EPISODES SEASON 7
This is our seventh season. This season, we plan to bring you stories we love from various publications, editors who offer insight into how to get published on their sites, stories from our class and stories our listeners submit to us. You’ll also hear stories from Andrea + Allison.
Episode 69: How to Write Your Story While You’re Still Living It.
On this episode, we’re talking about how to end a story when the situation is ongoing. You’ll hear an essay by the Brazilian born Miami writer, Camile Flosi Araujo.
Camile brings us into her world, which changed dramatically for her when she got into a car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down.
She made a startling discovery, not that she’s pissed about the accident, although she is, but that she’s pissed at herself for how she lived before the accident. Listen to hear how she expertly ends the story that she’s still living.
Episode 68: What's a Meta Phor?
Today on our show, we’re talking about metaphors and how they work in a story. We share a story by Elizabeth Newdom whose story is shaped around a metaphor. Elizabeth’s essay first appeared in Motherwell, an online magazine that tells all sides of the parenting story.
We called the editors of Motherwell, Randi Olin and Lauren Apfel, a badass editing duo and talked to them about their tag team approach to editing, what grabbed them about Elizabeth’s story, and the use of metaphors.
We’ll take you behind the scenes, so you can learn how to submit to Motherwell.
Episode 67: Ready, Set, Go Get into College
Today on our show we’re talking about perseverance, a quality important if you want to be a writer, a runner, or someone successful at crafting the dreaded college essay. What makes your essay stand out to publishers and to college admissions directors is the situation and the story. They want to see the loss or the win, because that’s what allows others to connect with your story. They also want to know what you learned from the experience and how that experience informed your character.
Allison has been working with high school students all over the country on their college admissions essays. This is the second episode in a two-part series where we bring you common app essays.
Ransom Everglades recent graduate Wesley Cusack wrote this essay about the challenges he faced in track and cross country and what he learned from not quitting.
EPISODE 66: How to Brag and Pull it Off.
Today on our show we’re talking about bragging, specifically on the dreaded college essay. How do you brag yourself up without sounding like a total $#&%$#? (We’re PG for the high schoolers...as if). The answer is, you have to be willing to get vulnerable and reveal your ugly side, then you can brag all you want.
Allison has been working with high school students all over the country on their college admissions essays. This is the first episode in a two-part series where we bring you common app essays.
Palmer Trinity high school senior Julia Irvin wrote this essay from the point of view of her sister, which is a clever and effective way to reveal good and bad details about the narrator.
Episode 65: Slow Down. You Don’t Want to Miss this Moment
Do you know how sometimes when you’re reading a story you feel like the story slows down in a critical moment? Maybe the narrator describes the people in a room or the birds on a tree nearby. Maybe there’s a flashback to a memory. In that moment, the reader becomes hyper aware and hopefully totally drawn in.
Today on our show we’re talking about slowing down and expanding a moment. A moment in a story that says to the reader, “Hey, pay attention. I’m about to give you some details that are important to the story.”
Devan Sandiford, a listener from Brooklyn, NY submitted a story where he slows down in the most important moment, both by explaining what’s happening in detail and by going back to another memory that explains why this moment matters.
Episode 64: Inspiration Sometimes Comes in the Form of a Dress
In class, sometimes we ask people to close their eyes and smell sunblock, or freshly baked bread. Sometimes we play a Beatles song or have students squeeze Play-Doh. Sometimes we throw out a word. Then, we ask students to write about the first thing that comes to mind. All of these prompts inspire stories.
Today on our show we’re talking about how inspiration for stories can come in a word, a song, a scent, or an object like a dress.
You will hear a story by Nancy Brier, a listener from Palm Desert, California. Nancy’s essay starts with a dress, goes to another dress, to cancer and then back to the dress. But it is really a story about seizing the day.
EPISODE 63: From Pitch to Publication
Today on our show we’re talking about pitching to publications, what to include in a query letter and all the homework you need to do before you pitch to an editor.
Writer Baylea Jones shares her pitch and her story. We speak with Ravishly editor Erin Khar about what it was like to receive Baylea’s pitch, as well as why she chose Baylea’s story. Erin will also discuss the basic how-to’s for submitting stories for Ravishly and elsewhere.
EPISODE 62: The Devil’s in the Details
Details matter. Details bring the reader/listener into a world they may know nothing about. They help us trust the narrator. The more specific the details, the more universal the story. In this episode we bring you a story by Inessa Freylekhman.
inessa in class 2015
