Over in How do you see your sound I mentioned that it I was led to the podcast Out on the wire…
For obvious reasons, this show will often appear to be about making radio and podcasts. And sometimes, it will sound like a show about making comics. But it’s not.
You may have no interest in making audio stories. And that’s OK. I used–I am using–these same principles to write my nonfiction graphic novel, Out on the Wire, and to write my very fictional comic, Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars. Take me as proof this stuff works.
This is not a show about radio. Radio people do this stuff super awesome, so we’re going to talk to a bunch of them, but the show is about story.
And my book is about story. It’s right there in the title, “storytelling secrets.”
In researching my book, I recorded hours and hours of interviews with master storytellers, interviews no one has ever heard, until now.
~ Jessica Abel from the episode Eureka over at, Out on the Wire Podcast: Storytelling Principles for Creatives - Jessica Abel
The first 1/4 of Eureka is an explainer for the show…
Stick with it (or skip ahead :).
Because the rest of the episode changed how I see the book and has a few really good gems in it. It really is the first, full episode of the show — not just a trailer…
…And the tales I could tell about how I struggled to make these works real. In fact, probably I will tell some of them. But it comes down to this:
When I have a good idea, I grab on, and I don’t let go. I read and research, I write and I talk, and I keep building material until it clicks into place, like Alex did with the story that became “The Giant Pool of Money.”
I also toss and cull, and strike and annul. I have plenty of ideas that I don’t like, but at the core, the ideas I chase are the ideas that I love .
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