writing & storytelling
That’s the trick. A simple one: Make sure that every moment in your story has a location attached. Every moment should be a scene, and every scene needs a setting. It’s the simplest, most-bang-for-your-buck strategy that I have to offer.
Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling
The Swahili storytellers have this quote: “The story has been told. If it was bad, it was my fault, because I am the storyteller. But if it was good, it belongs to everybody.”
‘Mad Max: Fury Road’: The Oral History of a Modern Action Classic (Published 2020)
- Director George Miller
We are all engaged in two projects: living life, and telling stories about it. Our lives as lived are often chaotic, jumbled, aimless. They suggest no obvious purpose. Think of William James’s “blooming, buzzing confusion,” or what Joan Didion called “the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.” We make this chaos workable, as... See more
Jake Orthwein • Why Frame Problems? — Frame Problems
“I am in my nightgown for days, not thinking about anyone else. It takes a couple of days just thrashing through the brambles to get to any type of clearing, and it’s very painful. It’s frustrating, you see all your limitations, but a lot of what is happening is the unconscious is just waiting to see if you mean it. I like it once I settle in, but
... See moreSTART, EVERY TIME, WITH THIS INVIOLABLE RULE: THE SCENE MUST BE DRAMATIC. it must start because the hero HAS A PROBLEM, AND IT MUST CULMINATE WITH THE HERO FINDING HIM OR HERSELF EITHER THWARTED OR EDUCATED THAT ANOTHER WAY EXISTS
David Mamet • David Mamet Memo to "The Unit" Writing Staff
Writing is mystagogy. It is leading oneself, or others, into a great mystery. Their own lives are a mystery. It is a good place to start.
The normal and the everyday is a mystery, too. Yet few people have the eyes to see it that way
The normal and the everyday is a mystery, too. Yet few people have the eyes to see it that way
Luke Burgis • Why I Write
Big stories are hard stories to tell, because the big parts of these stories are often singular in nature. Unusual. Unique. Hardly relatable. This holds true for all my big stories.
Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling
We have moments like this in our lives, when something happens to us and we know it’s important, but can’t explain exactly why. It’s a memory that lingers in our consciousness, a moment that remains locked in our heart; maybe it’s a time in our life that we frequently revisit in dreams.
Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling
AJ Tibando
1d
When I started writing, my sister gave me this advice:
“Don’t tell people what to think, why it matters or what they should do about it - just tell them your story. Talk about what you learned but don’t tell them what they should learn. They’ll either learn it by listening or aren’t interested in learning. And if they’re not interested,... See more
1d
When I started writing, my sister gave me this advice:
“Don’t tell people what to think, why it matters or what they should do about it - just tell them your story. Talk about what you learned but don’t tell them what they should learn. They’ll either learn it by listening or aren’t interested in learning. And if they’re not interested,... See more