storytelling

“Children, only animals live entirely in the Here and Now. Only nature knows neither memory nor history. But man - let me offer you a definition - is the storytelling animal. Wherever he goes he wants to leave behind not a chaotic wake, not an empty space, but the comforting marker-buoys and...

Make understandable misunderstandings happen, hook sentence at end of paragraph, and most importantly, personify abstract concepts. state the story idea in one sentence, two max. scene outline -each scene must move the story forward Dialogue: excites, has white spaces (no more than...

A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment. Jack Vance

it's fascinating how this guy's choice of words creates character, stakes almost immediately and pulled me in. Did it work for you?

New blog post by Jake E – discussions in this thread, please --- I recently had a great movie night with my daughter. We made a fort (three kitchen chairs with a blanket thrown over the top and far too many stuffed toys to get comfortable), we made popcorn and a bowl of Skittles, and settled...

“Storytelling is an act of cruelty. We are cruel to our characters because to be kind is to invite boredom.” Chuck Wendig

‘Good storytelling never gives you four; it gives you two plus two....Don't give the audience the answer; give the audience the pieces and compel them to conclude the answer. Audiences have an unconscious desire to work for their entertainment. They are rewarded with a sense of thrill and...

Hmm, theme, there's nothing like it for getting writers all worked up, from the slavish adherents to the dismissive free spirits. One school of thought defines theme like this: It's dangerous for a fiction writer to say something is absolutely true. That's not what theme is at all. A...

Hi everyone, Almost a year ago an article appeared in Scientific American that picked apart the final season of Games of Thrones – The Real Reason Fans Hate the Last Season of Game of Thrones. And I've been mulling it over ever since. The article contrasts two modes of storytelling –...