexander explore what makes for compelling story antagonists, and discuss some of their favorites. Timestamps 0:34 What Makes an Antagonist? 2:38 Shallow Antagonists 9:06 Favorite Antagonists: Randall Flagg 12:41 Favorite Antagonists: Lex Luthor 17:54 Basics Do's and Don'ts 25:16 Creating Motivations (32:15 Seriously guys please don't blow anyone up) 34:10 Favorite Antagonists: Magneto
