The Podcast, Ep 7: Want to get weird? You need structure my friend.
The nerdy pleasure of a really good guideline
Hi friends! Before we get into our new podcast episode, I wanted to tell you that WE HIT 10,000 DOWNLOADS! I am not an industry insider so I’m not sure how good that is, but it FEELS like a really big number for an indie podcast with just 6 episodes out. Thank you so so much for listening, for sharing with friends, and for rating the show. You’re WONDERFUL.
Ok, so let’s keep that party going:
Episode 7: Structure is Your Type A Friend
People get worried that too much structure will make their stories boring. But let me show you how the right framework can actually help you get weird! I’ll prove it with a story about how structure gave me the confidence to try something I never thought I’d do. Hint: this story has a tear-away skirt in it.
I loved doing this episode because I really do believe in story structure, and any chance I have to talk about it is a good day.
In June 2025, I told a version of this story on the Moth MainStage here in Portland, Maine. The host of the MainStage was my old friend and brilliant storyteller Peter Aguero, who was, in fact, the friend that originally invited me to do burlesque. Such a wonderful coincidence! And when we went to do sound check at the State Theater, Peter called me to the stage with my burlesque name, which he still remembered 13 years later:
“PROFESSOR TA-TA HONEYTUSH.”
Let’s go!!
Ready for Episode 8? It’s here!
Want to start from the beginning? Go here!
This week’s prompt:
Find a framework that will make you feel secure. It could be the Story Spine, or an outline, or whatever template works for you. Then figure out how to innovate inside of that template.
Resources & Links:
Get the Story Spine template in the Story Letter Companion Workbook (free when you subscribe)
Jo Boobs’ Book: The Burlesque Handbook (fun fact, my brilliant editor at HarperOne, Rakesh Satyal, also edited this book!)
Get The Story Audit (a brand new offer from me!)
XO,
Micaela
Want more storytelling practice? My online, 6-week course, Your Story Out Loud, starts March 17th. It’s a small group with personalized feedback, and we’ll work on shaping your stories for memoir, performance, or essays. Just a few spots left. Join us!
Around three years ago I started tinkering on a software project where I'd decided: "I want to change the baseline for what people consider knowable." This was rooted in having started a personal note-making practice and losing a lot of my fear of forgetting things.
Since then I've been building a (kind of) personal digital assistant to help me stay organized easily, but there's no concise way to describe it, and I can't expect anyone to read a wall of text today about anything AI-adjacent. (My thing doesn't use LLMs, for now anyway.) So, potentially contrary to your advice...
I'm thinking of trying to tell my story through a game. I feel like I can't linearize what I have to say for any audience, I just have to give them a non-linear way to explore it for themselves. I'm thinking a game along the lines of Mafia/Werewolf or Among Us, where you slowly build out your own digital assistant as the game gets too hard to play without one. You can then take that assistant out into your regular life.
If you've heard of OpenClaw, I would want to make it easy for people to use it and software like it in place of what I'm promoting, because part of the narrative I want to talk about is how we determine what empowers us, and how that changes over time.
I'm afraid this is so much work that it'll never happen, but these are weird times, so 🤷