Storytelling to Convey Advanced Concepts with Maggie Ostara (half 1) – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 97
“Human brains work. We reside in story.” – Maggie Ostara
On this episode of How To Write the Future, podcast host Beth Barany talks with Amazon Bestselling writer, Maggie Ostara. Collectively they talk about the idea of Female Sovereignty explored in Maggie’s e book “Female Sovereignty: 8 Pillars for Regenerating Ourselves and Our World.” They delve into how the e book engages readers, the writing course of, and the significance of storytelling in conveying complicated concepts to empower individuals and encourage change. (Storytelling to Share Advanced Concepts with Maggie Ostara, half 1)
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RESOURCES
Ensouling Language: On the Artwork of Nonfiction and the Author’s Life by Stephen Harrod Buhner https://books2read.com/u/mdwWx5
Free World Constructing Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/weblog/world-building-resources/
Join the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/weblog/story-success-clinic/
Get help in your fiction writing by a novelist and writing instructor and coach. Schedule an exploratory name right here and see if Beth can help you at this time: https://writersfunzone.com/weblog/discovery-call/
Concerning the How To Write the Future podcast
The *How To Write The Future* podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who wish to write optimistic futures and efficiently carry these tales out into {the marketplace}. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cowl suggestions for fiction writers. This podcast is for readers too for those who’re in any respect interested in the way forward for humanity.
This podcast is for you in case you have questions like:
– How do I create a plausible world for my science fiction story?
– How do I determine what’s not working if my story feels flat?
– How do I make my story extra attention-grabbing and alive?
This podcast is for readers too for those who’re in any respect interested in the way forward for humanity.
ABOUT MAGGIE OSTARA
Maggie Ostara, PhD left her prestigious job because the Director of Girls’s and Gender Research at Columbia College when she realized she’s not meant to work for anybody else.
She’s the writer of the worldwide Amazon best-seller, Female Sovereignty: 8 Pillars for Regenerating Ourselves and Our World (2023). In 2024 she’ll offer the Female Sovereignty Explorers Membership and the Female Sovereignty Management Incubator based mostly within the ideas of the 8 Pillars.
With over 20 years of expertise supporting 20,000+ college students and tons of of shoppers, Maggie teaches find out how to construct your energy inside, make constantly dependable choices, keep away from overwhelm and burnout, create a much bigger influence with much less effort, and rework inside liabilities into highly effective property and allies.
She’s an authorized Human Design and Quantum Human Design Specialist, Stage 4, an authorized Radiant Physique Yoga Teacher, and an authorized Readability Breathwork Practitioner. She helps her international viewers by means of her thriving YouTube channel and works with shoppers 1:1 and in teams.
Web site: https://femininesovereigntybook.com/
What’s your Female Sovereign Archetypes? https://ostaraexperience.com/sovereignquiz/
FB: https://www.fb.com/MaggieOstaraPhD/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/sovereigntybydesign/
Transcript for Storytelling to Share Advanced Concepts with Maggie Ostara (half 1)
BETH BARANY
Hey everybody, welcome to Methods to Write the Future. I’m Beth Barany, an award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist and writing instructor, and coach, and I supply up this podcast as a present to the world with suggestions for writers and anybody who cares in regards to the future as a result of I consider that once we imaginative and prescient what is feasible, we truly assist make it so.
Sometimes, I interview superior thinkers and doers who’re making our world higher. And at this time I’m so excited to introduce you to and share with you a brand new e book by my visitor Maggie Ostara. Welcome, Maggie.
MAGGIE OSTARA
Thanks, Beth. I’m glad to be right here. Thanks for inviting me.
BETH BARANY
You and I’ve recognized one another for a very long time.
MAGGIE OSTARA
It’s a very long time, isn’t it?
BETH BARANY
Yeah, gosh, over a decade, Maggie and I met one another within the native San Francisco Bay space within the ladies’s networking circuit. That was so cool and I’m actually excited to share with you all about Maggie and her new e book. So Maggie, I’m going to learn your great bio to everybody to allow them to get to know you, right here it’s.
Maggie Ostara, PhD, left her prestigious job because the Director of Girls’s and Gender Research at Columbia College when she realized she’s not meant to work for anybody else. She’s the writer of the worldwide Amazon bestseller, Female Sovereignty: Eight Pillars for Regenerating Ourselves and Our World, out in 2023.
In 2024, she’ll offer the Female Sovereignty Explorers Membership and the Female Sovereignty Management Incubator, based mostly within the ideas of the Eight Pillars. With over 20 years of expertise supporting 20,000 plus college students and tons of of shoppers, Maggie teaches find out how to construct your energy inside, make constantly dependable choices, keep away from overwhelm and burnout, create a much bigger influence with much less effort, and rework inside liabilities into highly effective property and allies. She’s a Licensed Human Design and Quantum Human Design Specialist, Stage 4, a Licensed Radiant Physique Yoga Teacher, and a Licensed Readability Breathwork Practitioner. She helps her international viewers by means of her thriving YouTube channel and works one-on-one with individuals and in teams.
So welcome once more, Maggie.
MAGGIE OSTARA
Thanks, Beth. Comfortable to be right here.
BETH BARANY
It’s actually enjoyable studying your bio and all that you’ve got carried out. so at this time –
MAGGIE OSTARA
It’s all the time humorous listening to it, like if you take heed to any person else learn your bio, you’re like, who’s that?
BETH BARANY
I do know, proper? I do know. That’s all. I wish to learn individuals’s bio on air as a result of it’s such a enjoyable interchange. Now we have a persona that we share in our bio, however then, in fact, we’re a lot greater than that.
And so one of many issues that you’ve got been working actually onerous on is that this superb e book that I’ve learn just a little little bit of in preparation for at this time. And I’m actually excited to share about it to our listeners as a result of I feel writers should not solely writers, however writers certainly are sometimes very curious, very a lot wish to perceive the world higher.
And I feel it is a nice match for our listeners. You’ll be able to inform me your response to Maggie’s e book, and I encourage everybody to test it out as a result of your e book serves to do what I additionally goal to do, which is empower my viewers, empower the individuals I work with, the writers I work with, and the forward-thinking organizations I work with.
So I really like how in your e book you open up with a second-person narrative, just a little story the place you’re speaking on to the reader and alluring the reader into an expertise. And I really like the way you’ve obtained that in your e book. You’ve obtained expertise by means of that story. And then you definately’ve obtained instruction and steering and the instructor voice comes ahead.
And that’s so lovely. So right here we’re in a podcast about writing the long run. Additionally a podcast author who cares about making the world a greater place actually, as a result of that’s what I really feel like I’m, my automobile is fiction, and infrequently my viewers’s automobile is fiction.
Marker – How Female Sovereignty Helps Fiction
So how does your e book, Female Sovereignty, what can it supply, what does it supply to people who find themselves engaged on their tales or work on their novels, their fiction that’s possibly in regards to the future, possibly about one other world, like a fantastical setting.
Yeah. Are you able to join how your e book connects to what we’re engaged on? Storytellers.
MAGGIE OSTARA
Yeah. So by way of writing the long run I simply wish to say Beth and I actually reconnected in a category referred to as Thrutopia, which was supplied by Manda Scott, who wrote one of many forewords for my e book and has been a mentor of mine for a number of years now. And I simply love her.
And so by going by means of that style is about how will we get from the place we at the moment are to the tradition and the society that we might be delighted to depart to future generations. And so it stimulated much more for me, the query about how are we attending to the long run that we might be proud to depart once we go, proper?
How will we get there? What does that entail?
Marker – The Cool Factor About Thrutopia
And the cool factor about Thrutopia is it’s there’s many issues, however one is it’s not about writing a utopia. It’s actually a lot based mostly in what’s going on in our lives now and what are the subsequent steps that we have to do. And initially it was conceived as a fiction style, fiction or, the brief tales or poetry or movie or no matter, very a lot narrative, centered on narrative.
And one of many issues that I discovered and that was actually necessary to me in writing my e book.
Primary, I wished to write down a e book that individuals have been going to learn.
BETH BARANY
Proper.
MAGGIE OSTARA
So many books which can be printed nowadays and admittedly, a number of them should not very readable. I’ve tried to learn sure issues that I used to be like.
Okay, so I wished to write down a e book that was readable, however I additionally ask my reader to confront issues that may be actually troublesome for them.
I requested them to take a look at our historical past of colonialism, for instance, and the place they’re located inside: What sort of privilege have they got? How a lot entitlement do they really feel like they’ve?
What are the issues which have been offered to them? How do they really feel about inclusivity or not? And likewise what’s our relationship to the dwelling world and the way can we truly face what we’ve carried out to the dwelling world and what we proceed to perform a little bit extra?
These are issues which can be a number of us select to not pay a number of consideration to.
And so my query for myself was, how do I do that in a means that individuals interact? And might digest what I’m suggesting that they check out and combine and don’t flip away?
Or in the event that they flip away, they arrive again like they don’t get turned off.
So one of many issues I did was, is I made the reader a personality within the e book.
She’s the principle character. And I write to a she, however it’s actually for individuals of any gender. There isn’t something tremendous like that is just for ladies. There are specific elements of the e book which can be like that.
You talked about second individual. Right here she is. We step proper in and each single one of many chapters has a story piece in the beginning the place she’s having an expertise.
And, as a result of I wished her to really feel like she was part of the story, that is her story. There’s facets of this which can be her story.
After which additionally I pause rather a lot. So I’m additionally a personality within the e book, a nonfiction e book. It’s not a fiction e book, however there’s characters, plenty of narrative. And I’m additionally a personality within the e book and I relate to my reader rather a lot.
And so once we’re asking our individuals to examine issues which can be difficult and once we write in regards to the future, particularly if we’re doing it in a means the place it’s truly related to the current and never simply one thing we’ve fully imagined. Generally we’re actually asking individuals to take a look at issues which can be onerous.
Marker – How Do We Hold Readers Engaged?
And the query is: how will we preserve individuals engaged? How will we make them wish to keep the course?
And so my technique was to be a personality within the e book and to have my reader be a personality within the e book and for us to develop a relationship with one another over the course of the e book in order that my reader actually felt like she-.
Primary, I had her again, I used to be proper there, and I used to be offering steering, and such as you stated, some suggestions and invites about what she will be able to do with this materials. But in addition, the thought was to transmit this understanding that we’re truly all on this collectively, and to interrupt down the type of recurring isolation and separation that Western tradition enculturates us into, however then additionally COVID actually emphasised.
BETH BARANY
Yeah.
MAGGIE OSTARA
So I might simply say that it’s like.
How do you invite your reader to have the ability to course of and digest and combine and work with the belongings you’re asking them to take a look at that may not be simple?
BETH BARANY
Yeah. And from a instructor standpoint, I completely see what you’re doing. It’s actually the decision and response. You’re actually together with the considerations of the reader and also you’re additionally speaking to them, not simply lecturing at them. There’s a way of invitation and likewise, it’s a distinct means of writing content material.
Lots of people may write content material and you are feeling like they’re standing up supplying you with a really entertaining, attention-grabbing, in depth lecture, however that’s one thing totally different that you simply’re doing on this e book. Simply from what I’ve learn to this point, I discovered that actually participating and I did initially have my guard up as a result of there’s something confronting in regards to the subject.
However then as I learn, particularly that first narrative that opens the e book, I softened into it. I obtained into it and I might see how what you have been doing was such a useful gizmo, writing the inviting narrative. Properly carried out.
MAGGIE OSTARA
Thanks. Thanks. Yeah, The writing strategy of the e book was extraordinarily difficult.
I’ve been writing for a extremely very long time. It says in my bio, I used to be a professor and I printed my first e book in 1998. It’s a really educational e book. And I’ve been writing just about ever since, however the undertaking of this e book, as a result of it does have many various genres in it was how the genres after which subject areas which can be fairly totally different from one another.
So the writing was: how do I write it in order that it’s seamless? And the reader doesn’t really feel misplaced and she will be able to simply preserve going. Even when, we’re right here after which we’re there after which we’re speaking about this after which I’m asking her to try this. And so there’s all these various things, however I positioned a really excessive precedence on that type of seamless you’ll be able to simply preserve studying it by means of. In order that there’s no second the place ideally she stops and goes, wait a minute. Why are we right here?
BETH BARANY
Yeah. So how did you handle that? I used to be studying the introduction and also you inform us that you simply’re pulling from a number of knowledge traditions, not simply Western. You inform us that you simply’re going to be inviting us to mirror inward after which to resolve how will we wish to act outward.
And I might see simply from the scope of that introduction that you simply labored onerous to make that occur. So I’m questioning how did you overcome that problem of encompassing so many issues in your e book? Did you’ve got assist? Did you rent an editor? The entire above?
Marker – How Maggie Enhance the E book
MAGGIE OSTARA
I did have, an editor writing coach.
The principle factor that she did for me that I feel actually improved the e book was there was a degree at which, as a result of I’m truly a extremely good editor. I’ve been writing a very long time. I’ve edited a number of issues and I’m truly a extremely good editor. And he or she was like, dang, you’re actually good at modifying.
And I’m like, I’m. However there can be instances the place I might be like, I do know what the issues are. What I might love to listen to from you is what works. What’s the better of all of this? And I’ll do extra of that. And he or she’s truly the one who stated; “The way in which that you simply stroll aspect by aspect with the reader is extraordinary.”
She stated, I don’t see books try this. And given your subject, your subject material, I feel it’s actually useful in your reader.
As soon as she stated that and she or he stored pointing to it. I used to be like, okay. And so then that turned a bigger construction for what I used to be doing. And as I did that, it enabled me to be like, okay, we’ve been speaking about this and now we’re going to go over right here. And the rationale that we’re going to try this is, is that this was actually necessary, however it’s not every part we have to know. Now we have to go and have a look at this. In order that’s what I imply by like me being a personality within the e book, proper?
Is I’m like truly speaking to my reader and I’m saying, that is what we’re doing. And so if we do have some type of a giant thematic shift, I truly speak them by means of it. Like I say, we’re going to do it or, I don’t, have you learnt who Stephan Buhner is? Is {that a} author who means something to you? He has an unbelievable e book.
He’s printed like 17 books. He has an unbelievable e book referred to as Ensouling Language. Placing soul into language.
BETH BARANY
I’ve heard of that, or possibly you’ve talked about it earlier than.
MAGGIE OSTARA
I’ve talked about it earlier than. He’s superb.
And he’s additionally written, he’s additionally a grasp herbalist. He’s, he handed on final December, however grasp herbalists written unbelievable books about crops and anyway.
So I learn Ensouling Language and it’s for nonfiction writers, however he was speaking about how he, he does sure issues, however I observed the seamless means that he would pull collectively the fabric of a chapter and summarize it in a means the place you weren’t going, Oh, I’m studying a abstract, however you have been like, Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We thought of that. We thought of that. And he goes, and now the subsequent step is to discover this. And that may be the top of a chapter.
After which the subsequent chapter can be about that factor. And so I employed that all through, as a result of it wasn’t simply chapter to chapter for me. It was truly within a chapter.
BETH BARANY
That’s nice.
MAGGIE OSTARA
And so I employed that very same type of writing technique that I feel actually simply helps the reader be like, Oh, okay, we’re switching gears now. We’re shifting into one thing else and that simply helps individuals chill out and go, Oh, okay, we’re going to do one thing totally different. Whereas for those who simply go from A to F, they’re like, wait a minute, we have been simply in A. The place are we now?
Whereas for those who say, okay, we’re carried out with A, and now we’re going to F and because of this. Yeah. So I did a number of that.
BETH BARANY
That’s nice. And from a fiction perspective that likens it to in scene construction on the finish of a scene after the disaster, Oh no, the selection, the troublesome selection. After which the climax, the selecting.
Then you definitely wish to have the decision, a second of digestion, as certainly one of my writing academics says.
And I really like that second of digestion and infrequently that’s the place you’ll be able to have the protagonist say,okay, that occurred. And you’re feeling a sure means about it and then you definately’re like okay, and now I obtained to go over right here. I obtained to go do that factor.
It’s very comparable. And I feel there’s one thing within the, in, have to be deep in our human wiring round story. That we want this. that this permits us to have that second of digestion and reorient to the subsequent factor. So it’s very lovely.
MAGGIE OSTARA
And realization typically occurs in that second too, proper?
As a result of we’ve been by means of this entire expertise after which the protagonist or whoever the Major character is in that second, oftentimes, as they’re digesting, they’ve a realization. They’re like, Oh, that’s what that was occurring. Or I by no means thought of this person who means, or proper. There’s this entire type of epiphany that may come up.
After which that creates the muse for the subsequent factor. Completely. Yeah. Completely. I, and I fully agree with you about story. I’m an enormous fan of story. I knew after I wrote this e book that there, it was going to be stuffed with tales. And, as a result of I feel that’s how we perceive something. I’m not a kind of individuals who thinks, Oh, we must always get out of story.
I’m like, primary, I don’t assume you’ll be able to. Human brains work. We reside in story.
BETH BARANY
I completely agree.
Get pleasure from half two subsequent week the place I speak with Maggie about her e book, Female Sovereignty, envisioning optimistic futures, and revolution.
In order that’s it for this week everybody. Please like, and subscribe, and share.
And I simply actually admire you for listening and for displaying up in your artistic work.
Write lengthy and prosper.
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ABOUT BETH BARANY
Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists find out how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, instructor, guide, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”
Be taught extra about Beth Barany at these websites:
Writer web site / Teaching web site / College of Fiction / Author’s Enjoyable Zone weblog
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