Story Lab: EmpoWord

There were many sections in the chapter I read from this article but if you read below you will see that I pick and chose the ones that I found most applicable to bettering my writing ability and ones that I thought were particularly thought-provoking.

Scope

• refers to the boundaries of your story and plot
• I felt like some of my stories contain too broad of a scope and that makes them have a lot of general information instead of good detailed information about the scenarios.
• This made me think of using the phrase "a mile wide and an inch deep" to describe some of my stories
• they contained a lot of information but lacked a good level of depth

Sequence and Pacing

• refers to the order of events of your story and how quickly different situations progress
• This section talked about a story line pattern called In Medias Res
• this is the style where the beginning of your story starts in the middle of the action of the plot then later circles around to explain why all of the action was happening in the first place
• I thought this would be a great technique to try since I don't believe I have used it for any stories all semester
• This may help with my Scope problem because it allows me to begin with the exciting parts without having to trudge through the set-up information where I feel readers may lose a lot of interest

Building Characters

• this section talks about characterization which is something I would like to improve on
• I feel like I do well with directly describing a character but what I want to work on is indirect descriptions
• ask questions like: How do their actions reflect their traits? What's on their mind that they won't share with the world? What is the tone, inflection, and timbre of their voice?
• I usually have my characters hold a dialogue but I rarely describe the way their voice sounds of their inflection or tone.

Dialogue

• one of the most intriguing ideas I read in this section was that dialogue should be telling more than one thing
• it should convey more than one kind of information such as body language in addition to words
• I think my stories are missing a lot of non-verbal dialogue
• I seem to not think about adding more indirect forms of communication such as body language and that causes me to miss out on a very human aspect of communication

Bibliography

EmpoWord: Telling a Story -- found here

Image Information

Photo of an ancient book -- found on flickr

Story Lab: Writer's Advice

This week I decided to take a look at the writing website to find some storytelling tips! I was able to find a few promising articles that I feel provided some great information that I can use to better my writing. I'm looking forward to implementing these tips in next week's story.

45 Ways to Avoid Using the Word 'Very'

• Essentially this post consisted of a large image that had very helpful examples of how to replace using the word 'very' 
• included a few quotes by popular authors that gave me an idea of what kind of opinion a great writer has of the word 'very'
• "Susbstitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very,' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." - Mark Twain
• another author claimed that 'very' was the most useless word in our language and that it only weakens your writing (Florence King)

Mark Twain deep in thought.

Cheat Sheets for Writing Body Language

• this article lists the top 5 rules you need to follow when using body language
• one of my favorite arguments the article makes is when it says that over 50% of human communication is nonverbal
• this emphasis how important including details of a characters body language is to your story and to the reader who is trying to understand your writing
• the article also said that body language needs to be used to show your reader something instead of just narrating everything to them
• it gives the reader a break from reading paragraph after paragraph
• the article also has several examples on how to describe the different emotions a character may experience through body language

Must-Have Scenes That Reveal Character

• There are 3 key character scenes you need to have when writing
• the Monogram scene
• give your character 3 or so qualities
• now write a scene that shows him performing actions that demonstrate he has those character qualities
• Momentum scene
• when your character makes a decision to do something, they always progress towards acting on that decision
• make sure to include the buildup to acting on that decision
• how did your character arrive to the point to be able to conquer their goal?
• Glimpse
• make sure to let the reader know that the character has at least a little humanity or imperfection
• too much of an invincible charisma can put off readers

Bibliography

Must-Have Scenes That Reveal Character - found here

Cheat Sheets For Writing Body Language - found here

Ways to Avoid Using the Word 'Very' - found here

Image Information: Mark Twain pondering. Found on wikipedia

Story Lab: Ted Talks on Storytelling

I took the opportunity to work on a story lab this week and more specifically, I watched the videos that discussed stories and storytelling. The two videos that were provided were incredibly interesting and offered points of view that I had not ever thought about. They discussed conceptions I had experienced and brought up excellent reasons as to why I had them.

The Danger of a Single Story

• this Ted talk was presented by Chimamanda Adichie, a novelist from Nigeria. She discussed the issue of telling, or hearing, a single story. 
• The single story phenomena refers to when we are only presented with one piece of information about an individual or group of people and we use that small bit of knowledge to generalize the group
• Adichie talked about how when she was growing up, one of the people that worked in their home was a young man. All her mother ever told her about him was that his family was very poor, and if she ever refused to finish her dinner she would say something about how much someone like the man's family would appreciate that food. Consequently, she developed the perception that this man and his family had nothing and could make nothing.
• One day her family visited the man's and they showed her a beautiful, intricately woven basket that the man's brother had created.
• This opened a new door in her mind, for she had previously only believed that if you were destitute you could not create or be creative and solely lived for survival.
• This video talked about how powerful a single story could be and  the importance of telling multiple stories
• A story can show how good or bad a people can be so it is important to tell many stories so we can develop a well-rounded perception of the subject of the story

Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences

• This talk brings up two questions: Why does anyone spend so much time reading fiction, and what effect does this have on us?
• Specifically, this video delves into a subset of these questions and discusses the relationships people form with these fictional characters.
• Why do we care so much about fictional characters and what effects do the relationships we form with them have on us?
• Parasocial relationships are relationships you form with someone you don't know by consuming media about that person.
• We know that fictional characters are fictional, but we alief that they're real.
• Alief - a gut-level belief-like attitude that may contradict an explicitly held belief
• We care so much about fictional characters because we alief that we truly know them, even though we believe and realistically know that they don't exist
• as a side note, this video used Harry Potter as an example frequently and that really hit home for me since it was my favorite childhood memory

The Deathly Hallows from Harry Potter.

Bibliography

The Danger of a Single Story --> video

Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences --> video

Image Information: Deathly Hallows found on deviantart

Story Lab: Crash Course Mythology

For this week I opted to participate in the Story Lab activity. I chose the three videos from Crash Course Mythology to watch and report a reaction on. I'll get into more detail about each video below, but all-in-all each video was well made, interestingly presented, and left me wanting to watch the next one!

What is Myth?

• This is the first of three videos I watched for this activity. It gave a little background to the youtube series they were starting and set the tone for how the series would progress. The host discussed all of the different facets regarding what constitutes a myth and how they may be perceived by different theorists. Some theorists believe that the primitive people that inhabited the world used myths in place of science to explain certain natural phenomena like the changing of the seasons. This particular theory leads us to say that since we understand the science behind a lot of these things now, then we no longer need the myths. Now, for the purpose of this youtube series they will just be presenting different theories such as this one and not subscribing to any one in particular. The series is meant to be as educational and unbiased as possible so the viewer can receive as much knowledge as possible and then use that to shape their own opinions on the subject. Lastly, for this video the host starts off by saying something I hadn't really thought of before but could feel from the different myths I've read during this class or heard in my life. He says that mythology can be a complicated subject since they often encompass different themes of literature, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, religion, and science and I just found that bit of information fascinating.

Theories of Myth

• This video breaks down the definition of mythology and aims to give the viewer some ideas about how to contemplate or understand different myths. In this video the host discusses some of the connotations that come with using the word "myth". For example, today we often use that term to describe a lie or something that is not true but the host wants us to try to put that definition aside when we encounter new myths. Additionally, the host discusses the entrance of anthropology and psychology to the world of mythology. One theory he presented was that all myths came from the same collective subconscious from which everyone in the world has access to. We all drink from the same font of subconscious to project our stories or myths, if you will. The reason this theory has some support is that mythologists have found that there are common archetypes in the myths from all different parts of the world. According to the psychologists in mythology this would lead us to believe that we think a little more similarly, or at least use the same subconscious thought pool, when creating our myths and stories.

The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth

• In this video the host delves into the world of heroes in mythology and defines to us the theory of the monomyth. The monomyth, also known as the hero's journey, is a timeline of events that Joseph Campbell identified as being the structure of almost every hero story. The idea is that all hero myths originate in the human psyche therefore, among all cultures, the hero myths follow identical patterns which is the inspiration behind the name "monomyth". This monomyth theory has three main parts with seventeen sub-parts. The most important aspects of a hero story are: separation, trials and victories of initiation, and the return. Basically to start off, the hero is separated from society or separates themselves to take on an adventure or hardship. Then, after the initial success of overcoming a large obstacle the hero faces one or several more trials that test their resolve. After they successfully complete the following challenges, it is time for the hero to return home whether that be Mount Olympus or their humble village.

Hercules holding up the sky. Found on publicdomainpictures.