"The more subtle the transformation, the bigger the story you can make." (24:07) Once you’ve gone through the fun and messy creative process of freewriting and generated a bunch of material, it’s time to figure out the heart of your story. The transformation that occurs in stories is called throughline. This driving force is something every story needs. In this episode, Roxan and Desi define throughline, discuss recognizing it in books and movies, and share ways to incorporate it into your writing. Warning: Identifying throughlines in stories may ruin your reading and movie-watching experience for a while.

“Every person you meet, their history and place they’re from is informing every syllable coming out of their mouth…I’m going to listen to the song of everyone’s history & place and become a connoisseur of it.”(4:38) Dialogue is a unique art form that any writer can master. In this episode, Roxan and Desi discuss how verbal dialogue is a small percentage of communication and how nonverbal communication can make our scenes believable and telling. They also share tips and exercises to liven up the dialogue in our stories.

“Good feedback will make you become a better editor. You become better at refining your work and become conscious of the choices you’re making.” (34:05) Roxan and Desi dive into joining and participating in feedback groups this week. They cover some things that come up as we grow with a group of writers, such as creating and voicing our boundaries in a group, knowing the difference between being challenged to improve and being misunderstood, having vulnerability overload, and taking risks. They also share tips on giving better feedback and finding a writing group to help you develop your authentic voice.

“In my experience, it’s the fear of starting the story more than being in it. Once people are in it, writing out their stories it’s not that difficult…It’s a wonderful experience of going I am telling my psyche that this matters enough for me to take unadulterated time”(11:58) This week Roxan and Desi make a case for why everyone should write a memoir. They get into the unexpected perks of writing a memoir, address some of the beliefs that stop people from starting, and share tips on where to begin your memoir.

“We’ve got to write in such a way that reflects the complexity and weirdness in an inexplicable way; otherwise, in some sense, it’s a lie.” (31:47) This week Roxan and Desi are joined by writer and teacher Andy Couturier. Andy loves to help writers stumble onto unexpected ways of writing and engages in techniques from improvisational theater, Buddhist meditation, deep nature awareness, movement, and radical fields of philosophy to achieve this. In this episode, Andy shares how he met Roxan, why most writers get uninspired, and his favorite writing exercises to overcome creative blockages.

“We’ve got to write in such a way that reflects the complexity and weirdness in an inexplicable way; otherwise, in some sense, it’s a lie.” (31:47) This week Roxan and Desi are joined by writer and teacher Andy Couturier. Andy loves to help writers stumble onto unexpected ways of writing and engages in techniques from improvisational theater, Buddhist meditation, deep nature awareness, movement, and radical fields of philosophy to achieve this. In this episode, Andy shares how he met Roxan, why most writers get uninspired, and his favorite writing exercises to help overcome creative blockages.

“ When you don’t understand the bounds of the choice you made, it's like writing yourself into a cul-de-sac over and over again. Present tense has intensity, but it doesn’t allow for almost any reflection, it doesn’t allow you to pop out and philosophize. It doesn’t allow you to demonstrate what grappling with those issues has given you or your character.” (21:10) Most writers stick to the point of view and tense they started writing in, usually first-person present tense, never exploring the numerous options available. In this episode, Roxan and Desi make a case for experimenting with the available options and understanding the bounds of our choices. Tune in to hear the drawbacks and benefits of each tense and point of view.

“Celebrate the beauty of creativity with the book we’re reading. This is a piece of art that we are admiring. Remember that.” 21:18 For many of us, even when we try to diversify our reading list, we somehow still get stuck reading similar types of books. In this episode, Desi and Roxan outline tangible ways to widen our reading list and how engaging with other people’s stories improves our writing.

“The most vulnerable thing we can share is our dreams, our yearning…it’s almost impossible to look away from somebody when they have said my heart’s desire is” (4:48) If a character’s motive is the heartbeat of every story, then why do most writers forget to include it? This week, Roxan and Desi dive into the importance of including our character’s yearning in our stories and give examples of ways to achieve this.

“When we’re writing, we think, oh, these characters are the ones with the emotions, but most of the time, it’s this entire scene or world vibrating with emotion, and we are seeing how the characters interact with that, and we get keyed into how they’re actually feeling.” (3:24) In episode two, Roxan and Desi discuss how slowing down can make the emotional impact of a piece stronger and draw readers into our world. They also give examples of various ways to slow down and ground into a scene. When we remember that everything is a symbol, vibrating with emotion, slowing down becomes easier, and we’ll enjoy discovering what we write.