Episode 228: What's the Verbivore Reading?

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Today on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re sharing our latest book reads conversation — this is part 1 of 2 featuring the Verbivore’s stories!

Over the last few months instead of doing our typical bookclub episodes, we’ve started talking about some of the things we’ve recently read and enjoyed, connected with, or learned from. It’s been a great way to share what we’re consuming and loving lately and finding new recommendations.

In this episode, the Verbivore covers a range of books, shows, and one film - a funny and poignant coming-of-age story, three hilarious and delightful romcoms, two much anticipated books by a couple of her favorite authors, a prequel book and it’s blockbuster adaptation, and several critically well received Netflix series.

We also talk a lot about these stories from a craft perspective, what the authors, writers, or directors did that we found interesting. Things like:

  • Frankly in Love - The impact choices can have on the tone of a scene; How to craft a personal story that can bring readers to laughter and tears

  • Loathe at First Sight: A Novel - Generational tension adding pressure on the main character’s situation; Balancing humor, building romantic connection, and saying something about the negative aspects of toxic work environments

  • Soulmate Equation - Character precise and flavourful characters; Creating relationship dynamics that are believable and supportive, but have natural obstacles and tensions that feel organic when problems arise

  • A Curse for True Love - Filling stories with larger than life characters, flavor, color, drama, and magic; Using the unique aspects of the world (a story curse) to create added details with bonus content

  • Check and Mate - Changing genres from Adult to YA; Exploring scientific and psychological concepts (like Stereotype threat) in a fun and delightful story setting

  • The American Roommate Experiment - Using your experience from a meta standpoint to bleed into the story; A great example of an author progressing in their craft from one book to the next; A swoonworthy male lead who cooks, is a sweet cinnamon role, and has an edge and a past

  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (& Film adaptation) - A lesson in giving your readers things to hope for, even when they ultimately know how a story ends; How to boil down and take the imperative aspects of a story into an adaptation

  • Wednesday Season 1 - Knowing the tone you’re wanting to set and leaning into the details that help make a story world feel real and grounded in reality

  • The Queen’s Gambit - Sitting with a character over time and watching them grow and develop, but also have setbacks; A great example of interwoven storytelling that combine the past, present, and a clear objective

  • Queen Charlotte - The first 15 to 20 minutes are brilliant in introducing the audience to the character with only a few key scenes; Taking a character we think we know and pulling back the curtain on who they are and why they are that way

  • The Marvels - Creating an antagonist whose motivations we not only understand, but could see us doing under the right circumstances; Interweaving the storylines of several characters and leaning into the tensions and awkwardnesses that naturally unfold from the situations; Balancing humor and high stakes situations

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Books and Films Mentioned:

Music from:https://filmmusic.io
 ‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Bethany Stedman