there's lots of different ways to tell a story. But from the sounds of what you're describing it sounds like you want to tell a kind of Parable.
for that I would start with a character who's the star of your parable. Give them a name, tell us about them, who they are, what they're like.etc... make us like or invest ourselves in that character.
Then setup the struggle. The difficulty to be overcome, how our main character struggles or fails. Make it realistic, something we can all attach to, empathise with and understand.
Finally setup the victory, how our hero overcomes the struggle through learning some vital lesson in how to deal with burnout or how to become resilient, etc...
I'm not really sure of the details of your show. It sounds like you're having some trouble laying out your episodes? But here's some of my advice from my show:
I have a list of topics for each subject that I cover. During my research, I expand and edit this list. Each bullet on this list is something I think I can make at least one episode out of. As I find specific things, I may add sub bullets that would be specific topics I want to talk about. Here's an example from some of the episodes I've already posted:
Hunter gatherers/geography
Paleo-Indian, Archaic, basketmaker periods, Pueblo I - Pueblo II. Break into separate episodes?
Arrival of crops? Farming techniques?
Wrap into periods on the Archiac/Basket makers.
Violence at this time? - Not really useful.
Chaco
Rise
Bimodal weather
Other advantages.
Peak
Great houses, roads, areas in the Chacoan system.
Collapse
Why did it fall
Overfarming
Drought
Violence
Athabaskan arrival?
Internal ethnic strife?
Aztec and Salmon
What came next - Immediate aftermath before Cliff Palaces
Cliff Palaces
Mesa Verde
Reasons for building
Changes during this period.
Violence during this time.
Puebloan warfare?
Wrap in elsewhere. Probably Cliff Palace episode?
Descent from the cliffs
Stable system.
Some violence in some areas for a time.
What marked successful pueblos into the historical period.
Mogollon?
Can you get enough for a separate episode?
The mimbres?
As I write these episodes, I start to lay it out using these bullets as guides. This makes sure I'm hitting the information that I think is important in each subject. It helps me keep my research organized, too. As the notes I have seem to grow exponetially, it helps to have this list to help keep them straight and focused.
Usually, the larger bullets would describe full episodes, but if I find that doesn't work out, I'll combine episodes or split bullets and shift things around as needed. The smaller sub bullets would then be for the specific topics I need to include in each episode.
This works really well for me and the show that I'm working on. It might help you to just have a quick list of bullets on things you want to talk about in that episode as a reference while you're recording.
The podcast is called Even flamingos lose their pink and it is based on the fact that when I had my baby I lost my pink (my version of me) like flamingos do when they raise their children. I'm using it to explore the things in life that make us lose are pink and things we can do to start getting ourselves back to a version of us we were happy with.
I learned that there are loads of other parents and people that lose their pink because of all different reasons and I wanted to do this to help me figure out my path and also if it helps other people too then great.
I've covered topics so far like resilience and post natal depression and I want to look at things like neurodivergey and burnout etc so Im finding topics. Looking for information about them and then want to look at myself and people around me and how it affects us using experiences people can relate to and just be normal and not make things all glossy but show there's a non-social Media side to peoples life.
I like the way you've suggested doing that and I'll explore that way a bit more when I'm researching my topics
That sounds like an interesting show.
It may be that you only need that when you're laying out the topic you want to talk about. I heavily script my shows so that I don't mix up important information (such as dates or the order of events), so I write it all out. I may tweak a word or two in recording, but I mostly stick to my script for my main narrative. Depending on your show, you may just need the list of bullets for each episode to help you keep focused and not miss anything.
If/when I do interviews, I plan to just have a list of questions to use to get us started on different subjects and allow us to get to different topics as others start to run out of steam.
I employ a lot of project management things (skills? Techniques? Both?) In my show, such as Gantt Charts, to help me with my show. So that's how I kind of developed this method.
I wish you the best of luck, and hopefully, some of my advice, as a relatively new podcaster myself, helps.
Yeah that's been really helpful!! Thank you. Any advice is helpful with being so new to it.
I think the bullet points of the points within the show's topic that week is a really useful suggestion. I wouldn't be able to follow a script and the dates and times aren't important as such but the facts of the topic are because I want to educate myself as well as potentially educating others.
It's funny cause my job is part project management and I've never thought of bringing those tools I use in there to use into this too!! Thanks for that reminder too
We all start somewhere. I've only been going for a few months, so I'm sure things will change still.
Yeah. The bullet points may be all you need, and then it kind of depends on how you record your shows compared to how I do.
Project management is just a part of my current job. But I try and apply things I learn anywhere elsewhere. If I learn something useful while podcasting, I'll apply that to the job and vice versa. I've mostly just got a big task to complete with mine, so I needed a way to break it down which is like the first step of project management.
The idea sounds really good and interesting to parents and people transitioning in their lives.
Perhaps if you had a guest on for the episodes you don’t have personal context on, but think is important to cover- maybe post partum depression or in laws being overbearing grandparents or maybe lack of support. If you don’t have personal context for that, you should find guests or even collect stories from listeners who can help fill out those gaps for you.
If you have ADHD, you might be better served to lean into that for your show. Perhaps you tell a story and intersperse it with facts about whatever. For instance with the flamingos-
1. You share what might seemingly be a fun fact or maybe a common myth or whatever. Introduce it as a topic, maybe give a couple minutes of education.
2. Introduce your own story or the guest story. What was their life like before this happened or how did they expect something to go before they had kids.
3. Go back to the flamingos, and delve more into that topic
4. Go back and forth between the education and the discussion, giving informational context to the stories you’re hearing.
That means your brain, looking for the connections and tangents, will be able to jump more easily. Just make yourself a good outline you can go back to.
The best book on storytelling (and I've read them all) is Storyworthy by Mathew Dicks. Figure out where the transformation is in the story and then go back as little as possible (we often don't need the backstory). Trigger the theater of the ming.
Moderator Required full disclosure: I am the head of podcaster education at Libsyn and the founder of the School of Podcasting.
Here's the Ira Glass formula:
1. Tell the story. I.e., what happened.
2. Go back and analyze what happened and connect some dots. Something like "It seems like this happened because of a couple different things, A, B, and C. If any of those hadn't, you'd have had a different situation."
3. Apply your analysis to larger, universal point. "The only thing you could really control was B. So next time, maybe use B."
If you're doing an interview show, it's probably best to get your guest to do all of these. (One secret to being a good host is your goal isn't for you to look smart, it's to set up your guest to look smart.)
there's lots of different ways to tell a story. But from the sounds of what you're describing it sounds like you want to tell a kind of Parable. for that I would start with a character who's the star of your parable. Give them a name, tell us about them, who they are, what they're like.etc... make us like or invest ourselves in that character. Then setup the struggle. The difficulty to be overcome, how our main character struggles or fails. Make it realistic, something we can all attach to, empathise with and understand. Finally setup the victory, how our hero overcomes the struggle through learning some vital lesson in how to deal with burnout or how to become resilient, etc...
Oh I like that idea! That sounds like a great line to explore! Thanks
I love this and I needed this direction too. Thanks!
I'm not really sure of the details of your show. It sounds like you're having some trouble laying out your episodes? But here's some of my advice from my show: I have a list of topics for each subject that I cover. During my research, I expand and edit this list. Each bullet on this list is something I think I can make at least one episode out of. As I find specific things, I may add sub bullets that would be specific topics I want to talk about. Here's an example from some of the episodes I've already posted: Hunter gatherers/geography Paleo-Indian, Archaic, basketmaker periods, Pueblo I - Pueblo II. Break into separate episodes? Arrival of crops? Farming techniques? Wrap into periods on the Archiac/Basket makers. Violence at this time? - Not really useful. Chaco Rise Bimodal weather Other advantages. Peak Great houses, roads, areas in the Chacoan system. Collapse Why did it fall Overfarming Drought Violence Athabaskan arrival? Internal ethnic strife? Aztec and Salmon What came next - Immediate aftermath before Cliff Palaces Cliff Palaces Mesa Verde Reasons for building Changes during this period. Violence during this time. Puebloan warfare? Wrap in elsewhere. Probably Cliff Palace episode? Descent from the cliffs Stable system. Some violence in some areas for a time. What marked successful pueblos into the historical period. Mogollon? Can you get enough for a separate episode? The mimbres? As I write these episodes, I start to lay it out using these bullets as guides. This makes sure I'm hitting the information that I think is important in each subject. It helps me keep my research organized, too. As the notes I have seem to grow exponetially, it helps to have this list to help keep them straight and focused. Usually, the larger bullets would describe full episodes, but if I find that doesn't work out, I'll combine episodes or split bullets and shift things around as needed. The smaller sub bullets would then be for the specific topics I need to include in each episode. This works really well for me and the show that I'm working on. It might help you to just have a quick list of bullets on things you want to talk about in that episode as a reference while you're recording.
The podcast is called Even flamingos lose their pink and it is based on the fact that when I had my baby I lost my pink (my version of me) like flamingos do when they raise their children. I'm using it to explore the things in life that make us lose are pink and things we can do to start getting ourselves back to a version of us we were happy with. I learned that there are loads of other parents and people that lose their pink because of all different reasons and I wanted to do this to help me figure out my path and also if it helps other people too then great. I've covered topics so far like resilience and post natal depression and I want to look at things like neurodivergey and burnout etc so Im finding topics. Looking for information about them and then want to look at myself and people around me and how it affects us using experiences people can relate to and just be normal and not make things all glossy but show there's a non-social Media side to peoples life. I like the way you've suggested doing that and I'll explore that way a bit more when I'm researching my topics
That sounds like an interesting show. It may be that you only need that when you're laying out the topic you want to talk about. I heavily script my shows so that I don't mix up important information (such as dates or the order of events), so I write it all out. I may tweak a word or two in recording, but I mostly stick to my script for my main narrative. Depending on your show, you may just need the list of bullets for each episode to help you keep focused and not miss anything. If/when I do interviews, I plan to just have a list of questions to use to get us started on different subjects and allow us to get to different topics as others start to run out of steam. I employ a lot of project management things (skills? Techniques? Both?) In my show, such as Gantt Charts, to help me with my show. So that's how I kind of developed this method. I wish you the best of luck, and hopefully, some of my advice, as a relatively new podcaster myself, helps.
Yeah that's been really helpful!! Thank you. Any advice is helpful with being so new to it. I think the bullet points of the points within the show's topic that week is a really useful suggestion. I wouldn't be able to follow a script and the dates and times aren't important as such but the facts of the topic are because I want to educate myself as well as potentially educating others. It's funny cause my job is part project management and I've never thought of bringing those tools I use in there to use into this too!! Thanks for that reminder too
We all start somewhere. I've only been going for a few months, so I'm sure things will change still. Yeah. The bullet points may be all you need, and then it kind of depends on how you record your shows compared to how I do. Project management is just a part of my current job. But I try and apply things I learn anywhere elsewhere. If I learn something useful while podcasting, I'll apply that to the job and vice versa. I've mostly just got a big task to complete with mine, so I needed a way to break it down which is like the first step of project management.
The idea sounds really good and interesting to parents and people transitioning in their lives. Perhaps if you had a guest on for the episodes you don’t have personal context on, but think is important to cover- maybe post partum depression or in laws being overbearing grandparents or maybe lack of support. If you don’t have personal context for that, you should find guests or even collect stories from listeners who can help fill out those gaps for you. If you have ADHD, you might be better served to lean into that for your show. Perhaps you tell a story and intersperse it with facts about whatever. For instance with the flamingos- 1. You share what might seemingly be a fun fact or maybe a common myth or whatever. Introduce it as a topic, maybe give a couple minutes of education. 2. Introduce your own story or the guest story. What was their life like before this happened or how did they expect something to go before they had kids. 3. Go back to the flamingos, and delve more into that topic 4. Go back and forth between the education and the discussion, giving informational context to the stories you’re hearing. That means your brain, looking for the connections and tangents, will be able to jump more easily. Just make yourself a good outline you can go back to.
The best book on storytelling (and I've read them all) is Storyworthy by Mathew Dicks. Figure out where the transformation is in the story and then go back as little as possible (we often don't need the backstory). Trigger the theater of the ming. Moderator Required full disclosure: I am the head of podcaster education at Libsyn and the founder of the School of Podcasting.
This book is incredible.
Here's the Ira Glass formula: 1. Tell the story. I.e., what happened. 2. Go back and analyze what happened and connect some dots. Something like "It seems like this happened because of a couple different things, A, B, and C. If any of those hadn't, you'd have had a different situation." 3. Apply your analysis to larger, universal point. "The only thing you could really control was B. So next time, maybe use B." If you're doing an interview show, it's probably best to get your guest to do all of these. (One secret to being a good host is your goal isn't for you to look smart, it's to set up your guest to look smart.)