full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Shonda Rhimes and Cyndi Stivers: The future of storytelling

Unscramble the Blue Letters


CS: It's like visiting a crnouty and then leaving it. It's a strange —

SR: It's like reading an aznmiag novel and then putting it down. I think that is the beauty of the experience. You don't naisrclseey have to watch something for 14 snesoas. It's not necessarily the way everything's supposed to be.

CS: Is there any topic that you don't think we should touch?

SR: I don't think I think of story that way. I think of sroty in terms of character and what characters would do and what characters need to do in order to make them move forward, so I'm never really thinking of story in terms of just plot, and when writers come into my writer's room and pitch me plot, I say, "You're not speaking English." Like, that's the thing I say. We're not speaking English. I need to hear what's real. And so I don't think of it that way. I don't know if there's a way to think there's something I wouldn't do because that feels like I'm plucking pecies of plot off a wall or something.

Open Cloze


CS: It's like visiting a _______ and then leaving it. It's a strange —

SR: It's like reading an _______ novel and then putting it down. I think that is the beauty of the experience. You don't ___________ have to watch something for 14 _______. It's not necessarily the way everything's supposed to be.

CS: Is there any topic that you don't think we should touch?

SR: I don't think I think of story that way. I think of _____ in terms of character and what characters would do and what characters need to do in order to make them move forward, so I'm never really thinking of story in terms of just plot, and when writers come into my writer's room and pitch me plot, I say, "You're not speaking English." Like, that's the thing I say. We're not speaking English. I need to hear what's real. And so I don't think of it that way. I don't know if there's a way to think there's something I wouldn't do because that feels like I'm plucking ______ of plot off a wall or something.

Solution


  1. amazing
  2. seasons
  3. pieces
  4. country
  5. necessarily
  6. story

Original Text


CS: It's like visiting a country and then leaving it. It's a strange —

SR: It's like reading an amazing novel and then putting it down. I think that is the beauty of the experience. You don't necessarily have to watch something for 14 seasons. It's not necessarily the way everything's supposed to be.

CS: Is there any topic that you don't think we should touch?

SR: I don't think I think of story that way. I think of story in terms of character and what characters would do and what characters need to do in order to make them move forward, so I'm never really thinking of story in terms of just plot, and when writers come into my writer's room and pitch me plot, I say, "You're not speaking English." Like, that's the thing I say. We're not speaking English. I need to hear what's real. And so I don't think of it that way. I don't know if there's a way to think there's something I wouldn't do because that feels like I'm plucking pieces of plot off a wall or something.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
watching television 3
completely surprising 2
real world 2
making stories 2
tiny show 2
interesting ideas 2


Important Words


  1. amazing
  2. beauty
  3. character
  4. characters
  5. country
  6. english
  7. experience
  8. feels
  9. hear
  10. leaving
  11. move
  12. necessarily
  13. order
  14. pieces
  15. pitch
  16. plot
  17. plucking
  18. putting
  19. reading
  20. real
  21. room
  22. seasons
  23. speaking
  24. story
  25. strange
  26. supposed
  27. terms
  28. thinking
  29. topic
  30. touch
  31. visiting
  32. wall
  33. watch
  34. writers