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Storytelling a presidency: Westen and the critics
State of the Union, 2011 Yesterday saw one prominent analysis of president Obama as flawed storyteller. It’s a moving, if flawed piece, and well worth reading for anyone interested in storytelling....
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We adore spoilage
What do we do with a story’s end, when reading in a book? Since we know where to find a tale’s finale, how often do readers page ahead to relieve suspense (or boredom)? A new study finds we love being...
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Games too long for complete stories
How long should a story be, so that an audience sticks around ’til the end? If the story is a game, short might be better than long. Blake Snow argues that major games taking dozens of hours to finish...
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Vonnegut on stories
The shape of stories: here’s part of Kurt Vonnegut’s famous fortune graph. (via Scholarly Kitchen)
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One storytelling secret
Here’s a fine way to boost your storytelling skills: playing role-playing games. No, no, put down that Xbox controller. Here. Take these. *hands you a pile of glittery multi-colored polyhedral dice*...
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Quickly turning bio into story
Here’s a lightning-fast way to start turning your biographical materials (c.v., “About”, etc) into a story. First, work through the five questions. Next, try out the powerful prompts under “Here’s a...
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Writing the blog novel
One prolific blog-novelist explains why she chose that format. It’s a very rich discussion. The temporal structure of blogging helped with productivity. “A big part of it was the extra pressure to...
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Storytelling rules from Pixar
One Pixar artist offers an interesting set of 20 storytelling rules. They are aimed at fiction, but most can be thoughtfully considered for nonfiction as well. For example, #6: What is your character...
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Choose your own adventure deaths
One of the key components to a Choose Your Own Adventure book is the series of death pages. (If you haven’t played/read one, these are pages to which you turn when selecting a seemingly nonlethal...
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Celebrating cliffhangers
Emily Nussbaum sings the praises of cliffhanger narratives, from early film serials to tv soaps. It’s a celebration of the segmented form (which I touch on in chapters 3+5). Nice observation on...
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