5 ms·
Word of caution regarding that kind of advice: It is okay to read those helpers, to try them out and so on, but the surest way to write a totally bland story i
by atoav 2y ago
Word of caution regarding that kind of advice:
It is okay to read those helpers, to try them out and so on, but the surest way to write a totally bland story is to follow these narration formulae to the dot. You should always read them as "if nothing else helps use this"-type of advice.
That doesn't mean you could totally write a meaningful impacting story that follows that pattern, it just means if you have the problem of what to write, it is probably misleadingnyou into writing crap.
So my advice (as a MA of Arts who studied film and did their own writing) would be to read all of these helpers, extract the narrative advice from them and then write freely without following any simplistic formula that everybody and their dog has seen a million times in thousand low budget television series.
Or better: If you want to write good stories, instead of reading these "How to tell a story"-books take your favourite stories and analyze them meticulously: What are the major beats of the story? How does the story interact with the setting? How are figures introduced? What perspective is the story told from (and does that change throughout the story — if yes why)? Which part did impact you the most? Why did they impact you? What was used to create that impact? Which parts appeared to be just ornamental and without narrative function? What would happen if you left them out? And many more questions.
Do that with your ten favourite stories, series, films, theatre plays or whatever and you will probably learn more than in all of those books combined. And more important: You will do the thinking and it will give you story lessons that are relevant to material you like.
As my prof once said: the crows over Van Goghs field serve no direct function yet they are part of the picture, art does not need to be formulaic and it does not need to explain itself.
- wslh 2y agoThank you, could you provide high quality online references?
- tyronehed 2y ago"The Hero with a Thousand Faces" "Story Structure Architect"
- atoav 2y agoI don't really have a sorted list of sources, but one thing that springs to my mind and isn't already on all lists out there is Yuri Lotmans Semiotic Theory¹, which with its focus on boundaries offers an interesting perspective and toolset that isn't found in a lot of other places. And if you read careful you will find that hero leaving there comfort zone (having to step over a boundary) as well. ¹:Full PDF - https://monoskop.org/images/5/5e/Lotman_Yuri_M_Universe_of_the_Mind_A_Semiotic_Theory_of_Culture_1990.pdf https://monoskop.org/images/5/5e/Lotman_Yuri_M_Universe_of_t...
- lylejantzi3rd 2y agoThis is like telling programmers they don't need to know data structures before writing a program. While technically true, it will hamstring you until you go back and learn it. You need to master the basics before you can branch out into more advanced things. Don't put the cart before the horse. Besides, some of the best stories out there, like Shaun of the Dead, stick to the formulas to a T. They're used in classes to teach the basics because their writers perfected them. > as a MA of Arts who studied film and did their own writing I say as an MFA of Writing who has also studied film (for whatever that's worth).
- atoav 2y ago> This is like telling programmers they don't need to know data structures before writing a program. Serious question: What did you refer to with "This"? You might argue against something I didn't say here. I did not say people should not read these books — I actually said the opposite: read as many books as you can find, even the formulaic ones. What I did say however is that writing entails more than is said in these books. To go with your analogy: Yes, beginner programmers should be aware that just understanding the data structures alone doesn't make you a master programmer and that there is more to the craft. And taking your analogy to the next step, what does that make that blog article? That would be like an article on data structures pretending you can do everything with Arrays and not mentioning anything else exist. Don't get me wrong, story structure is crucial, but doing as if there is only one doesn't help beginners and communicating why this one is common and what advantages it has over other choices would be much better.
- stavros 2y agoAs with all entry-level advice, this isn't "how to write a great story", but "how to avoid writing a terrible one". You can't teach a beginner how to become a pro overnight, but you can teach them how to avoid the most basic mistakes.
- atoav 2y agoJup, which is why I said read those things AND be aware that there is more out there — something which the blog post lacked which is why I added it.