Write Stuff (part 7) - Storytelling

 

The Boyhood of Raleigh/wikipedia

Storytelling is an art.

Like any work of art, there are many media to express the craft, many tools and techniques to create the work, and endless advice on how to achieve your masterpiece.

The video below lays out a good primer of five techniques to tell a good story, starting with zooming into the moment....

https://youtu.be/hNuAv-42jzY?si=GRGI94tsU4JP9Lo7

In a nutshell, zoom in on these points:

1 . Location 

2. Actions

3. Thoughts

4. Feelings

5.  Dialogue

To my writer friends in 2025, tell your stories.

Write on!

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For other posts on this thread, search:

Write Stuff

Similar threads (search blog):

ELM - English, Language, Musings

History

Culture

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photo: The Boyhood of Raleigh/wikipedia

Write Stuff (part 6) - The Power of Story

 

Bibliothèque/wikipedia

The Power of Story

Stories can define a culture, persuade a people, increase empathy, affect the brain.

https://youtu.be/vyZMSZG2Dmk?si=QiK5NCIRPJFmJ8pE

Readers and writers and storytellers are most important to civilization.

As the Native American proverb says: 

"The one who tells the story rules the world." 

To my writer friends in 2025, you are part of our storytellers.

Write on!

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For other posts on this thread, search:

Write Stuff

Similar threads (search blog):

ELM - English, Language, Musings

History

Culture

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photo: Bibliothèque/wikipedia

Write Stuff (part 1) - Give them Hope

Auschwitz - Rose left on a stone/wikipedia.com

 A rose left at Auschwitz. 

A picture is worth a thousand words. As the rose above symbolizes hope in the dark pit of despair. And it's hope that makes or breaks the story.

End of April, I attended the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in Colorado Springs. One of the prequel workshops I attended was  The Emotional Craft of Fiction. Bringing emotion into our novels.

The author, Donald Maass facilitated the workshop. He started by stating that he saw more emotion in the short ads of last Superbowl than many of the manuscripts he was reviewing at the time.

Here is one such example from Superbowl Ad 2017, a 60 second beer ad, which may be what he was talking about:

( reference: https://youtu.be/HtBZvl7dIu4 )

The workshop was intense. And I would do it again. But in this short post, I can only convey a key point .

As in any writing, there are many ways and styles. No right or wrong way. The attendees spent the day exploring that. But in the end, the reader is sovereign.

Yet the mark of good fiction is that it changes us, the reader. And we care about the characters on the journey. We make an emotional connection with them. Their journey is our journey. Their struggles are our struggles. It becomes part of our long term memory.

What came to mind was the running theme in The Lord of the Rings movies. That emotional connection with the struggle is why this is my favorite scene.

(reference:  https://youtu.be/k6C8SX0mWP0 )

In destroying the ring, Sam's impossible quest is our quest. His struggle is our struggle. As he sums it up:  There is some good in this world...And it's worth fighting for.

And to sum up the workshop in three words, what the author must do for the reader is...

Give them hope.

And so with hope, I start of another thread.

Write Stuff.

Our journey as writers is making the stuff to connect. And it's worth writing for!

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Similar Posts on topic:

ELM (part 1) - English, Literature, and Musings (2013)

ELM (part 2) - Thug Notes does Hamlet (2013)

ELM (part 3) - St. Crispin's Day Battles in English History and Literature (2013)

ELM (part 4) - Hobbit Virtues (2014)

ELM (part 5) - Jane Austen and Blackadder (2015) 
  

 ELM (part 6) - The Boys Going West (2016) 

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Photo from: Auschwitz - Rose left on a stone/wikipedia.com