Writing

Podcast Enterprise: S1E04: Where No Man Has Gone Before

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

Today we are going to be discussing Where No Man Has Gone Before.

This is essentially the second pilot of Star Trek that was submitted to NBC. And in this episode, we find the Enterprise heading towards the edges of the galaxy, where they pick up a very strange distress signal from a ship that they thought had disappeared in this ship had disappeared 200 years ago.

As they begin to investigate the distress signals from the ship they managed to take into the Enterprise, the disaster recorder of that ship, which is called the SS Valiant . When they go through the recordings, they find that that ship was in turmoil. They were going through some very weird occurrences. They were at the edge of the galaxy. They had crossed the edge of the galaxy and they were looking into some events involving ESP extra sensory perception. While the Enterprise is looking through these recordings, the Enterprise itself goes through the edge of the galaxy.

They face a magnetic storm, they hit a peculiar barrier and then two crew members are affected by a strange energy field. And because of that, the two crew members, they start acting very peculiar. One of the crew members starts having God like powers, and then he becomes a threat to the entire human race.

This is the summary of the episode.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E03: Charlie X

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: The USS enterprise, it makes a rendezvous with a cargo ship that calls itself, the Antares.

And they’re going to take a board, a young man from that ship. So right from the very beginning, you see that the captain and the first officer of the Antares that is Captain Ramart and Tom Nellis, they are quite nervous, a little bit fidgety and not quite there when they bring this child aboard.

He’s 17 years old, his name is Charlie Evans. And then as this episode progress, as you realize that Charlie has had a very unusual childhood, he essentially raised himself on a planet, that had an alien civilization that’s supposedly gone extinct because there are only legends about the civilization.

And then Charlie essentially raised himself. As I said, he’s got these weird powers. He’s very needy. He’s very possessive. He’s socially extremely awkward. And he’s also extremely intelligent. And eventually it turns out that the aliens they’re not extinct, they found Charlie alone and they gave him certain powers.

Charlie misuses these powers because he doesn’t really know what to do with them. And as a story progresses, you realize that the aliens, even though they allowed Thetas, they’re called you realize that even though they gave these powers for Charlie to survive, they did not give him any. Affection, which is essentially what drives this character to certain violent and weird and possessive acts.

He cannot adjust to human society and he has to leave. So that’s a short summary of this episode.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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How to write a novel-Step-2-Write the main story arc

So, you want to write a novel?

In this series, I’ll detail out my process of writing a novel. How I converted a simple idea into 70,000 (Scrabble Queen) and 80,000 (Penniless) word manuscripts?

I will use my latest writing project Bhumiyin Kathai (Bhumi’s story) as an example, so that it can serve as an inspiration for you. (Totally selfish reasons, while trying to explain stuff to you, I am getting the motivation to complete outlining the story 😁)

I am writing this story (eventually as a screenplay) to serve as a backdrop and an interest creator for this course - https://onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in/course_pages/BSCMG3001.html

Right, back to novel writing.

What after the one line story?

Step 2

Write the main story arc.

For Bhumiyin Kathai:

• Bhumi is outright broke, but wants to go to college (Hook)
• Bhumi runs away from home and ends up in Hassan Arts College because of helping Okano (Plot Turn 1)
• Bhumi enrolls in a computer course on Okano’s insistence (Plot turn 1)
• Bhumi topped the first English exam ahead of Param, Param’s schoolmate and friend plants evidence of Bhumi cheating and the teacher voids her marks (Pinch 1)
• Bhumi wants to make amends, she pleads with the HOD and she grants her one chance - to present to her teacher
• Bhumi makes a presentation, but teacher ends up failing her
• Bhumi trains hard in computer science (app dev), presentation skills, webpage development (Mid-point)
• Bhumi decides that she has to help her sisters and brother out
• Okano finds out Bhumi had been lying about her mom (Pinch 2)
• Bhumi gets to know of a hackathon and enrolls as a team (Plot Turn 2)
• Her alpha version of the app bombs (FailTry1)
• Her beta version of the app also bombs (FailTry2)
• She ends up intercepting Okano’s email (FailTry3)
• Bhumi wins the hackathon and uses the prize money to give scholarship to girl students from Jaanathur (Resolution)

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E02: The Man Trap

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

In this episode, the USS enterprise arrives at a planet called M 1 1 3, and the captain and the doctor beams down there. The planet is in ruins.

It’s a shadow of an ancient civilization that is long vanished and the only two inhabitants there, are a doctor called Dr. Robert Crater, who’s an archeologist and his wife, Nancy Crater. Dr. McCoy has actually been in a relationship with Nancy Crater, so there’s a lot of confusing emotions there for him.

The episode deals with the alien race that was there among the ruins. This alien race had built a civilization and then they disappeared for some strange reason. And there’s nobody left. They think apparently there’s an imposter among them.

And this creature is able to shape, shift and take on various roles. It’s able to take on the role of Nancy. It’s able to take on the role of various crew men and it survives essentially on salt. The doctor, Dr. Robert Crater, he knows this and he is attempting to get people out of there by, being very bad tempered to them, I guess, but it doesn’t work.

That’s the rundown of the episode. And eventually it ends in a bit of a tragedy because this creature is the last of its kind and it has to be destroyed because it is quite uncontrollable.

It is driven by a very powerful hunger. And it doesn’t think beyond the hunger, which makes it very dangerous.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E01: The Cage

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

In The Cage, the first pilot episode of Star Trek TOS and this was aired, I believe in 1965. It follows instead of Captain Kirk, we have Captain Pike in command of the Enterprise and, he receives a strange distress signal from the SS Columbia in very very peculiar planet called Talos IV. The episode actually follows their interactions with a very diabolic and eerie race of aliens on Talos IV who specialized in telepathy. You would find that the crew members of the Enterprise in this episode is very different from the rest of Star Trek.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Episode 0: These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise

Intro to our podcast series Podcast Enterprise.

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

The episode to kickstart all the other episodes of Podcast Enterprise. We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

(Drumroll) Karmic Design Thinking Print Edition Available Globally

I am very happy to announce that Karmic Design Thinking (Print edition) is now available on Amazon.com and other allied marketplaces (like France, Germany, US, UK, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Canada and Australia).

It is already available to order on Amazon India (Print & Kindle), pothi.com (Print), halfpricebooks.in and Flipkart.com.

Pssst… Flipkart is running a 16% discount on the book as of today!

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How to write a novel-Step-1-Write a one-liner novel

So, you want to write a novel?

In this series, I’ll detail out my process of writing a novel. How I converted a simple idea into 70,000 (Scrabble Queen) and 80,000 (Penniless) word manuscripts?

I will use my latest writing project Bhumiyin Kathai (Bhumi’s story) as an example, so that it can serve as an inspiration for you. (Totally selfish reasons, while trying to explain stuff to you, I am getting the motivation to complete outlining the story 😁)

I am writing this story (eventually as a screenplay) to serve as a backdrop and an interest creator for this course - https://onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in/course_pages/BSCMG3001.html

Right, back to novel writing.

Where to start?

Step 1

Write the story in one line.

For Bhumiyin Kathai:

An indecisive and scheming literature student from a village helps all her siblings become artists by learning to make apps.

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How to write a novel-Ideas a plenty

So many people in the past have told me “I have an idea for a novel” or “There is a novel in everyone” or “Bah.. I can write better than that novel that I just read”.

Translating these words into action requires, brace yourselves,

inspiration.

Nope, wrong answer. The answer is actually very simple - writing.

Not:

• learning about writing
• reading other people’s work
• contemplating how your fans will be clamouring for your autograph once your book reaches the top of the book stack.

In this series, I’ll detail out my process of writing a novel. How I converted a simple idea into 70,000 (Scrabble Queen) and 80,000 (Penniless) word manuscripts?

But, is it just writing? So, if you keep writing for a year, will you have a novel at the end of the year?

Yes, in many cases. In my case, my intention was to plan out the details of the book first before diving headlong into writing.

I consider this an architect or an engineer’s approach to writing fiction.

More posts will come out soon detailing the process. Hang tight!

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COEXIST - Actionable Stories for Sustainable Change - The End

The final battle, challenge, finale, climax

You can call it whatever you want. This is it!

You’ve been prepping the hero and their team for, the entire story. Let’em have it all. There are certain battles which are epic and form their own story (You can apply the COEXIST structure just for the ending sequences).

Let’s recap. In the COEXIST storytelling method, we

• chose a hero and an issue in step C;
• wrote our grand story in one-line in step O;
• made our hero “get out” of their comfort zone in step E;
• gave them an external threat for them to battle in step X;
• moved the hero from reaction to action in step I;
• removed the help of their best friend/mentor in step S;
• pitted them against the very thing that they never faced before on their own in step T;
• and now, describe the final face-off in its entirety and give them something special as well.

Let’s go back to the stories that we have been tracking.

In Finding Nemo, Nemo, Marlin and Dory ask the fish to fight against the might of the fishing net. “Just keep swimming” is the mantra that these three tell all of the fish caught in the net. Marlin’s son does manage to free up all the fish and Dory, however Nemo lies at the ocean floor. Of course, Marlin, Dory and Nemo are united and as a special, we meet offspring, the Turtle, as the exchange student.

In The Matrix, after several failed attempts at being stopped, Neo reaches a telephone to be transported back to the real world. He faces his last challenge, he is shot by the agent at point blank range. Trinity throws a contradictory statement at Neo, which somehow revives him. He is now unstoppable and destroys Agent Smith. As a bonus, we see Neo do a flying thing at the end.

In Titanic, the tough challenge is to gain her senses to attract the attention of the rescuers, evade Cal and enter the US. She becomes an actress and finally has the heart to throw the Heart of the Ocean necklace into the… well… ocean.

How do you perform the final step of The End?

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