This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 494th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast.

Recently someone introduced me to the wonderful YouTube channel Like Stories of Old, which in their words explores the boundary between film

analysis and life lessons because just like the stories of old, they contain valuable lessons

and insights.

It was unexpectedly fun to see my book creating character arcs quoted in one of the videos

about the flat arc of the protagonist in Haxhaw Ridge. If you're unfamiliar with the channel I highly

recommend it not just for its insights but also because I feel it does a great

job highlighting the great psychological and spiritual power creators have the potential to wield.

In watching many of the videos lately, I've been deeply inspired and reinvigorated in my passion for the great responsibility of what we do as

storytellers.

So check it out.

This is absolutely not an advertisement, just my personal recommendation. But again, if you you're interested the channel is called

like stories of old and now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast thoughts on

how to be critical of stories in a way that makes a

difference. Some stories make me so mad. It's not just that these stories are all technically bad in some way. Indeed, there are plenty of deeply bad stories that I pass on by with hardly a second thought.

There are even plenty of, quote-unquote, bad stories I find amusing or even some

I adamantly like for any number of personal reasons. But then there are the memorable few that

stick in my craw. In those instances I go from being able to offer a

thoughtful, logical, unemotional critique of why the story didn't work objectively or

perhaps why it didn't work for me subjectively to looking frantically

for my flamethrower and machete. I've been pondering this phenomenon for a few months ever since experiencing yet another movie that

submarine yet another of my favorite franchises.

...