Marti Noxon

There are said to be only a few basic plot lines in the western narrative tradition. But what do storytellers do when technology makes old plots seem implausible? How do you do a story about star-crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet, when these days, Juliet could text message Romeo: "Just napping. Don’t drink poison."

And how do you write a scene with a character talking on a mobile phone when you know, before it’s even shot, that the next series of phones will be even smaller?

Host Scott Simon speaks with novelist Thomas Perry and TV producer Marti Noxon Bynum about how to make fictional plotlines believable in a time of rapid technological development.