Episode 170: Be the hero of your own story, with Donna Lichaw

Episode 170 January 31, 2022 00:42:16
Episode 170: Be the hero of your own story, with Donna Lichaw
The Creative Writer's Toolbelt
Episode 170: Be the hero of your own story, with Donna Lichaw

Jan 31 2022 | 00:42:16

/

Show Notes

Those of you who have read the book that accompanies this podcast will know that, in my opinion, one of the best explanations and representations of the way story works comes from the executive coach, speaker, and author Donna Lichaw.

Donna is not a creative writing professor, nor is she a best-selling fiction author. She comes from the world of tech, she knows about leadership development, product development, user experience, and how companies can create excellent products for their customers, and she knows how story is bound up with all of this.

I’ve been meaning to talk to Donna for years now. I wish we’d had three hours to really unpack this stuff, but we had 40 minutes and so we made the most of that, and so in this episode, Donna talks to us about how classic story structure is still a powerful tool for understanding how humans communicate with each other and have done since the dawn of civilisation; we discuss how this concept applies to the art of showing and telling, and how the most important story for us to work out as writers is our own story, the most important story for each of us is the one in which we are the hero, and if we can understand that story, we can better unlock the power of all the other stories we want to tell.

I had a great time talking to Donna, I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation, here it is.

Other Episodes

Episode

September 18, 2015 00:42:40
Episode Cover

Episode 45 - Interview with editor and agent Julie Crisp

This episode is an interview with the freelance editor, script doctor, and literary agent Julie Crisp. Julie has over fifteen years’ experience working for...

Listen

Episode 163

September 17, 2021 00:56:29
Episode Cover

Episode 163. Getting in touch with our own inner champion - with Cami Ostman

So much of how we engage with our writing is bound up with the disciplines, good and bad, we apply to ourselves, and how...

Listen

Episode

February 16, 2014 00:11:19
Episode Cover

Episode 3 - Sparse and Specific Description

How to use a small number of very specific descriptive cues to show your reader both scene and character

Listen