Show Notes
"You've got to manage both sides. You're the captain of the ship. You let the playful side talk and then you get it organized and manage it. People are dominant on one side or the other, and either side can be very bad if you go to the extreme." — Kim Krizan
Recap Kim Krizan co-wrote Before Sunrise, one of the most beloved films of the nineties, without ever having read a script before.
She'd been cast by Richard Linklater in Slacker, he read her master's thesis, and said "let's write something." That's how a boy-meets-girl story set over a single evening in Vienna became an Academy Award-nominated trilogy and a touchstone for anyone who believes a conversation can be the whole movie.
In this episode, Kim and Rain dig into the craft and philosophy behind that kind of storytelling—dialogue-driven, emotionally subtle, built on psychology rather than plot. They talk about how to balance the two sides of every storyteller's brain, how to collaborate without losing yourself, what regional and cultural differences reveal about how people approach story, and why the real payoff of writing has nothing to do with awards or attention.
Kim also reflects on the Before Sunrise trilogy's unexpected life and what it felt like to be the writer in a medium that doesn't always remember there is one.
This one is personal for Rain, as hee's directing his own dialogue-driven feature this fall, and it shows. One of the most intimate and honest conversations in the show's run.
Key Takeaways In this episode, you will learn to: Balance the wild creative side and the disciplined structured side of your brain rather than surrendering to one extreme Silence the inner critic early in your process so your subconscious can do the work it was built to do Write dialogue-heavy stories that hold an audience by building intimacy and escalating psychological stakes over time Approach creative collaboration as a negotiation — knowing which hills are worth dying on and which ones to release Write because your soul needs it, not because you want recognition — and understand why that distinction changes everything about the work
Links & Resources Follow Kim Krizan: Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/kimkrizan
Films → Before Sunrise (1995) — co-written by Kim Krizan and Richard Linklater Films → Before Sunset (2004) — Academy Award nominated — co-written by Kim Krizan, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy Films → Slacker (1991) — directed by Richard Linklater Films → Dazed and Confused (1993) — directed by Richard Linklater Films → Waking Life (2001) — directed by Richard Linklater
Rain's Upcoming Film → There You Are — dialogue-driven indie feature, directing October 2026
For more storytelling tips and strategies, visit: Website → https://rainbennett.com Podcast → https://thestorytellinglabpodcast.com
Or follow along at: TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chiefstorytellingofficer Twitter/X → https://twitter.com/rainbennett Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/rainbennett Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thestorytellinglab YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@RainBennett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Storytelling Lab
"Advertising is the loudest, most publicly visible, and highest-stakes storytelling that your brand will do. And one misaligned ad can destroy and erode years of trust that you have built." — Rain Bennett
"Storytelling is local. But we are a global brand, so we do need consistency — and enough flexibility that everything can be used at a local level, because what resonates in China is not the same thing that resonates in Kenya." — Sydnye White
"You do the story that you want to do because you believe in it and it will find an audience. You have to be passionate about something and not try and hop off what's already out there. You have to absolutely 1000% have a vision." — Leslie Zemeckis
"The best of the writers know structures are important. And then they forget that they've been intuitively following a structure and tell the world you don't need structure. The rest of the people think they don't need structure and realize by the hundredth page they don't know what the story is going to be." —Anubhav Srivastava
"A narrative lives or dies on the conviction of the most senior authorized leaders of the organizational system. The story is the strategy. A company without a story is usually a company without a strategy." — Michael Margolis | Storied, Inc.