Once upon a time, there were two guys who worked for a massive bank. These two guys wrote mortgage procedures — because they found the world of tech writing that exciting. They had an idea — they both found themselves saying:
We should do a podcast together!
And so, after completing a project to keep Uncle Sam from fining the ever-living-hell out of the big bank for not having certain procedures in place — and after the layoffs arrived — these two recorded their first podcast. And now, just one week away from episode 100, they have recorded this episode…one all about one of their favorite things: storytelling!
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We begin this episode with a trip to the past, recalling the first stories we ever remember hearing. From there, we move on to talking about the first stories we remember making up and writing.
We’d argue that stories are vital to being human. We discuss why people feel such a drive to tell stories…and then we talk about whether we prefer stories told to us by others in person…or crafted stories meant to entertain or enlighten.
Stories are so common that many of us don’t even stop to think about them. We share some of the benefits storytelling has on society before talking about some of our all-time favorite stories. After that, we talk about whether or not some stories inherently have more merit vs. other kinds of stories (e.g. literary fiction over genre fiction).
Want to know our feelings about jokes? If you listened to the Comedy episode you probably already know, but if not — we dedicate some time to something many people live for [that Christopher generally cannot stand!]
We’ve talked about advertising before. (An episode in which Shawn found himself hanging out with Molly Hatchet.) Marketers love to “tell stories.” Find out our thoughts on that. (And take a look at this video by Stefan Sagmeister.)
You are not a storyteller – Stefan Sagmeister @ FITC from FITC on Vimeo.
We imagine a world without any stories before discussing what stories we’re currently working on…and why they are the stories we’re working on, instead of any others.
We close out the episode as we always do: looking toward the future. This time, we talk about what the future has in store for stories.
Have a favorite story you’d like to share, or maybe some thoughts about anything from this episode? Feel free to share in the comments below.
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And since we mentioned a visual thing in an audio show, this is what we were talking about with the timer:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
My last NaNo, “Meatful Things,” helped me work through the catastrophic events of the last couple years of my life, and also helped me process events in my cousin’s life (MT is the story of 5 people stuck in one single-wide trailer for the duration of a New Hampshire winter). I’d also say it’s the most easily accessible of my novels, and the one with the largest potential audience. My big goal for 2015 is getting it edited, polished, beta read, and possibly published…
That’s something we didn’t really hit on, I guess…how stories can help process things or get one through tough times. I wrote a couple drafts of my last novel while not knowing I had a pituitary tumor. In looking at some of those drafts, I can see how I let some personal in — at least more than I usually do with stories. I cut a lot of that out of the final draft, but it was definitely a story that changed me as a person and as a writer.
New Hampshire winter with a bunch of people and not even a DOUBLE wide? That alone is a book and movie waiting to happen. Once edited and polished, I’d be happy to give it a beta read.
I should mention these five people fall under the spell of a supernatural compost pile, but you may have remembered that from my blog. 🙂 And the story’s single-wide is also home to two cats and two dogs. (The dogs “meat” their ends in the middle of the book, as early on they get bitten by a rabid fox. Ahem.) I’d love to have you give this one a beta read, Christopher, it seems right up your alley (bonus – it’s in past tense. 😉 It’ll probably be ready for beta reading in early spring, I’ll let you know…