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The Harry Potter of Digital Storytelling with Nathan Baugh

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Apr 30, 2024

Guest

Nathan Baugh

In this engaging conversation, Nathan Baugh, a fiction writer and creator of the popular World Builders newsletter, dives into the craft of digital storytelling. He discusses the secrets behind building a massive online audience and how literature translates to digital platforms. Nathan emphasizes the power of nonlinear storytelling, the differences between rhetoric and drama in writing, and the importance of character internality. They also explore tips for effective foreshadowing, the use of present tense for immersion, and storytelling techniques inspired by J.K. Rowling.

51:57

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Episode notes

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ADVICE

Write What You Care About

Focus on what you genuinely care about rather than copying popular internet writing formulas.
Build an audience by offering unique lenses and deeper theory, not just surface-level tactics.

insights

INSIGHT

Audience Size Enables Creative Freedom

A large but focused newsletter lets you prioritize craft over constant monetization tactics.
Storyteller-fit matters: care and authenticity often beat formulaic advice.

insights

INSIGHT

Drama Versus Rhetoric Online

Rhetoric (persuade/inform) and drama (story) are different goals but often conflated online.
Drama will grow in importance because rhetoric can be automated or commoditized.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Debating Great Opening Lines

01:09 • 2min

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Nonlinear Storytelling Examples

03:30 • 1min

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Why Nathan's Newsletter Resonates

04:56 • 8min

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Rhetoric vs Drama in Online Writing

12:31 • 2min

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Newsletter Evolution and Format Experiments

15:00 • 5min

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Fiction Skills Applied to Practical Storytelling

20:27 • 12min

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Which JK Rowling Framework Works Best?

32:50 • 4min

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Present Tense and Reader Immersion

36:20 • 2min

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Avoiding Out-of-Story Author Intrusions

38:21 • 3min

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Foreshadowing and Twist Craft

41:47 • 2min

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Building Internality and Causation in Fiction

43:22 • 2min

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Using Iceberg Technique in Long Form

45:31 • 3min

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Reading Harry Potter Aloud and Editing Choices

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124. The Harry Potter of Digital Storytelling with Nathan Baugh

What is the secret of building a massive online audience? How much does literature writing translate to digital writing? And is Pulp Fiction… old??

Welcome to The Storypowers Podcast, the show about the power of stories, the people who tell them and why you should be doing it too. I’m your host, keynote speaker and storytelling coach, Francisco Mahfuz.

If you like storytelling, you’ll love my weekly newsletter, Story Club: ⁠https://storyclub.beehiiv.com/subscribe⁠

My guest today is Nathan Baugh.

Nathan spends all his time writing fiction and exploring the art and science of story. Over the last 18 months, he grew his newsletter, World Builders, to over 85,000 subscribers and $20,000 months, and has gained hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

You can find with Nathan on https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-baugh and on X (@nathanbaugh27).

If you can, please leave us a rating on Apple podcasts, share it and SUBSCRIBE! The support is very much appreciated.

You can connect with me on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, and on ⁠⁠⁠https://storypowers.com⁠⁠⁠.

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