In the fourth episode in the Plot season of Elements, I talk to Doug Dillaman about plot and narrative and what it is to write it.

There are four seasons in the Elements series. We’ll be talking about Plot until June. I realised now I used the word ‘Plot’ because I liked the way it sounded with ‘Place’. When I talk about plot what I mean is how a story works. I’m talking about things like narrative and structure but also, something more basic than that – ideas like, Why are some of the world *in* the story and why are some *not in* it? What makes a story ‘finished’? What does a story need to do to make us satisfied?

Some of the things we talk about are:

Formula 1: Drive to Survive is a Netflix Original series which you can read about here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_1:_Drive_to_Survive

Doug’s film You Could Have Seen The Mona Lisa is showing at the 2021 Doc Edge Festival 4-11 June https://festival.docedge.nz/film/you-could-have-seen-the-mona-lisa/

Doug’s podcast which he makes with Steve Skeet and Darren Waugh is Ludicrously Specific

https://www.stitcher.com/show/ludicrously-specific

Doug’s feature is Jake and you can read about it and find out how to see it here:

http://www.jakethemovie.com/

Doug is on Twitter https://twitter.com/dillamonster

Exercise:

Think of a scene, or take a scene you have already written. Now tell it in the following ‘shots’: Drone Shot Fly-over, Establishing Long Shot, Mid-shot, Close-up, Close-up, Mid-shot, Establishing Long Shot, Drone Shot Fly-over. You could even storyboard it.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or listen to it here:

In the fourth episode in the Plot season of Elements, I talk to Laura Vincent, Ngāti Māhanga, about plot and narrative and what it is to write it.

There are four seasons in the Elements series. We’ll be talking about Plot until June. I realised now I used the word ‘Plot’ because I liked the way it sounded with ‘Place’. When I talk about plot what I mean is how a story works. I’m talking about things like narrative and structure but also, something more basic than that – ideas like, Why are some of the world *in* the story and why are some *not in* it? What makes a story ‘finished’? What does a story need to do to make us satisfied?

Laura chose two of her poems to talk about, you can read them here:

ACTIVITIES by Laura Vincent, The Friday Poem in The Spinoff https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/12-07-2019/the-friday-poem-activities-by-laura-vincent/

Anecdotal happiness by Laura Vincent, The Friday Poem in The Spinoff https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/10-01-2020/the-friday-poem-anecdotal-happiness-by-laura-vincent/

Some of the things we talk about are:

We talk about the work of Billy Wilder in particular his film Ace in the Hole: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043338/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_33

Laura blogs at Hungry and Frozen https://hungryandfrozen.com/ where you can also find Laura’s Patreon.

Other good places to find Laura are:

Twitter https://twitter.com/HungryandFrozen

Intragram https://www.instagram.com/hungryandfrozen/

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hungryandfrozen

Isochronic tones – you can listen to a selection of these here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrpFW99zAUaJT8cKmqeagkg/featured

Laura says: “This is the video I use the most for short bursts of Getting Work Done but I try to mix it up so my brain doesn’t get too used to any one sound. Also this one is weirdly such a bop once it gets going, like I would absolutely dance in the club to it.”

Exercise:

We start off talking about lists. I am very in love with this type of narrative structure. Could you take a story you know well and write it as a list of objects? Or a list of emotions? Or a list of people in the room? When you have this list, try to write something knew from it.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

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To raise awareness, and hopefully some money, for the Wellington Rape Crisis Annual Appeal we live-streamed this episode of Better off Read on Sunday 2 May at 8.00 pm.

I talked with M. Darusha Wehm about their work with a special focus on narrative and plot. I’m particularly excited to talk to Darusha about their new work The Qubit Zirconium a riotous science fantasy novel from the smash hit game, KeyForge.

We don’t talk directly about sexual violence in this live-stream, but I do talk at the start of the episode, in a general way, about the work Wellington Rape Crisis does.

You can watch the livestream on PIp’s YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yazbjVRKrqE&t=215s

You can donate to Wellington Rape Crisis at https://wellingtonrapecrisis.org.nz/donate-now/

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or listen to it here:

In the second episode in the Plot season of Elements, I talk to Dan Kois about plot and narrative and what it is to write it.

There are four seasons in the Elements series. We’ll be talking about Plot until June. I realised now I used the word ‘Plot’ because I liked the way it sounded with ‘Place’. When I talk about plot what I mean is how a story works. I’m talking about things like narrative and structure but also, something more basic than that – ideas like, Why are some of the world *in* the story and why are some *not in* it? What makes a story ‘finished’? What does a story need to do to make us satisfied?

Dan chose a sound mixing board as the object for our discussion about plot. We talk about the mixing board in this video

Some of the things we talk about are:

You can read about Dan’s novel Vintage Contemporaries here https://www.dankois.com/vintage-contemporaries

We talk about Laurie Colwin’s book Happy all the Time https://www.lauriecolwin.com/books

Jenny Offill’s Department of Speculation https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/14/dept-speculation-review-jenny-offill

Exercise:

Take a narrative you know well – it could be a TV commercial or a fairy tale – something relatively simple. Now write the narrative in three minutes. Now write the story following one of the other characters (you could make up another character). Then try this again, write the story following another character. The final step of this exercise is to turn these stories up and down – as if you had a mixing desk. You could literally cut up the sentence in each point of view and arrange them on a table or floor. What happens? You could obviously do this with some of your own writing – a scene, short story or poem.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or listen to it here:

In the first episode in the Plot season of Elements, I talk to Ingrid Horrocks about plot and narrative and what it is to write it.

There are four seasons in the Elements series. For the next three months we’ll be talking about Plot. I realised now I used the word ‘Plot’ because I liked the way it sounded with ‘Place’. When I talk about plot what I mean is how a story works. I’m talking about things like narrative and structure but also, something more basic than that – ideas like, Why are some of the world *in* the story and why are some *not in* it? What makes a story ‘finished’? What does a story need to do to make us satisfied?

Some of the things we talk about are:

Ingrid’s new book is Where We Swim published by VUP https://vup.victoria.ac.nz/where-we-swim/

Ingrid wrote a great piece for The SpinOff about reading during a pandemic and you can read that here https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/28-03-2021/the-climate-crisis-is-seeping-into-books-and-making-them-really-really-weird/

In this episode we talk about two chapters in Where We Swim. You can read excerpts of these here:

‘On the Amazon’ https://www.newsroom.co.nz/readingroom/on-the-amazon

‘Days Bay’ http://www.ninthletter.com/horrocks

Toward the end of the conversation we talk about a paper Ingrid and Dr Laura Jean McKay are teaching at Massey called ‘Eco-fictions and Non-Fictions’. Here’s a poster for that course:

Exercise:

I really enjoyed the way Ingrid talked about crafting true events. I wonder if it would be interesting to keep your own ‘log’ for a week. Maybe set aside 5 minutes to free write about the day. You also might like to keep a link from the front page of a NEWS site for each day. At the end of the week you could see if there are any events that could be used to sort the work into a narrative. What would you focus on/pay more attention to in your next week of keeping logs? What would you pay less attention to? This could be an interested exercise to keep going for a month or so. You could either do your crafting as you go, or look at the log at the end of the month and see if it can be shaped.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or listen to it here:

In the sixth episode in the Place season of Elements, I talk to Ann Shelton about place and what it is to write it.

Some of the things we talk about are:

You can see and read about Ann’s work at her website https://annshelton.com/

Including ‘The Witch’ https://annshelton.com/works/a-lovers-herbal

A Lovers’ Herbal can be viewed on the Denny Dimin Gallery website here  —  https://dennydimingallery.com/news/virtual_exhibition/ann-shelton-2/

One important thing to note, because of the nature of Ann’s work is that the plants discussed in these texts, and their uses, can be dangerous, even lethal. These texts are presented here as background research for a body of artworks and should not be interpreted as medical advice. Do not mess with these plants.

Toward the end of the podcast we talk about New York being in lockdown for a year, we just want to acknowledge that New York was in varying degrees of lockdown over this time.

Exercise:

Ann talks about starting with a plant and composing around it. I wonder if this could be an interesting way to start a piece of writing. You could find out about the uses of a plant you see every day. Or you could start with a physical condition and find a plant associated with this. Then free write.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or listen to it here:

In the fifth episode in the Place season of Elements, I talk to Kerry Donovan Brown about place and what it is to write it.

Some of the things we talk about are:

Kerry’s essay ‘Queer Debris: A personal essay on queer love and loneliness in response to Sam Duckor-Jones’s People From The Pit Stand Up and Chris Tse’s he’s so MASC.’
https://pantograph-punch.com/posts/queer-debris

Exercise:

Kerry talks about how we can make things that are internally dramatic outwardly expressed in place/setting/world. You could think of a thing that is dramatic internally – an emotion, a memory, an idea – and express it as landscape.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or listen to it here:

In the fourth episode in the Place season of Elements, I talk to Charlie Pearson, Helen Lehndorf and Marolyn Krasner about place and what it is to write it. This episode was recorded the morning after their incredible show From the 4410 to the 4412.

Some of the things we talk about are:

Snails: Artist run spaces is an amazing place in Palmerston North you can visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/snailsartistrunspace/

Marolyn has an amazing website where you can find out more about her book The Radicals https://www.marolynkrasner.com/

Exercise:

What happens when you introduce imaginary people into a place you live in? Choose an imaginary person – it could be a character you devised, it could be an imaginary person from TV or books. Now put that person in a place you live or know well. It could be where you’re sitting right now. Free write for as long as you want. Try not to lift your pen. Introduce another person. Make them have a fight.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or listen to it here:

In the third episode in the Place season of Elements, I talk to Rose Lu about place and what it is to write it.

Some of the things we talk about are:

All Who Live on Islands by Rose Lu which is published by VUP https://vup.victoria.ac.nz/all-who-live-on-islands/

The Radio New Zealand adaptation of Rose’s book All Who Live on Islands https://www.rnz.co.nz/collections/readings/all-who-live-on-islands-by-rose-lu

The Kāpiti Writers Retreat run by Writers Practice https://writerspractice.nz/

I talk about ‘an artist’ – that artist is the amazing Julian Oliver. The lecture I am talking about is this one from 2017 “TX/RX: Spectrum and the City” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9UIEnxlw5k&t=429s

Exercise:

What does it feel like to use an object to write about place. Look around, pick up the first you-sized object you see. Now write about place through this object. Perhaps start with the sentence, ‘I am in the [object name]…’.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or listen to it here:

In the second episode in the Place season of Elements, I talk to Victor Rodger about place and what it is to write it.

At the end of this episode Victor and I talk about the amazing work Rūrangi which is screening in New Zealand from 4 February. You can read more about Rūrangi at rurangi.com

Exercise:

Victor talks about how he changed the location of the bar Club Paradiso is based on. What happens if you take a place you know well and move its location? You could place yourself in this newly located place and have a look around. Write for 3 minutes.

Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Better off Read is available on iTunes and Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or you can listen to it here: