Start With This

Night Vale Presents

4.6 (286)
ARTS

The creators of Welcome to Night Vale Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink believe the only bad writing is not writing. Start With This is a podcast gone creativity playground designed to put your ideas in motion. Each episode centers around a writing topic. Then they give listeners two short assignments: something to consume and something to create. Make something—anything. Then make something else.

08/13/2021

The Burnout Cycle w/Janina Matthewson

Burnout is real and it comes around on the regular. Guest: Janina Matthewson, https://twitter.com/j9andif CONSUME: Keep Your Hands off Eizouken! (anime series) CREATE: Think of a story or project you’ve let sit idle. Write a letter from the point of view of someone who has just bought, or commissioned, or earned the distribution rights for this work. Join the SWT Membership community to share your work, give feedback, and connect with other artists: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis Help spread the word about our show by wearing our logo: https://topatoco.com/collections/startwiththisFollow us on Facebook and Twitter. Credits: Jeffrey Cranor (host) & Joseph Fink (host), Jeffrey Cranor (producer), Grant Stewart (editor), Vincent Cacchione (mixer). Rob Wilson (logo). Theme written and performed by Joseph Fink. If you'd like your own cover of the theme song featured on this show, email us at startwiththis@nightvalepresents.com or share it in our membership community. Produced by Night Vale Presents. http://www.startwiththispodcast.comhttp://www.nightvalepresents.com

51 min
07/09/2021

Minimal w/Brie Williams

Writing more with less. Guest: Brie Williams, https://twitter.com/briezillionaire CONSUME: Getting on with James Urbaniak (podcast), specifically episode 22 “Status” CREATE: Write a 200-400 word short story, It can be a monologue. Or it can be a dialogue. But every sentence must be short. Make them 6 words or fewer. Join the SWT Membership community to share your work, give feedback, and connect with other artists: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis Help spread the word about our show by wearing our logo: https://topatoco.com/collections/startwiththisFollow us on Facebook and Twitter. Credits: Jeffrey Cranor (host) & Joseph Fink (host), Jeffrey Cranor (producer), Grant Stewart (editor), Vincent Cacchione (mixer). Rob Wilson (logo). Theme written and performed by Joseph Fink. If you'd like your own cover of the theme song featured on this show, email us at startwiththis@nightvalepresents.com or share it in our membership community. Produced by Night Vale Presents. http://www.startwiththispodcast.comhttp://www.nightvalepresents.com

37 min
06/11/2021

But How Does It End?

How do you land the ending? CONSUME: Three options: 1)The last three pages of Inherent Vice, starting where the character gets on the freeway. 2) The last four minutes of Six Feet Under. Easily found on youtube by searching “Six Feet Under ending”. 3) Pick one of your favorite ending. Could be a podcast, movie, tv show, book, whatever. Reexamine it carefully. What kind of ending is it? Is it mirroring the opening? Is it following the characters to the end? Is it a tangent? Or is it doing something else? Does it have a button? Most importantly, what specifically makes it a great ending for you? The more you can pay attention to that, the more you can develop your own tastes of what you like in your own work. CREATE: Think of your least favorite film or book or show. Not one you hate or one that is offensive and irredeemable in your mind. Just a story you found lacking. Now write a 200-400 review of that film, book, or show. But make it a rave review. No need for superlatives like masterpiece or perfection. Focus your review on all the things that this story got right. Join the SWT Membership community to share your work, give feedback, and connect with other artists: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis Help spread the word about our show by wearing our logo: https://topatoco.com/collections/startwiththisFollow us on Facebook and Twitter. Credits: Jeffrey Cranor (host) & Joseph Fink (host), Jeffrey Cranor (producer), Grant Stewart (editor), Vincent Cacchione (mixer). Rob Wilson (logo). Theme written and performed by Joseph Fink. If you'd like your own cover of the theme song featured on this show, email us at startwiththis@nightvalepresents.com or share it in our membership community. Produced by Night Vale Presents. http://www.startwiththispodcast.comhttp://www.nightvalepresents.com

49 min
06/11/2021

Like This But Better

Elevating basic language to something special. (This episode is available exclusively on Patreon. Hear the rest at http://patreon.com/startwiththis) Join the SWT Membership community to share your work, give feedback, and connect with other artists: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis Help spread the word about our show by wearing our logo: https://topatoco.com/collections/startwiththisFollow us on Facebook and Twitter. Credits: Jeffrey Cranor (host) & Joseph Fink (host), Jeffrey Cranor (producer), Grant Stewart (editor), Vincent Cacchione (mixer). Rob Wilson (logo). Theme written and performed by Joseph Fink. If you'd like your own cover of the theme song featured on this show, email us at startwiththis@nightvalepresents.com or share it in our membership community. Produced by Night Vale Presents. http://www.startwiththispodcast.comhttp://www.nightvalepresents.com

5 min
05/14/2021

How to Like

There’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure. CONSUME: Podcast ¡Uy Que Horror! particularly the episode “2012: Kurse a di Xtabai (Belize)” CREATE: Think of your least favorite film or book or show. Not one you hate or one that is offensive and irredeemable in your mind. Just a story you found lacking. Now write a 200-400 review of that film, book, or show. But make it a rave review. No need for superlatives like masterpiece or perfection. Focus your review on all the things that this story got right. Join the SWT Membership community to share your work, give feedback, and connect with other artists: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis Help spread the word about our show by wearing our logo: https://topatoco.com/collections/startwiththisFollow us on Facebook and Twitter. Credits: Jeffrey Cranor (host) & Joseph Fink (host), Jeffrey Cranor (producer), Grant Stewart (editor), Vincent Cacchione (mixer). Rob Wilson (logo). Theme written and performed by Joseph Fink. If you'd like your own cover of the theme song featured on this show, email us at startwiththis@nightvalepresents.com or share it in our membership community. Produced by Night Vale Presents. http://www.startwiththispodcast.comhttp://www.nightvalepresents.com

49 min
05/13/2021

Low Barrier to Entry?

They say that podcasting has a low barrier to entry. Wtf does that even mean? (This episode is available exclusively on Patreon. Hear the rest at http://patreon.com/startwiththis) Join the SWT Membership community to share your work, give feedback, and connect with other artists: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis Help spread the word about our show by wearing our logo: https://topatoco.com/collections/startwiththisFollow us on Facebook and Twitter. Credits: Jeffrey Cranor (host) & Joseph Fink (host), Jeffrey Cranor (producer), Grant Stewart (editor), Vincent Cacchione (mixer). Rob Wilson (logo). Theme written and performed by Joseph Fink. If you'd like your own cover of the theme song featured on this show, email us at startwiththis@nightvalepresents.com or share it in our membership community. Produced by Night Vale Presents. http://www.startwiththispodcast.comhttp://www.nightvalepresents.com

4 min
04/09/2021

The Tease

What makes a good tease? Listen and find out. CONSUME: “Lupin” French Crime/Adventure Drama on Netflix CREATE: Write a 200-600 story that follows the line: “I found them/her/him waiting for me when I got home, but they/she/he had been dead for 10 years.” Join the SWT Membership community to share your work, give feedback, and connect with other artists: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis Help spread the word about our show by wearing our logo: https://topatoco.com/collections/startwiththisFollow us on Facebook and Twitter. Credits: Jeffrey Cranor (host) & Joseph Fink (host), Jeffrey Cranor (producer), Grant Stewart (editor), Vincent Cacchione (mixer). Rob Wilson (logo). Theme written and performed by Joseph Fink. If you'd like your own cover of the theme song featured on this show, email us at startwiththis@nightvalepresents.com or share it in our membership community. Produced by Night Vale Presents. http://www.startwiththispodcast.comhttp://www.nightvalepresents.com

40 min
03/30/2021

How to Dislike

It's easy to dislike something, but much harder to do it well. (This episode is available exclusively on Patreon. Hear the rest at http://patreon.com/startwiththis) Join the SWT Membership community to share your work, give feedback, and connect with other artists: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis Help spread the word about our show by wearing our logo: https://topatoco.com/collections/startwiththisFollow us on Facebook and Twitter. Credits: Jeffrey Cranor (host) & Joseph Fink (host), Jeffrey Cranor (producer), Grant Stewart (editor), Vincent Cacchione (mixer). Rob Wilson (logo). Theme written and performed by Joseph Fink. If you'd like your own cover of the theme song featured on this show, email us at startwiththis@nightvalepresents.com or share it in our membership community. Produced by Night Vale Presents. http://www.startwiththispodcast.comhttp://www.nightvalepresents.com

4 min

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TRAILER

Start With This: Trailer

The creators of Welcome to Night Vale Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink believe the only bad writing is not writing. Start With This is a podcast gone creativity playground designed to put your ideas in motion. Each episode centers around a topic from world building, to opening lines, and even failure. Then they give listeners two short assignments: something to consume and something to create. Join the Start With This membership forum to share your work with other listeners. You might just find a creative partner in the process. Jeffrey and Joseph want you to start creating, one assignment at a time because the best way to start writing, is to start writing. Not sure where to begin? Start With This. Episodes air every other Friday. The first episode airs Friday, March 22nd. Subscribe for free at startwiththispodcast.com.

03/08/2019

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3 min

4.6

out of 5

286 Ratings

Excellent And Entertaining

Jan 2

TheLogicTrebuchet

I am, however, confused as to why it stopped in 2021? Other podcast stuff, I assume? It’s fine, ‘cause there’s a lot of episodes… But we never got any that are just Jeffrey monologuing for a solid hour, and I resent that.
Its here when i need it most

11/19/2022

v marko

This podcast is a constant source of creative inspiration and comfort for me! Ive been suffering from burnout and i open the podcast and behold! an episode on burnout. The exercises are creative and the insights are so helpful and intuitive. You’re not alone on a writer’s journey!!
So we’ll done!

03/15/2022

Allegedly_Ben

I’ve been following Nightvale for a couple months and absolutely love the show for its randomness. I heard an ad at the end of that show for this. As an aspiring writer for the past 30 years, THIS show speaks to ALL the thoughts and fears and emotions artists go through. Thank you guys so much for your contributions to art and the world around you. Thank you for entertaining, teaching, and inspiring others.
Love this podcast

01/18/2022

Bwholeton

That’s it. I just love this podcast 🥰

The creators of Welcome to Night Vale Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink believe the only bad writing is not writing. Start With This is a podcast gone creativity playground designed to put your ideas in motion. Each episode centers around a writing topic. Then they give listeners two short assignments: something to consume and something to create. Make something—anything. Then make something else.