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You can make a really boring series of events interesting, but without a payoff it doesn’t feel like it’s worth it. Example: I woke up this morning really re

You can make a really boring series of events interesting, but without a payoff it doesn’t feel like it’s worth it. Example: I woke up this morning really really early… I checked my charging Apple Watch and noticed it was 2:15. I got up and noticed how quiet it was… like incredibly quiet. I put on my shoes and walked toward the stairs, and it was eerie how little sound there was. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, it was still even quieter. —- This is literally what happened this morning, but the mention of “quiet” puts a question in your head: why is the author mentioning how quiet it is!? Isn’t it always quiet at 2am?? That will get you to invest in the story and there’s no conflict. But then if the ending was “yeah it’s just always quiet” you wouldn’t have learned anything new, and there’s no reason to share / recommend / reread the story. Basically this is why JJ abrahms movies are fun to watch until they’re over.

kqr 3y ago
Your episode does have an implicit conflict, though, and it's precisely the one you're saying: you have set up an implicit conflict between your auditory perception and expectation. (Actually, there's another implicit conflict in there which I would argue is perhaps even more important: why did you wake up so early, and why did you choose to go down the stairs instead of back to sleep?)
yamrzou 3y ago
So what makes the story interesting here is the encounter of something unexpected. Reminds me of That's interesting! (1971) (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36156400 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36156400)
voisin 3y ago
If you carried on this story though, without any conflict (note: I agree with sibling comment that there is actually implicit conflict between actual vs expectations), wouldn’t it be incredibly boring or lead to a “so why are you retelling this?” response?

kqr 3y ago

Your episode does have an implicit conflict, though, and it's precisely the one you're saying: you have set up an implicit conflict between your auditory perception and expectation. (Actually, there's another implicit conflict in there which I would argue is perhaps even more important: why did you wake up so early, and why did you choose to go down the stairs instead of back to sleep?)

yamrzou 3y ago

So what makes the story interesting here is the encounter of something unexpected. Reminds me of That's interesting! (1971) (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36156400 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36156400)

voisin 3y ago

If you carried on this story though, without any conflict (note: I agree with sibling comment that there is actually implicit conflict between actual vs expectations), wouldn’t it be incredibly boring or lead to a “so why are you retelling this?” response?