The Secrets of Story Podcast: The Archive

Hi guys, I figured I should go ahead and create an archive page for my podcast (I’ve already archived the ten episodes I guest-co-hosted the Narrative Breakdown podcast). We sure have been slow in putting these things out, but I always enjoy them when I do. Feel free to subscribe to us on iTunes and rate us and review us there!

In the first episode, I introduce my co-host James Kennedy and we debate about how critical you should be of your own work, based on this post:


In our second episode, James and I debate one step in my structure, in which I claim that the hero should try the easy way:

In our third episode, we broke format for a super-sized episode in which James performed his Laika script with his niece and nephew, than I jumped in to give notes.   This episode turned out to be, in my opinion, eminently skippable, but I include it in the interest of completeness...

In our fourth episode, James and debate about contentious dialogue.  (Interestingly, I can find no one post where I recommend contentious dialogue. This is the closest I could find.)

In the fifth episode James and I are joined by acclaimed novelist Jonathan Auxier and we debate about how strict you have to be with POV in your prose, based on this post.

In the sixth episode, James and I discuss Dan Harmon’s story structure and Raiders of the Lost Ark:


And then, a mere year later, came episode 7, about expectations and tactics!


In our eighth episode, we start out with my belief that most stories are based on problem solving, but then James brings up the hidden back half of the hero’s journey offered by Lord Raglan, and, of course, brings it all around to The Last Jedi. And then he claims that you caused Trump by not liking Jar-Jar Binks.  Thanks a lot! 

Podcast Episode 5: POV with Jonathan Auxier!

Hey guys, I just hid Thursday’s post to call more attention to this one, because Harvey Jerkwater just posted his very-cool version of my musical idea to the comments.  Read it in the comments and comment yourself!  (I’ll have my comments on it up later...)

Hi everybody, it’s been a long time since we had a new episode of the podcast!   This time around, James Kennedy and I are happy to be joined by acclaimed novelist Jonathan Auxier to discuss POV in prose, and we had previously done in this post and this post.  (As always, the music is from FreeMusicArchive.com. It’s “Lucky Me” by Scott Holmes, with an Attribution/NonCommercial license.)

The Secrets of Story Podcast · Episode 5: POV with Jonathan Auxier

The Fugitive: The Archive

It’s interesting that this movie didn’t do as well on the structure section as you’d think...

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: The Fugitive
• Straying From the Party Line: The Not-Quite-Everyman Hero of The Fugitive
• Rulebook Casefile: Defying Genre Conventions and Finding an Ironic Final Outcome in The Fugitive
• Rulebook Casefile: The Impartial Thematic Dilemma in The Fugitive
• Straying from the Party Line: Reversing Payoff and Set-Up in The Fugitive
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Not All Determination Needs to be Grim

An interesting question that was cut when I cut this down from the longer fifth version of the checklist:

Are the physics of the world (realistic or stylized?) established early and maintained throughout?

They’re somewhat-stylized, as established by the waterfall jump. It’s thrilling because we can’t imagine how he’ll survive, but once he does without injury, we subtly go “Oh, okay, physical danger in this movie isn’t a big deal, so we switch to “how will he do this”, as opposed to “will he make it”

The Fighter: The Archive

Not a universally beloved movie, nor one with a huge cultural impact, but one of my favorites...  

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: The Fighter
• Straying from the Party Line: Wrapping Up the Drama a Little Early in The Fighter
• Straying from the Party Line: Micky and Mookie as Passive Heroes
• Rulebook Casefile: The Ultimate Gutpunch in The Fighter
• Rulebook Casefile: A Subconscious Ticking Clock in The Fighter
• Rulebook Casefile: Info-Drip in The Fighter
• Rulebook Casefile: An Ironic Corrected Statement of Philosophy in The Fighter

The Babadook: The Archive

A modern masterpiece.

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: The Babadook
• Rulebook Casefile: Jennifer Kent vs. the Naysayers
• Straying from the Party Line: The Selfless and Self-Less Heroine of The Babadook
• Straying from the Party Line: The Babadook vs. Genre Expectations
• Rulebook Casefile: The Progress of the Problem in the Opening of The Babadook
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Should a Monsters Ever Meet Its Metaphor?

Here's a question that got cut that I miss (I frequently regret cutting this question):
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Are unrealistic genre-specific elements a big metaphor for a more common experience (not how life really is, but how life really feels)?

Very much so.  The Babadook = The Dada Book.

Sunset Boulevard: The Archive

Just one more week to go, folks! Also next week: A new podcast!

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Sunset Boulevard
• Straying From the Party Line # 12: Sunset Boulevard
• Rulebook Casefile: Parallel Characters in Sunset Boulevard
• Straying From the Party Line, Bonus Edition: Re-Visiting Sunset Boulevard

Star Wars: The Archive

This was the first movie whose coverage I archived, but now I’ve archived the archive!

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Star Wars 
• How Star Wars Proves That Legacies are Better than Prophesies 
• The Value of Obi Wan’s Counterintuitive Metaphor Family in Star Wars
• Luke as Emotional Manipulator in Star Wars
• The Value of the Half-Fact in Star Wars
• The Way the Worlds Work in Star Wars 
• The Value of Shaggy Dog Storytelling in Star Wars
• Considering Luke's Late Introduction and the Deleted Scenes of Star Wars
• James Kennedy wrote an in-depth letter (1, 2, 3) about why we like Luke, and I responded
• How Star Wars Tapped into Real Life National Pain
• How Return of the Jedi Dared to Confront the Great Hypocrisy
• How Star Wars Set Its Tone and Rewrote Our Genre Expectations
• Freudian and Jungian Arcs in Star Wars
• The Value of Moving Up the Timeline in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back 
• The Value of Writing it Bad Today so You Can Write It Better Tomorrow
• The Way That No World Works in the Prequels
• And finally, I did a four-part series (1, 2, 3, 4) entitled The Force Awakens Was Great Until It Wasn’t 

When I updated the checklist to version six, I lost some answers that were interesting from the longer checklist, so let’s put those here:
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Are the physics of the world (realistic or stylized?) established early and maintained throughout?	The princess is hit by a laser and faints somewhat harmlessly. Horrible things will happen off-screen to characters we don’t care about, but characters we like will be hurt only in gentle ways, as in Obi Wan’s vanishing, which he accepts before it comes.  Even the choking is indirect, which makes it more chilling but less brutal to watch.
Are set-up and pay-off used to dazzle the audience (and maybe distract attention from plot contrivances)?	Not really.  The plotting feels somewhat haphazard, without much payoff in this movie.  This isn’t necessarily bad: the shaggy-dog all-over-the-galaxy plot-progression is actually quite thrilling in an off-kilter kind of way.  We never cycle back around to anything (never go back to Tatooine, etc.) or cut ahead (introducing the rebel base before Luke gets there, etc.)

The 40 Year Old Virgin: The Archive

This is another one where some interesting questions were cut from the checklist in the course of updating it from version 5 to version 6, so I've included those below... 

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: The 40 Year Old Virgin
• Straying From the Party Line: Gentle Scenework in "The 40 Year Old Virgin"
• Straying from the Party Line: The Lame Third Act Escalation in The 40 Year Old Virgin
• Rulebook Casefile: The Way the World Works (and Doesn’t) in The 40 Year Virgin
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Use Visual Metaphors, Not Verbal Similes
• Rulebook Casefile: Assembling Gut, Heart, and Head in The 40 Year Old Virgin

Are unrealistic genre-specific elements a big metaphor for a more common experience (not how life really is, but how life really feels)?	Yes, every man feels like he doesn’t get enough sex, but this is an extreme example.  Likewise the waxing scene, etc, are examples of common anxieties made huge.  Flying through the billboard at the end symbolizes sex and a breakthrough.
Are set-up and pay-off used to dazzle the audience (and maybe distract attention from plot contrivances)?	Yes, her “Sell Your Stuff on Ebay” store is established as a joke, so we don’t figure out that this will eventually be the solution to his problem.  (Although, as with almost everything else, this wasn’t in the original script, and they just worked it in after they saw that their exterior story location really did have such a store across the street!)

The Silence of the Lambs: The Archive

A perfect movie...

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Silence of the Lambs
• Straying From the Party Line # 2: The Strands of the Movie Never Come Together
• Storyteller's Rulebook #180: Don't Call Attention to Your Structure
• Rulebook Casefile: Manipulating the Plot to Empower the Rookie in Silence of the Lambs
• Rulebook Casefile: Conflict-Driven Exposition in Silence of the Lambs
• New Checklist and Rulebook Casefile: Un-Selfless Motivation in Silence of the Lambs
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Don’t Let it Write Itself

Sideways: The Archive

I would have thought that I did more posts about this movie, but it looks like I just did three...

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Sideways
• Straying from the Party Line / Rulebook Casefile: The Low-Concept Movie and the “Holy Crap!” Scenes in Sideways
• Rulebook Casefile: Hidden Flip-Side-Strengths in Sideways

Rushmore: The Archive

I just discovered that this one never made it into the sidebar, so this one will be new for many of you.

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Rushmore
• Straying from the Party Line: Rushmore’s Offscreen Catharsis
• Rulebook Casefile: The “I Understand You” Moment in Rushmore
• Rulebook Casefile: The Irresolvable Thematic Dilemma in Rushmore
• Rulebook Casefile: Wes Anderson’s Unique Imagery and Mood

Raising Arizona: The Archive

I usually take the summer off starting around now, but I should finish up these revised checklists first, so let’s keep going! It’s nice to jump from L to R as I go through these things alphabetically.

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Raising Arizona
• Straying from the Party Line: Telling vs Showing in Raising Arizona
• Straying from the Party Line: The Tidy Conclusion of Raising Arizona
• Rulebook Casefile: The (Strange) Way the World Works in Raising Arizona
• Storyteller's Rulebook: The Best Voiceover is Unreliable Voiceover
• Rulebook Casefile: Parallel Characters in Raising Arizona

Iron Man: The Archive

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Iron Man
• Straying From the Party Line # 9: Iron Man
• Rulebook Casefile: Exchange of a Symbolic Object in Iron Man
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Plant Solutions as Problems 

This is another one where I had to cut a question from the checklist that elicited an interesting answer, so I’ll preserve it here for posterity:

Are set-up and pay-off used to dazzle the audience (and maybe distract attention from plot contrivances)?

Yes and no: some plot contrivances could have been covered up better with set-up and payoff: At the end, why is Pepper standing in the same spot 10 minutes later? Why doesn’t Pepper call Tony earlier? On the other hand: The icing problem is nicely set-up as a problem, so that we don’t realize that it’ll be a solution later, and Tony giving away his heart, and getting it back, is set up as a character beat, so we don’t realize that it’ll be a plot solution later. Also: Coulson always being around pestering Tony is seen as a problem, so we buy it when it turns into a solution later.

In a Lonely Place: The Archive

This is another one from the early days where I was sort of transitioning from writing about Underrated Movies to spotlighting classics for the checklist.  Probably not one I would choose today, simply because it’s not well known enough, but it’s one of the all-time great movies and I found the checklist to be illuminating. 

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: In A Lonely Place
• Straying From the Party Line # 8: In a Lonely Place
• New Checklist and Rulebook Casefile: Characters Only Wanting What They Want In a Lonely Place

How to Train Your Dragon: The Archive

One of the first movies I spent a lot of time on.  In regards to the third piece below, I’ve now seen Up many times with my daughter, and it bugs me more and more every time that he’s able to throw away his walker at the end due to an attitude adjustment.  I’ve also seen this one many times with her, and admire it more every time.

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: How To Train Your Dragon
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #79: Mentors are Overrated
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #80: Real Disabilities Aren’t Personality Flaws
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #81: Dare To Confront the Great Hypocrisy
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #82: Training Sequences are Death (Or At Least They Should Be)
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #83: Sometimes Winning Isn't Enough
• Straying from the Party Line #4: How to Train Your Dragon
• New Checklist and Rulebook Casefile: Observations in How to Train Your Dragon

Groundhog Day: The Archive

Dear God, that opening credits song is awful...

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Groundhog Day
• Straying from the Party Line #11: Groundhog Day
• Rulebook Casefile: Asking the Right Dramatic Question in Groundhog Day (And Shutting Down the Wrong Questions)
• Rulebook Casefile: Psychological Arcs in Groundhog Day

Frozen: The Archive

I had a lot to say about this movie...

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Frozen
• Straying from the Party Line: Anna’s Two Longstanding Problems in Frozen
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Just Say “Because of Course It Does”
• Rulebook Casefile: Sacrificing Plot in Favor of Empathy and Motivation in Frozen
• Rulebook Casefile: Obstacle vs. Conflict in Frozen
• Straying from the Party Line: Anna’s Unusual Moments of Humanity in Frozen
• Rulebook Casefile: The Big Crash in Frozen
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Villains Can Create Fake “I Understand You” Moments

Donnie Brasco: The Archive

Out of all the movies I’ve done, this is probably the most forgotten. It was from the early days of the checklists when the idea was more to pick random movies. I’ve thought about dropping it from the list and replacing it with Goodfellas or something. That said, I do adore this movie.  At Columbia, I rescued the screenplay from the garbage when they were cleaning out their archives, then I started reading it over and over.  Indeed the script has one of the highest scores of any movie I've done (Behind only Star Wars, I think) There’s just one area that it flunks: The Hook, and that’s why it’s not as well remembered as it should be. Never forget the need for unique imagery!

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Donnie Brasco
• Straying From The Party Line #3: Donnie Brasco
• New Checklist and Rulebook Casefile: Use of a (Literal) Framing Device in Donnie Brasco

Do the Right Thing: The Archive

I think we had a lot of really good discussions about this movie in the comments.  Updated to the sixth and final version of the Checklist.

• The Ultimate Story Checklist: Do the Right Thing 
• Rulebook Casefile: The Hero Has to Fundamentally Change the Story
• Straying from the Party Line: Do the Right Thing's Passive Protagonist That’s Not Solving a Large Problem!
• Straying from the Party Line: Do the Right Thing's Omniscient POV
• Rulebook Casefile: Ironic Sequence of Events in Do the Right Thing
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Let Your Characters Re-Label Themselves
• Rulebook Casefile: The Tricky Tone of Do the Right Thing
• Straying From the Party Line: Saying What They Wouldn't Say in Do the Right Thing

The Story Project: The Archive

A fun series that I’ve rarely referred back to.  Some of this ended up in the Tone section of the book, in a very transformed way. 

• The Story Project #1: It's Embarrassing To Tell A Story
• The Story Project #2: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up (Or Can You?)
• The Story Project #3: About What You’d Expect
• The Story Project #4: Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind
• The Story Project #5: They Don’t Want Nobody Nobody Sent