Working: Megan Abbott's Go-To Story Structure

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Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2020

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to crime novelist and TV writer Megan Abbott, who describes her creative-writing rituals, her go-to story structure, and the challenges of adapting one of her novels for television. After the interview, Isaac and co-host Rumaan Alam talk about the surprising origins of the terms story beat and character beat. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to [email protected]. Podcast production by Cameron Drews And if you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. It’s only $35 for the first year, and you can get a free two-week trial now at slate.com/workingplus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jonathan Braylock I'm Dr. Milligan and I'm James the third and we're the
0:08.8	host of Blackman can't jump in Hollywood it's a comedic podcast that reviews
0:12.2	films with leading actors of color and analyze them in the context of race and Hollywood's diversity issues.
0:17.5	Yeah, listen to new episodes on Mondays.
0:20.0	Find us wherever you get your podcast.
0:22.0	I don't care where you get them. I just want you to listen.
0:25.3	Don't threaten the people we need them to listen.
0:27.3	Oh, okay, okay, okay, sorry guys listen. Listen to us.
0:30.4	Yay! Yeah, put on a happy voice.
0:33.0	Really?
0:34.0	What more can I say?
0:35.0	You know what it is.
0:36.0	I mean, Isaac Butler.
0:50.8	Isaac, I hope you and your family are thriving in this weird period that I feel like there's no
0:57.5	applicable noun for.
0:59.8	You and I keep abreast of each other's movements on Twitter and so I know that like so many people
1:04.9	you're not letting this larger crisis interrupt your cultural diet. You're still reading and watching movies
1:11.5	and television. Yeah you know know, at the beginning there, it kind of did.
1:16.0	I sort of felt like I didn't have the brain space to focus on anything that was more than maybe
1:21.0	22 minutes long, just because of the world.
1:25.0	Like the only thing I really have to compare it to is maybe the first six weeks after Iris was born,
1:30.5	you know, only this time instead of sleeplessness, it was of course anxiety and just, you know, the world creeping in.
	...

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