Storytelling / Narrative
Gladwell: I get attracted to stories that strike me as having potential. Outliers began, for example, with the chapter on the Jewish lawyers. I was talking to someone whose father was one of those lawyers, and she made this observation: “They are all like my dad. They are all from the Bronx, and their parents were all in the garment industry. They... See more
A Conversation with Outlier Malcolm Gladwell
Ironic that Gladwell thought about groups for a book about outliers
As a first point, the Hook, we get to know Harry Potter and the story’s context. He lives with his aunt and uncle in a basement. He later discovers that he is a wizard and that his destiny is to go to Hogwarts, the school of magic. This phase is Plot Turn 1, i.e., the first turning point in the plot.
The antagonist begins to be recognized. A troll... See more
The antagonist begins to be recognized. A troll... See more
The 7-Point Story Structure
The 7 Point Story Structure
1. RESULT
Result thumbnails feature a visualized result
Whether it's a physical product or a skill, the curiosity is driven by the questions:
"How did they do it?" and commonly, "How can I do it, too?"
The more sought-after the... See more
Each example is also a great way to think about how to hook someone into a story:
Result—how did they get that?
Transformation—how did they go from this to that?
Comparison—what’s different between experience A and B?
Novelty—I’ve never thought about that thing before
Story—I need to know what happened with that
Moment—I need to know exactly what happened next
If you’re totally lost on what to focus on getting better at, focus on braiding.
Narrative-style writing (fiction and nonfiction) has four major components:
And you... See more
Narrative-style writing (fiction and nonfiction) has four major components:
- Action: Things happening
- Dialogue: What people are saying
- Description: The environment around the people and events
- Interiority: The characters internal reactions to the place and action
And you... See more
On Writing Better: 43 Things I Learned from My Insane 2 Years of Study
Nat Eliason on how to improve your narrative-style writing
Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them.*
Malcolm Gladwell • Outliers
Choosing your ambition is not easy. The power of cultural context is strong.
Don't Edit Before You're Done with a Draft
On that note, don't waste time editing ANYTHING -- not even a misspelled word -- until you're done with a full draft.
When I finished the first draft it was about 100,000 words. The first thing I did was go back to the beginning and delete the first 30,000 of them. They were boring and unnecessary but I had... See more
On that note, don't waste time editing ANYTHING -- not even a misspelled word -- until you're done with a full draft.
When I finished the first draft it was about 100,000 words. The first thing I did was go back to the beginning and delete the first 30,000 of them. They were boring and unnecessary but I had... See more
On Writing Better: 43 Things I Learned from My Insane 2 Years of Study
Bold advice to just put everything on the page before any editing