One of the precepts of comedy is that as absurd as the scene gets, the actor cannot laugh. A comedic scene develops through the development of absurd and humorous elements, stacking on top of each other. These elements build, bringing tension, and can only be diffused through laughing. Laughing brings the catharsis. If the actor laughs then it takes away the pressure on the audience to laugh.
Read MoreStructure is essential to guiding your reader through your story. It’s giving information when it is needed. It’s shaping perspective on the events in the book. Structure is the scaffolding that holds up other elements of writing. It also gives you plenty of room to play. When you’re struggling with how things happen in the story, in the order they happen, take a look at what theme and value you are bringing to these events.
Read MoreWhen it’s looked at from a distance we can try to make a narrative out of it but they’re numbers, just statistics. Every half-time break in sports we witness talking heads trying to make sense out of statistics in order to give us a story of the game – some better than others.
These numbers don’t have meaning. But stories do.
Read MoreThe power of your story depends on clearly locating your inciting incident.
The fundamentals of this are often misunderstood.
Story is about transformation. A story is in how a character changes. This change does not come easily but there is something that pushes the character out of their comfort to begin the journey.
Read MoreThe ending of Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) is an amazing demonstration of rising emotion in film, and character shown through choice.
In the harsh conditions of Rome after WW2, Antonio finally lands a job. But he needs a bike and he already pawned his.
Read MoreBlues music has been a part of popular song on radio and streaming for all our life. We’ve heard countless songs based on the structure. We instinctively know where it rises and falls, where it changes, and where the turn around is. Story structure is similar.
Read MoreWhen you give away what you think you should be hiding, the story becomes something else. Sometimes the structure falls apart. You need to have things happen in a particular order. But sometimes changing it takes away the scaffolding that was just there to build the important structure. It’s worth experimenting.
Read MoreThe power of a story is in the structure. The way a story is built, how the pressure is released, the rhythm from hook to climax… it is all in the structure. Kurt Vonnegut had an interesting approach to this that I hadn’t seen before.
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