Story telling
…an audience and a story teller
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Convey a message right between the eyes, touching hearts.
Therefore:
Obey the 10 commandments of storytelling.
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Ui Robert McKee's boek "Story" over hoe Hollywood goede stories schrijft. McKee pleit ervoor dat ook de leiding van bedrijven zich in deze kunst bekwamen. Lijkt me ook goed om te gebruiken voor in gewoon Nederlands.
Succes en plezier,
Martien.
story structure is selection of events from the characters' life stories that is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse sepcific emotions and to express a specific view of life.
story values are the universal qualities of human experience that may shift from positive to negative, or negative to positive, from one moment to the next.
A story event creates meaningful change in the life situation of a character that is expressed and experience in terms of a story values and action through conflict creates it.
A story scene is an action through conflict in more or less continuous time and space that turns the value-charged condition of a character’s life on at least one value with a degree of perceptible significance. Ideally, every scene is a story event. No scene that doesn't turn.
A story beat is an exchange of behavior in action / reaction. Beat by beat these changing behaviors shape the turning of a scene.
A story sequence is a series of scenes—generally two to five—that culminates with greater impact than any previous scene.
An story act is a series of sequences that peaks in a climactic scene which causes a major reversal of values, more powerful in its impact than any previous sequence or scene,
story climax: A story is a series of story acts that build to a last act climax or story climax which brings about absolute and irreversible change.
To story plot means to navigate through the dangerous terrain of story ad when confronted by a dozen branching possibilities to choose the correct path. Plot is the writer’s choice of events and their design in time.
Classical design
archplot—means a story built around an active protagonist who struggles against primarily external forces of antagonism to pursue his or her desire, through continuous time, within a consistent and causally connected fictional reality, to a closed ending of absolute, irreversible change.
The miniplot often starts out as an archplot, but reduces them—shrinking or compressing, trimming or truncating the prominent features of the archplot. Strives for simplicity and econonomy while retaining enough of the classical design. A minipot often leaves endings somewhat open, inviting the audience to supply the answers subsequent to viewing.
A story climax of absolute, irreversible change that answers all questions raised by the telling and satisfies all audience emotion is a closed ending.
A story climax that leaves a question or two unanswered and some emotion unfulfilled is an open ending.
An active protagonist, in the pursuit of desire takes action in direct conflict with the people and the world around him.
A passive protagonist is outwardly inactive while pursuing desire inwardly; in conflict with aspects of his or her own nature.
story setting: A story’s setting is four dimensional: story period is a story’s place in time. story duration is a story’s length through time. story location is a story’s place in space. level of conflict is the story’s position on the hierarchy of human struggles.
A story must obey its own internal laws of probability. The event choices of the writer, therefore, are limited to the possibilities and probabilities within the world he creates.
Creativity means creative choices of inclusion and exclusion.
education plot acts on a deep change within the protagonist's view of life, people, or self from the negative (naive, distrustful, fatalistic, self-hating) to the positive (wise, trusting, optimistic, self-posessed).
mockumentary pretends to be rooted in actuality or memory, behaves like a documentary or autobiography, but is utter fiction.
genre conventions are specific settings, roles, events, and values that define inidividual genres and their subgenres. To anticipate the anticipations of the audience, you must master your genre and its conventions.
true character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure—the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.
Sources
- Duarte » 10 Commandments of Story Telling
- HBR » Andrea Ovans » To Tell Your Story, Take a Page from Kurt Vonnegut
- HBR » Harrison Monarth » The Irresistible Power of Storytelling as a Strategic Business Tool
- HBR » JD Schramm » A Refresher on Storytelling 101