Over five years ago, a group of complete strangers started meeting at the Toronto Reference Library. Although we didn’t know each other, we were collectively interested in reading and writing personal essays. So, every month Brianne Benness (who started the group) sent us a prompt and we wrote a response to it.

This is the last episode in this Five-in-Five Series. So what are we talking about in this episode? We’re talking about presentation and audience expectations. An episode where we talk about how an audience might experience your story.

And I feel like you and I are going to maybe have some disagreements on this. Previously, we've discussed our opinions about what makes a good story and how to tell a story.

This is our Five-in-Five Series where we talk about writing and storytelling tips and all of that. We’re talking about a lot of things, and also offering challenges to help get your groove back.

Yes. We're trying to get our groove back just like the llama impersonators. Sure let's go with that. All the llamas in the house getting their groove back!

Here we are for the latest instalment of the Five in Five Series: After Dark. These are five little short episodes of some writing tips and challenges to help you get your groove back.

I lost my groove a little bit over the summer. We're trying to get her groove back by issuing a challenge to ourselves and others. Hopefully we’ll help make it a little bit easier to write or to at least get the first 20 or 30 words on a page. That's the real key - start the writing and then it sort of flows from there.

So we are in our second episode of this new season and it's also the second episode in the series of Five in Five: After Dark. The topic today is tone.

We mean the way the story is written. For example, a lot of the stories that I write have a sort of earnest, struggling kind of tone. Some of our favourite storytellers have vastly different tones. Storytellers and writers will develop a tone that they feel most comfortable with.

We're back. It seems like we've only been gone for about four months and that's because we have. Well it's very exciting because we're gearing up at the time of this recording for our first event of the season.

We started the season off and we kind of ended the season off of the podcast with a short little series that we like to call five and five After Dark.

Here we are with the last episode of this Five in Five: After Dark series.

This is one of my favorite things and I've been obsessed with this over the last year because it keeps changing. When you’re a writer and you finally find your writer’s voice, things click into place. In a similar way, through my experience you develop a performance voice. Or, a way that connects your writing to your delivery. It can take a while to figure this out.

Alright, Five in Five: After Dark.

I just feel like we need to still include editing in here somewhere. There's a requirement especially since it’s so hard and a lot of people don’t do it. I actually think that perhaps the most common fault of new storytellers is they cannot accept that they have to cut things. You don't have to say everything and every word isn't precious.

I'm biased because editing is so important to me. I wonder if there's two kinds of people in this world. People that like to edit and people that don't like to edit. I like to edit and sometimes it’s even down to the actual show and I’m still changing words that I think may sound better.

Now don't worry faithful listeners it's only five minutes because this is Five in Five: After Dark.

So, know your ingredients and make them quality. What do we mean by that? Basically, write a good story.

It’s more about the scenes in your story and how you use them in the time allotted. It’s using those limitations to get at what is most interesting in your story.

I don't think we should introduce ourselves at all. Listeners will figure it out.

Yes and I think we don't we only have five minutes so so we can't even waste time doing that. We’re back with the second installment of Five in Five: After Dark.

We talked about finding a moment like in the original Five in Five at the beginning of the season. This was about finding a moment in the story that you can build your story around. But say you have a certain theme or more universal thing or something larger you want to get at. It’s then looking at your own personal story and how something can represent those themes or whatever you're trying to do.

So we were doing - another five and five.

We did this at the beginning of this season which was five writing tips and things that we've learned through the course of doing all the workshops with Stories We Don't Tell plus all of our own experiences. And now we've got five more that are like companion pieces and revisiting the first five.

Maybe at some point we can do the opposite versions? Like the Upside Down World in Stranger Things.

SH: Today we're talking about sequels. And no we're not going to be talking about The Godfather Part 3 again. But curiously enough this would be the third time that it was mentioned on this podcast. Should we go there or not go there?

PD: I love the Godfather Part 3. That has been a stance that I've always had and have made my point on this show multiple times about how much I love The Godfather Part 3. You have refused to see The Godfather Part 3 and I find that offensive.