In this episode of the How Story Works podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich walks you through the weeding out process of critical thought with Aaron Sorkin’s “A Few Good Men,” covering everything from Jack Nicholson having a nice ass (who knew?) to how Daniel Kaffee touching EVERY DOUGHNUT is an illustration of the patriarchy at work. It’s not all good stuff… but that’s kind of the point.

In this episode of the How Story Works podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich talks about how to build your platform for criticism, and talks about pseudo-benevolent antagonists and the danger of the rogue hero in Disney’s Tangled.

In this episode of the How Story Works YouTube series and podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich prepares to dive into advanced criticism with a talk about the value of criticism, both for writers and non-writers.

In this episode of the How Story Works YouTube series and podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich talks about the magic of narrative and the responsibility of the critic in engaging with the stories they study.

In this episode of the How Story Works YouTube series and podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich returns to narrative theory with a quick review of the concepts from the first 27 podcast episodes, and follows that up with a discussion of the separate but equally important values of magic and craft.

In this episode of the How Story Works podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich finishes up the basics of narrative theory, and sets out her plan for the rest of the podcast.

In this episode of the How Story Works podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich talks about the value of originality and how that relates to stereotypes, archetypes and tropes.

In this episode of the How Story Works podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich gives tips and tricks for writing great dialogue, and for understanding how essential it is to expressing character.

In this episode of the How Story Works podcast, story expert Lani Diane Rich addresses the problem of likability, character arcs vs. character breaks, and how powerful the art of naming is to developing great characters. Download the mp3 here. Subscribe to the show!...