I really enjoy the weeks we are able to do the Story Lab assignments. I always take the opportunity to take a deeper dive into some of the more philosophical and heartfelt opinions of storytelling, often meaning I am looking deeply into the Ted Talk options. I personally love Ted Talks as I talked about briefly in my last Story Lab post and this week some of the videos really served to give me a different perspective on creative writing. There were eight videos total and while they were all great in their own way, there were really three that spoke to me. Here's a little more about them.
1. What Makes A Hero? (Matthew Winkler)
This story is one that speaks directly to our course specifically. The video starts with comparing popular modern day movie "heroes" with traditional mythological heroes. It then dives deeper into Joseph Campbell's studies of character development. Personally, I have studied a few of Joseph Campbell's works throughout high school and college. I was in a show that briefly utilized some of Campbell's poems and my interest in him sparked due to those few lines. When I got to college, a lot of my film courses used Joseph Campbell's story development/structure method as a means of proper storytelling. The video talks about Campbell's novel "The Hero With One Thousand Faces". The novel details how despite the seemingly vats differences from character to character in different stories, there are distinct similarities that will almost always exist. Aspects like "Call to Adventure", "Departure", and more work together to give each story a similar plot to follow. This specific video is very educational and teaches storytellers a lot about the structure of your story.
2. How To Write Descriptively? (Nalo Hopkinson)
I really appreciated the message in this videos. It worked to unite different genres through the utilization of descriptive language. The video highlighted the importance figurative language like metaphors, similes, imagery, and personification. "The point of fiction is to cast a spell." The video talks about the difference between stage/screen versus "pros fiction"or solely written entertainment. The importance of descriptive language is so much more important when all that the person has to go off of is words in a book. There is nothing additional to relate to. As a Creative Media Production Major with an emphasis on the Screenwriting track, I am constantly being told about the need for brevity in dialogue in scripts. The rule is concrete in screenwriting but changes drastically when considering the writing in novels. The more description the better. The more information the more beneficial it is for the reader.
3. How To Build a Fictional World (Kate Messner)
This video talks about how to bypass realistic boundaries in "out-of-this-world" fictional stories. The difficulty about fictional stories arises when trying to convince a reader that they are inside of a seemingly unrealistic world. The rules of life change whether that be ignoring basic physics like gravity or basic biology like mortality. The video stresses this difficulty and even says that there is no real answer. A lot of the time, it depends on the reader themselves. A reader's willingness to suspend their disbelief and truly believe in the unbelievable is what will allow for a story to truly have its full effects.
1. What Makes A Hero? (Matthew Winkler)
This story is one that speaks directly to our course specifically. The video starts with comparing popular modern day movie "heroes" with traditional mythological heroes. It then dives deeper into Joseph Campbell's studies of character development. Personally, I have studied a few of Joseph Campbell's works throughout high school and college. I was in a show that briefly utilized some of Campbell's poems and my interest in him sparked due to those few lines. When I got to college, a lot of my film courses used Joseph Campbell's story development/structure method as a means of proper storytelling. The video talks about Campbell's novel "The Hero With One Thousand Faces". The novel details how despite the seemingly vats differences from character to character in different stories, there are distinct similarities that will almost always exist. Aspects like "Call to Adventure", "Departure", and more work together to give each story a similar plot to follow. This specific video is very educational and teaches storytellers a lot about the structure of your story.
2. How To Write Descriptively? (Nalo Hopkinson)
I really appreciated the message in this videos. It worked to unite different genres through the utilization of descriptive language. The video highlighted the importance figurative language like metaphors, similes, imagery, and personification. "The point of fiction is to cast a spell." The video talks about the difference between stage/screen versus "pros fiction"or solely written entertainment. The importance of descriptive language is so much more important when all that the person has to go off of is words in a book. There is nothing additional to relate to. As a Creative Media Production Major with an emphasis on the Screenwriting track, I am constantly being told about the need for brevity in dialogue in scripts. The rule is concrete in screenwriting but changes drastically when considering the writing in novels. The more description the better. The more information the more beneficial it is for the reader.
3. How To Build a Fictional World (Kate Messner)
This video talks about how to bypass realistic boundaries in "out-of-this-world" fictional stories. The difficulty about fictional stories arises when trying to convince a reader that they are inside of a seemingly unrealistic world. The rules of life change whether that be ignoring basic physics like gravity or basic biology like mortality. The video stresses this difficulty and even says that there is no real answer. A lot of the time, it depends on the reader themselves. A reader's willingness to suspend their disbelief and truly believe in the unbelievable is what will allow for a story to truly have its full effects.
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