Story Lab Week 10

Notes over Chapter 2: Telling a Story in Empoword.

This chapter focuses of techniques in writing.

 The first technique it mentions is the plot, it is important to have a plot because it is the basis of your story. The plot encompasses many other techniques because it is so broad.

The second technique is scope. The scope is the boundaries of the plot. The scope defines the outline of the story. The scope answers the questions When, Where, Who, and What but not Why. It is important for the story that the scope be defined and not too long. If you don’t focus in and cut things from your story the readers will get lost. It is hard to find a balance between enough detail but not to lengthy.

The third technique is sequence and pacing. In this chapter they describe this with Freytag’s pyramid. This is a pyramid that consists of most of the story building up to the climax and ending quickly after the climax. This occurs in 5 steps: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

The fourth technique is point of view. This is the way in which you tell and write your story. The way in which you tell your story and which point of view you use shapes the readers perspective on the plot.

Lastly, they mention finding a medium. Stories can be told though all sorts of medium, it doesn’t have to be a written story on a piece of paper in a book. Stories are told everyday through books, movies, TV, social media, in the newspaper/journal, having a conversation, plays, blogs, etc. Anything can become a story, your life is a story and it is your job to tell the readers what you want them to know about you and your journey.           

                                            (Book: Image from Wikimedia Commons)