Story Lab: Week 6

 Story Lab - Week 6

Empoword

I really enjoyed the comparison of writing to music composition. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but in addition to my primary instrument (tuba), I'm in my fourth year of taking composition lessons. I completely agree with the blurb there: Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is a well-known example of a "wordless opera" (Berlioz's words). 

I also like the differentiation between flat/round and static/dynamic characters. This is really helpful because I've been doing some independent research as to what makes a good character/cast good.

"It may seem counterintuitive, but we can often say more by digging deep into a few ideas or events, instead of trying to relate every idea or event"

Freytag's Pyramid: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution (denouement)

(Different Perspective - Carlos ZGZ - image credit)

While I agree that restrictions can breed creativity, sometimes it's much needed to think outside the box and challenge our assumptions. That's why I really like the idea of modular writing! Maybe we don't write the story from beginning to end in one shot. Maybe we write the climax first and then we can appropriately build up the pacing from the beginning. To be clear here, I'm not talking about in media res writing. This can be done with even stories that perfectly follow Freytag's pyramid. I'm talking about literally just writing things out of order and stitching them together in the proper order later. 

I just mentioned in media res writing the other week! A great tool in music and in writing.

"How will your choices of narrative scope, sequence, and pacing impact your reader's experience?"

All of this information about dialogue and POV is helpful (though I was a good deal more familiar with that stuff). I'll have to come back to this option for the other activities later.