Character Development Web
I will be going into whether Character is an essential element of story or not in a followup entry on “What Is a Story?” but for now, since I know for sure that all of the stories I will be writing will contain characters, I have started working on a “character web” which allows me to determine the basic attributes of any character I write about.
December 20, 2015
What Is a Story?
When trying to define something, one is categorizing it, taking a set of elements which are present in one or more things and grouping them with a label. So in order to define what a story is, I must uncover the set of elements which are present in all stories, from the daily stories we tell ourselves and others to professional stories.
December 18, 2015
The Faceless Woman
The following is an observation I jotted down in my Evernote after witnessing an intriguing family at the grocery store. This entry is direct from my personal journal.
December 16, 2015
What Is a Sentence?
Today I would like to build on my investigation into what a word is by trying to answer another deceptively simple question: What is a sentence?
December 15, 2015
How T-Rex Became King of the Dinosaurs
The following is a story sketch I wrote for my daughter who loves dinosaurs. In the end, I felt that the story was too long and perhaps a little too dark for a four-year-old, but it was good story practice and good fun to write. I hope you get a kick out of it.
December 13, 2015
The Talker
Starting a new story can be difficult, especially if I have no idea who or what I want to write about. Sometimes, to generate ideas for a story, I start an impromptu conversation with myself. The goal of this exercise is to discover a character or an attitude that intrigues me. I like to do this if I have no ideas for a story, or if I want to find out more about a character or attitude I’ve already started developing.
December 12, 2015
What Is a Word?
Today I want to investigate a deceptively simple question: What is a word?
December 11, 2015
Behind the Story: Evening at the Bus Stop
Yesterday I posted a story sketch “Evening at the Bus Stop” about an old man and a distressed woman having a conversation in which both are unable to really listen to each other. Today I want to go over some of steps that I took to complete that sketch.
December 10, 2015
Story Sketch: Evening at the Bus Stop
It’s six o’clock in the little town of Layton, Utah. The sun has already set and the sky is covered with a seeming endless coat of dark clouds. On Main Street, at a small bus stop, sits a woman in a purple windbreaker. Her short, curly hair is newly dyed the blackish-red color of old blood. She is nearly elt
December 9, 2015
Why Do We Tell Stories? – Part 2
Yesterday I spent some time on the question of why we tell stories. I started by going over the functions of story outlined by professor Harvey. Today I wanted to break from her list and start listing some functions of story that I observe, note any overlaps, and examine these functions more closely. I would also like to try and identify which functions of story are most important for socially impactful creative writing, since this is what I am most interested in.
December 8, 2015