We're onto the last vowel of fan engagement, and it's a deceptively simple one: utility, or a small bit of easily shared knowledge that you give to your audience and that they share with their friends. It's tied up in your persona or brand, how

O for Offer(ing Your Fans Multiple Formats)

Mar 4th, 2023 25m 50s

When you have several offerings, your fans get to choose how they engage with you. That's the subject of this episode of Building a Better Story World: getting you to think of numerous formats, methodologies, and structures that will entice you

I is for Incentive...(er, Incentivizing Your Audience)

Feb 17th, 2023 19m 34s

How do you get your audience to engage? You incentivize them... and that's the topic of this episode, our third entry into the vowels of fan engagement. Using a popular "sports" multimedia channel, we explore how you can give rewards to fan for

E is for Express(ing Your Soul)

Feb 3rd, 2023 21m 45s

Our journey through the vowels of fan engagement continues! We're serving up another dish in this episode, with the main entree being E for Express. How you express yourself is critically important in making sure you're unique AND that you have

A is for Ask(ing Your Fans)

Jan 20th, 2023 22m 45s

We're continuing on our journey through the vowels of fan engagement! In this episode, a celebrity chef and globetrotter helps us to understand how asking your audiences to do stuff--to take part, to do you a favor, to question the world--will

The Vowels of Fan Engagement

Jan 6th, 2023 24m 59s

Building a Better Story World is back! Join producer and story world architect Steele Tyler Filipek as he guides creators in five ways to pragmatically and practically engage fans on any platform. It's as simple as AEIOU. Why? You'll just have

Interactive Structure Prompts and Recap

Oct 8th, 2021 22m 35s

We've just rapped up our arc of content on interactive story structure! If you want to dive back in and redo all the prompts, this episode is for you; it covers each exercise that was covered in the last series of episodes. Going through agent,

Its Own Reward - Rewarding Your Audience for Engaging

Sep 24th, 2021 17m 17s

Interactive structures need rewards, big and small, but you can't possibly give everything to everybody... can you? If you structure it right, you can! Join Steele Tyler Filipek as he guides you a process of tying the fun of your interactive ex

Choosing User Choices

Sep 10th, 2021 21m 19s

Agents in interactive experiences need to be able to affect the work in some manner. If not, it's not interactive! Join Steele Filipek as he showcases three ways to get users to make choices that reflect their desires, as well as a case study i

Obstacles, or, the Difference between Challenge and Difficulty

Aug 28th, 2021 18m 40s

After a brief technical snafu, Building a Better Story World is back! Using professional sports as a guide, Steele Filipek--that Knight of Narrative--will help show you how to build interesting obstacles into your interactive experience... and

That Which We Desire

Aug 13th, 2021 25m 9s

Ever want to know what goes into crowd-sourcing? Does finding an audience's desires make you trepidatious and excited? Understanding what audiences desire is critical to all story world development, but it's particularly important when dealing

Understanding Your Agents: Avatars, Users, and Audiences

Jul 30th, 2021 28m 49s

Building out your interactive story? Concerned about how audiences are going to engage with it? Allow Steele Filipek (and Commander Shepard) to guide you through the three forms of agents who take part in your interactive narrative universe: th

Interactive Storytelling Basics

Jul 16th, 2021 31m 14s

We've covered a lot of ground in traditional storytelling and story world design, but now we're shifting gears to interactive design. From video games to social media to branding campaigns to crowd-sourcing, all interactive media function on th

Aspire to Aspire: Making Your World Aspirational

Jul 2nd, 2021 33m 2s

There is at least one way to make your story world exciting for every audience member to jump into, time and again. Listen in as Steele Filipek uses an amazing sci-fi film to showcase how you can do this for your own work! Three prompts and thi

Testing Your Rules (And Your Engines!)

Jun 18th, 2021 24m 14s

You're going to need to put your story world through the ringer to make sure the narrative, characters, fun, and all that other good stuff feel right. How do you make sure that it's all in alignment? Find out, as Steele Filipek takes you throug

Critique, or Eating Your Vegetables

Jun 4th, 2021 21m 16s

It's a tale as old as time, albeit without singing dishware and a prince that's turned into a beast. There's a classic that's venerated by critics since time immemorial, or a smash hit that you just can't stand, or a box office bomb that gets y

Developing your Dialogue

May 21st, 2021 23m 5s

Almost everybody wants to write good dialogue, but where do you begin? Listen in as Steele Filipek, your lovable host, details three case studies and three ideas about what your characters say, how they say it, and why. With those tools, you'll

Just Suppose You Juxtapose

May 7th, 2021 19m 17s

What happens when you put two things side-by-side? You get audiences to compare them! Juxtaposition is an easy, clever, and fan-friendly way to help build out your narrative universe. How? Let producer and writer Steele Tyler Filipek take you o

Exposition is NOT a Four-Letter Word

Apr 23rd, 2021 24m 39s

How do you craft difficult or detailed information from your story world in a way that engages audiences? There are any number of ways, but this episode deals with a three-step format for creating compelling expository content, both for narrati

Building Your Mythology

Apr 9th, 2021 33m 49s

You've asked. Steele has heard. Here is a technique for building a mythology for your very own story world. It's not the only way to build such a thing, of course, but considering it's been the foundation for over a dozen Starlight Runner clien

Time and Again: Building out the Chronology of Narrative Universes

Mar 26th, 2021 19m 35s

Some story worlds have sprawling, millennia-long mythologies. Others take place between last Tuesday and next Friday. In all cases, understanding the past, present, and future of your story world will help you craft compelling narratives that f

A Road Trip: Creating Interesting Locales

Mar 12th, 2021 33m 29s

Mr. Filipek has guided you on many paths that have led you to understand story worlds, and now he's going to share with you the keys to creating compelling worlds themselves... literally, in the form of locales! Join in for this episode as we t

Secondary Characters à la Simpson

Feb 26th, 2021 28m 23s

You've got a world, but it feels a little empty. How are you going to build the numerous allies, enemies, and passersby who will give your narrative universe a heartbeat? Let Steele Tyler Filipek take you on a tour of Springfield, where the cas

Opening Salvos, Miyazaki-style

Feb 12th, 2021 34m 3s

Ever struggled with how to introduce your story world to your audience! Producer and writer extraordinaire Steele Tyler Filipek is here to help you out! With the aid of the films of Hayao Miyazaki, your favorite transmedia guru is going to hel

Prompts, Part Deux

Jan 29th, 2021 25m 3s

It's time for another episode of prompts! We've just covered a whole host of advanced story world creation lessons, and so if you'd like to delve back in without having to listen to multiple episodes, you can find all of those prompts here! The