This movie was way ahead of its time. It's a brilliant example of the heroine's journey and Melanie walks us through all 10 phases as outlined in Maureen Murdock's THE HEROINE'S JOURNEY: A WOMAN'S QUEST FOR WHOLENESS. Thanks to its excellent use of setups and payoffs, it also has an ending that is both surprising and inevitable."One of our most hardwired expectations is that anything that reads like the beginning of a new pattern, that is a setup, will, in fact, be a setup with a corresponding payoff." - Lisa Cron  
<a href="https://landing.valeriefrancis.ca/spring2024">REGISTER FOR THE 2024 SPRING WEBINAR SERIES</a>For access to writing templates and worksheets, and more than 70 hours of training (all for free), <a href="https://valeriefrancis.ca/for-writers/inner-circle/">subscribe to Valerie's Inner Circle.</a>To learn to read like a writer, <a href="https://www.melaniehill.com.au/">visit Melanie's website.</a>Follow Valerie on X, Instagram and Threads @valerie_francisFollow Melanie on X, Instagram and Facebook @MelanieHillAuthor

Crazy Rich Asians: when the antagonist is more compelling than the protagonist

For novelists, memoirists and screenwriters who want to know how stories work so they can finish their manuscripts faster, and without frustration. Each week literary editors Valerie Francis and Melanie Hill explain the craft of storytelling using films as examples. The goal is simple: to learn from writers who have come before us...what worked well and what didn't work so well. If you want to spend more time writing your book/screenplay and less time studying story theory, this podcast is for you.

"The only thing that matters, and that ever will matter, is the story. That's it." - Tom Hanks (Oxford Union 2024)