Beginning. Middle. End. - Conversations with Storytellers

Walkyria Whitlock is the author of a book of lyric poetry titled “I LOVE what i’ve forgotten”. Multi-talented Walkyria is a writer - poet - singer - yoga instructor - meditation teacher - freelance yacht stewardess, and model. She has an ebook on Yachting, is founder of Lorem Publishing House and a non-profit focused on teaching kids meditation through virtual reality.

Her life story spans the globe and includes a diverse cast of characters. She uses her experiences as a springboard for her poetry.

Storytelling from your life topics we cover in this episode of Beginning Middle End Story Podcast

1. What makes a good story?
2. Why poetry and not a memoir?
3. Walk us through your creative process for a song/poem.
4. How do you know when a poem or song is finished?
5. How do you think your name has affected your story and how people perceive you?
6. How has seeing the world and all the different cultures and people changed you?
7. What’s something you wish you knew when you started your journey?
8. Yachting, diving -Are you making up for the lack of ocean growing up or is something else drawing you to the ocean?
9. What’s your best piece of storytelling advice?

Find out more about Walkyria Whitlock:

https://www.instagram.com/walkyria_whitlock_/

https://www.walkyriawhitlock.com

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe to spilledinkmedia.

Host: Shane Savanapridi

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

BMEStoryPodcast-Season02-Episode10

©2022 a Spilled Ink Media Production

#storytelling #bmestorypodcast #writing #storystructure

How do you tell a story with abstract art? How do you imbue a painting with energy and emotion? Find out these creative secrets and more in this interview with artist Vital Germaine

Vital Germaine is an artist living in Las Vegas. Vital discovered art while performing in the ground-breaking Cirque du Soleil as an acrobat with Mystere in Las Vegas. He is now a painter that fills canvases with emotion, moments and energy. His work has been exhibited around the United States in upscale galleries, multi-million dollar model homes, and magazines. In addition, he’s a six time author, fluent in three languages, a leadership coach, a public speaker. Find out how the secrets of Cirque du Soleil helped shape his life and art.

You can find out more about Vital Germaine’s work at https://www.artofvital.com or follow him on instagram

If you would like to watch the videos of these storytelling secrets for artists then please subscribe to spilledinkmedia on YouTube.

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

BMEStoryPodcast-Season01-Episode09

©2021 a Spilled Ink Media Production

#storytelling #bmestorypodcast #writing #storystructure

How do you tell a story with a single image? How does color and composition affect your story? Find out these creative secrets and more in this interview with artist Heather Stadler.

Paintings were once the best and only way to capture a visual idea or moment. Less objective than a photograph, a painting interprets the world with each and every brush stroke.

Heather Stadler is a painter living just outside of Seattle, Washington. She grew up in Las Vegas getting her start as an artist by pausing and drawing from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. She’s done extensive training at the Gage Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited all over San Francisco and Seattle.

Storytelling through Painting tips we cover in this episode of Beginning Middle End Story Podcast:

• 00:00 Meet artist Heather Stadler
• 01:06 Broadly speaking, what makes a good story?
• 01:33 How do you tell a story with a single image vs series?
• 03:08 How do you develop a painting idea?
• 03:49 Discussion of Journey series
• 09:04 Discussion of ocean animal series
• 11:04 How do you use composition in your paintings?
• 12:55 Talk about how you use color to tell a story?
• 15:58 What’s your favorite painting by another artist?
• 18:25 What’s something you know now that you wished you knew when you started painting?
• 19:46 What’s a subject that you haven’t yet addressed in your work that you plan to or would like to at some point?
• 23:04 What’s your best piece of storytelling advice?

You can find out more about Heather’s work at https://www.heatherstadler.com or follow her on instagram

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe to spilledinkmedia.

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

BMEStoryPodcast-Season01-Episode08

©2021 a Spilled Ink Media Production

#storytelling #bmestorypodcast #writing #storystructure

Television director, Brandi Bradburn shares the secrets of storytelling from her experience on TV shows like Hart of Dixie, Charmed and the Dynasty reboot. She is propelled by her deep need to tell stories and developing a script’s full potential through performance and camera, which makes her perfect for this podcast.

On this episode of Beginning Middle End Story Podcast find out about:

1. What makes a good story?
2. What does a TV director do?
3. How do you approach telling the specific story of one episode as well as telling your piece of the larger stories that weave through a season?
4. Talk about storytelling as a director vs an editor
5. Talk about collaborative storytelling as part of a production versus individual storytelling
6. Speak to the rise of female creators in Hollywood
7. As a director, what’s something you know now that you wished you knew when you started?
8. What’s a story or genre that you would love to take on?
9. What’s your best piece of storytelling advice?
10. Why do you tell stories?

You can find out more about Brandi’s work at

https://www.brandibradburn.com or follow her on instagram @brandi_directs. Get ready for her next season of Dynasty on the CW Network.

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe to spilledinkmedia.

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

BMEStoryPodcast-Season01-Episode07

©2021 a Spilled Ink Media Production

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Acting has been a popular form of storytelling for over 4000 years. Using one's body and voice to convey a story didn’t require written language. Learn storytelling and acting secrets from actor Jennifer Riker who plays Dr. Helga Jace on Black Lightning.

Jennifer has been a working actor for over 30 years. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She’s an acting teacher and coach. You’ve seen her on the Walking Dead, House of Cards, Nashville, Castle, Criminal minds - all over tv, audiobooks, commercials. You can watch her on Netflix as Dr. Jace on the DC Universe show Black Lightning.

Some topics we cover in this episode:

1. What makes a good story?
2. Why be an actor?
3. How do you develop a character?
4. What type of story or genre would you like to do that you haven't?
5. What are the limitations or strengths of being typecast?
6. How has the rise of female creators in Hollywood changed the environment?
7. What makes good dialogue?
8. What's your favorite performance?
9. What's your best piece of storytelling advice?

You can find Jennifer Riker’s impressive list of credits on IMDB.

Go stream Black Lightning on Netflix.

Visit her website

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe to spilledinkmedia.

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

©2021 a Spilled Ink Media Production

#storytelling #bmestorypodcast #writing #storystructure

BMEStoryPodcast-Season01-Episode06

Award-winning photographer Karim Shamsi-Basha's secret to telling a story with photography is to show humanity. Karim is a writer and photographer who immigrated to the United States from Damascus, Syria at the age of 18. His work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Sports Illustrated, People, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more. He’s been on assignments all over the world.He is the author of the Caldecott medal book the Cat Man of Aleppo.

On this episode of Beginning Middle End Story Podcast we talk about:

1. What makes a good story?
2. How do you tell a story with a single image?
3. Photojournalism versus other types of photography
4. How do you compose a photo in the moment?
5. How has being an Arab-American shaped your storytelling?
6. What’s one of your favorite images?
7. How has technology changed storytelling with images?
8. How has social media changed photography?
9. What’s an important story for you that you haven’t yet told?
10. What’s your best piece of storytelling advice?

To learn more about Karim and his work, Visit www.karimbooks.com or visit his blog at arabinalabama.com. Follow Karim on Instagram

©2021 a Spilled Ink Media Production

#storytelling #bmestorypodcast #writing #storystructure #photography

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe to spilledinkmedia.

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

BMEStoryPodcast-Season01-Episode05

Do you love young adult novels? Have you always wanted to write YA? Are you struggling with structure for your young adult fiction? We ask writer Anita Saxena for her tips and secrets to writing and crafting the YA novel.

Young Adult fiction has been a publishing and box-office juggernaut for the last 20 years. From Harry Potter to Twilight to the Hunger Games, these coming of age stories have captured the hearts and minds of kids, teens, and adults. Whereas adult fiction might leave you with an unsettling, ambiguous or lackluster ending, Young Adult fiction shows that love and goodness always win in the end.

Anita Saxena, Anita has been an instructor for the Pelham Writing Workshop and an adjunct professor for the UAB Honor’s program where she taught how to write a young adult or middle grade novel. She’s a member of the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators. She’s got two novels coming out next year.

Here are some of the topics we cover in this episode:

1. What makes a good story?

2. What' so great about young adult and middle grade fiction?

3. What can you do in a middle grade/ young adult fiction book that you can’t do with “adult books”?

4. What’s your favorite young adult fiction book and why?

5. How do you structure a YA fiction book?

You can find out more about Anita Saxena and order her ice skating books at https://www.anitasaxena.com

Find her on Twitter @anita_writes

Find out more about Magic City Theater on Ice: https://www.magiccitytheatreonice.com

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe to spilledinkmedia.

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

BMEStoryPodcast-Season01-Episode04

©2021 a Spilled Ink Media Production

#storytelling #bmestorypodcast #writing #storystructure

Want to know how to craft a joke? What's the secret to writing comedy? We interview comedian John Wynn, a.k.a. The Funny Asian to learn how he crafts a joke, how to interact with the audience, what it feels like to bomb, and more.

John Wynn is a stand-up comedian and filmmaking teacher. Named Miami New Times’ Best Comedian, John was also the Miami Dolphins’ Official Comedian and a semifinalist for NBC’s 2018 Stand Up for Diversity.

A joke is one of the most compact and effective forms of storytelling. There’s the beginning, the setup, the middle which is the audience anticipation and expectation, then there’s the end - the punchline, which usually subverts that expectation. Complete story structure in two lines.

In this episode we get some storytelling secrets from a comedian 12 years in the business. Here are some of the topics we cover:

1. What makes a good story?

2. How do you craft a joke?

3. What is it like to bomb on stage?

3. How does the audience help craft a joke and a set?

4. How has streaming changed stand up comedy?

5. What is your best piece of storytelling advice?

Find John Wynn's show schedule at https://thefunnyasian.com

or follow him on Facebook

Watch his award-winning web series.

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe to spilledinkmedia.

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

BMEStoryPodcast-Season01-Episode03

If you love comics or dream of making comics or already create comics, strap in for this conversation with the creators of Tart comic. Find out how they put together each issue. Learn secrets and tips for creating comics. As they launch their 13th successful kickstarter project, find out mistakes to avoid, and what to do when you disagree with your co-creator.

Tart is a fantasy comic following a young woman who traverses the time stream trying to protect history from chaos-mad demons.

French artist Ludvic Sallé created the world of Hell Strawberry in 2007, adding Tart to the world in 2010. Coming from advertising and as a big fan of art history, Ludovic aims to combine his stories with a strong and unique visual style using everything from watercolors and ink to digital processes.

Kevin Joseph co-created Tart with Ludovic Sallé because of a shared love of fantasy, surprising stories, and emotional depth. He is also the creator of the comics Poodle Springs, Underwars, and Morte.

Here are some of the storytelling questions we tackle this episode:

What makes a good story?

How is Tart comic written and drawn?

If you started Tart over, what did you do well, and what would you do differently?

Does Tart have an ending?

How do you choose your art style for each issue?

How did you meet each other?

What’s your best piece of storytelling advice?

Help kickstart Tart 13: http://kck.st/3r5v9UV

Find more issues of Tart comic at: https://www.scoutcomics.com/collections/tart

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe tospilledinkmedia.

You can tweet at me on Twitter@OptionalD. We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.

BMEStoryPodcast-Season01-Episode02

Stories are made to communicate an idea to another person. So what does that person (the audience) want? We talk to TV lover and reviewer Carrie Raisler.

Carrie Raisler grew up a TV-obsessed kid who became an even more TV-obsessed adult. After working in reality TV development in the reality boom of the early 2000s, Carrie transitioned into reviewing TV for The A.V. Club. You can find her sharing far too many thoughts about far too many shows on Twitter @TVandDinners.

Here are some of the questions we tackle this episode:

1. What makes a good story?
2. As a reviewer, what kinds of things are you looking for versus just consuming something for pure enjoyment/curiosity?
3. Why do so many series end so badly?
4. Should dead shows stay dead?
5. How has streaming changed television?
6. What’s the show you could watch over and over and why?
7. What’s an underappreciated show, and why do you love it?
8. What’s the story in a reality game show?
9. What’s your best piece of storytelling advice?

Watch this episode and more on YouTube. Subscribe to spilledinkmedia.

You can tweet at me on Twitter @OptionalD . We’re just starting out on this story journey so any positive review, comment or thumbs up really helps. Tune in next time as we unravel more great story threads.