Catching Up With Building A Better Story World

The holidays have been crazy, as has my professional life! There will be some exciting news items coming down the track, but for now, I wanted to make sure all of my links to the most recent episodes of Building a Better Story World are here!

First up: I cover how to find out what your fans will love about your story world via the “fun” that engages them, time after time, episode after episode. Join me here as I examine three dishes to re-engage excitement and novelty into your world, regardless of platform. Plus, there’s a whole lotta analysis of Psych for all of you Shawn and Gus fans out there!

Next up is an archetypal two-parter! Worried about how your story world may connect with audiences? Consider how classic storytelling figures can help create a bridge between you and fans by showcasing traditional structures that excite all sorts of people. Listen in as I take you through twelve particular characters that appear throughout human narratives, across time and culture, so that you can follow in their footsteps, bend the rules, or forge your own path successfully! The first entry can be found here and second here, but you can listen in any order!

Lastly, we have the rules! Some people focus on magic, science, languages, or politics when building out the foundational guidepost of their story universes, but there’s so much more to the building blocks your world than that! With the aid of a younger Clark Kent, I’ll show how you can build out numerous elements that anchor narrative universes for fans and collaborators while also allowing them to expand!

Happy new year, everyone, and be sure to download, subscribe, rate, and review BABSW on any fine podcatcher!

Building a Better Story World – Episode 1

It’s been a minute, ain’t it? I know you’ve all been desperate to… no, I can’t even lie like that. But I’ve been working on a LOT of stuff, and this is a part of it: a new podcast dedicated to helping you become better story world designers!

Using the same tools that I’ve brought to Nickelodeon, the Walt Disney Company, Microsoft, Activision, Sony Pictures, and many other clients, I’m going to take listeners on a step-by-step guide to story world creation. Each week, we will be delving into new categories and new content. Those who follow along can use the prompts to help create new narratives, but if you’re just interested in understanding, that’s great, too!

This week, we’re hitting the basics: the five primary elements of every story! From main character to resolution, we’ll build a foundation for any number of multimedia stories. I would embed the episode, but apparently, WordPress doesn’t like such things from Buzzsprout unless you upgrade to the Business platform (no thanks), so here’s the direct download!

Listen in, and if you’d like to submit your work, email helmstarmedia@gmail.com, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter and let me know!