Night Vale Presents Helps You “Start With This” When Writing

On Friday, March 22nd, Night Vale Presents debuts its new nonfiction podcast, Start with This. Each episode discusses some part of the creative process and ends with a creative assignment for the listener, to be discussed and maybe even shared in their community. I was able to listen to the first two episodes in advance for review, and they left me not just excited for the podcast, but excited for the reignited creative energy I felt for myself after listening.

Night Vale Presents is the studio behind early audio fiction hits Welcome to Night Vale, Alice Isn’t Dead, and Within the Wires. In recent years, the studio has opened up to critically acclaimed nonfiction like Conversations with People Who Hate Me, as well as joining forces with PRX–but you can read all about the history of Night Vale Presents in our article about that here.

Suffice it to say that Night Vale Presents has always been focused on strange, markedly different creative endeavors. There’s an emphasis on embracing the weird with the studio, and one of the things Start with This does best is explain how to embrace that weirdness with its listeners.

The first section of each episode is a discussion on a part of the creative process, like the importance of collaboration or the benefits of creatively limiting yourself. Hosted by Welcome to Night Vale creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, a listener might expect there to be too much confirmation in opinion. It’s clear, though, that while the two have grown to work together, they still have some interesting differences in opinion and approach. Having the two hosts play off of each other not only helps the dynamic stay engaging, but also helps the listener conceptualize different ways they might go about to episode’s topic.

Each episode ends with a prompt for the listener–something actionably creative based on the topic of the episode. After 25 minutes of conversation on the topic, the prompt doesn’t just feel doable, but exciting. The prompts are specifically small versus something for a long project, so they don’t feel too daunting. They also usually have a different take on the episode’s topic, asking the listener to do something more specific and interesting than, “Collaborate with someone!” on an episode about collaboration.

Wrapping up in just about half an hour, the episodes don’t steep in their own conversations too long. This is really key for a podcast about creators telling you how to create: any more time, and the discussion could quickly become a standard conversation podcast or, maybe even worse, navel-gazing about their own creative prowess. Instead, the episodes remain tight, specific, and relatable, while also being nuanced.

With the prompt, the listener is invited to share their thoughts and creations with a community via forums. Part of what can make the creative process daunting for people, especially when it comes to making something like a podcast, is how isolating it can be. While the forum isn’t available as of writing, the concept is brilliant. If it works well, it’ll be a place for creators to find not just support and encouragement, but also potential writing partners, editors, and more.

Start with This ultimately feels both like No Bad Ideas, a podcast in which the hosts have to make a compelling story from a terrible idea online, plus The Art Assignment, a long-running YouTube series that explores an artist and then gives the viewers an assignment for something to create. The touch of Night Vale and the dynamic between the hosts helps the conversation stay lively and compelling, and the format helps it feel useful instead of another conversation podcast where the focus is creating. I can’t wait to see what exciting works people will make thanks to this upcoming podcast.

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