Alasdair Stuart quietly sits down to the roundtable and – with wit and laughter – makes it all okay. While his talents are diverse and potent – including narration, writing and blogging, editing, and game design – it is his ability express the essence of whatever topic is on the table with honesty and warmth that is his distinguishing super-power. During this (more-than-20-minute) episode, Alasdair shares insights into what makes a story memorable, how to extract and express a theme, reveals the “true” essence of the Isle of Man, and single-handedly ends the Genre Wars. (and, whatever you do, do NOT miss Alasdairs’s Workshop Episode)
PROMO: Nutty Bites (http://nimlas.org/blog)
Showcase Episode: 20 Minutes with Alasdair Stuart
[caution: occasional bouts of mature language]
Podcast: Download (Duration: 35:25 — 32.4MB)
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Episode Breakdown
01:00 – Alasdair’s gloriosity
02:40 – What would you like to see writers do more of… and less of
03:15 – Swagger
04:45 – Quoting David Mamet
05:15 – Humorless fiction (not having any fun)
07:25 – Very few writers have this
08:00 – What makes a story stick with a person?
09:04 – Themselves
10:40 – Easy to tell when you’re doing it right
11:30 – 170,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock
12:45 – Promotional Break – Nutty Bites (http://nimlas.org/blog)
13:40 – Did you have a rich fantasy life on the Isle of Man
16:03 – Are you uniquely equipped to deal with the genre and e-pub wars?
17:06 – Alasdair discovers how to fix the Genre Fiction Community
17:30 – Everyone seems to cling to their life rafts
17:52 – Podcasters and e-pubbers secretly think they’re the crew of Serenity
18:40 – Stephanie Meyers
19:04 – You go with what works, not because you’re dressed like that guy
21:00 – How do you embody a story’s theme?
21:30 – The TV show “Midnight Caller”
22:20 – The closing monologue
22:50 – Complete brutal emotional honesty
23:35 – Fixing the broken stuff
24:16 – The Power of Words
24:43 – Telling the beast to trim its nostril hairs
28:33 – Dealing with fan or reader “superior knowledge”
29:43 – Read a lot… or watch a lot
31:10 – I’ve been hired to do it and they haven’t
32:19 – If you write what you want and like…
32:50 – 30 minutes is the new 20 minutes.
