Happy Thanksgiving!
Oct. 13th, 2003 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinjunAnd no, I'm not a month early - I'm Canadian. ;)
The sun is shining brightly - I think the weather dudes screwed it up again. Gosh Darn. There's a big bug flying around outside my window. I'm surprised that Taliesin isn't hunting it, but I suppose he just hasn't spied it yet. It's one of those nasty stinging ones, and I'm sure it wants to come in. It's supposed to be cold outside. Judging by the thick sweater I saw someone out there wearing, it is.
Someone at school amused me by pointing out that the little half courses we take are 2.5% of our MBA. And when I started to think about it - I'm already 20% through the darn thing. This is kind of cool, though it will be cooler of course, when the percentage is higher. Working on that, too. ;)
In other news, I read another short story out of "Low Port", edited by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, yesterday. The short stories in and of themselves are okay - but they don't have the same feel as the Liaden series. Which is only fair, since this book doesn't even pretend to take place in the same universe as the Liaden series. The thing of it is, I'm not usually a big fan of short stories - oh, I read them occasionally, but let's face it: short stories are almost always depressing. They are just little peeks at what could be a really interesting universe, but you never learn enough about the characters or the universe to know if it's really interesting. Just when I want the story to keep going, it always ends. And it usually does not end happily. There is conflict there, yes, but it seems that in order to be a good short story, the hero must fail.
*sighs*
No, I don't like the formula that seems most often found in that particular format of writing. Go figure. As a result, it will take me a while to finish reading "Low Port". I don't think anyone will mind.
Yes, I am procrastinating, how can you tell?
I've been reading every once in a while this book loaned to me by a friend, called "Tell Me Another". It's written by someone named Bob Barton, a fellow who is a bonafide storyteller. Or so it seems, if you read the biography on the back of the book. I haven't gotten very far - just 3 chapters into it. So far, it's been about choosing the right story for your audience and making the story your own. This is an interesting book, since it's not about writing a story or making up one of your own, but about telling a story, no matter where you got the material from. It even goes through a couple of ways that people can use to make the story their own - from reading it over several times, to writing it out in their own words, to charting it out. He goes on to say that the storyteller should consider adding or deleting characters, rearranging the events (and using flashbacks or other techniques) and so forth. He also suggests going back to reread the story, after you figure out how you want to tell it. Look for events you've forgotten, characters you've neglected, and words that add to the tone and feel of the story. You might want ot incorporate them into your own telling.
It's all part of making the story uniquely yours, even if it's a story that's been told a million times by a million people.
So far the only new thing, so to speak, is the idea of charting the structure of the story - I hadn't really thought of it in those terms before. Give yourself touch points through the story, so you can reorient yourself if you get lost. And always make sure to memorize the beginning and the ending. Because if you're a little flaky in the middle nobody will care so long as your beginning is crisp and and your ending is bang on.
The sun is shining brightly - I think the weather dudes screwed it up again. Gosh Darn. There's a big bug flying around outside my window. I'm surprised that Taliesin isn't hunting it, but I suppose he just hasn't spied it yet. It's one of those nasty stinging ones, and I'm sure it wants to come in. It's supposed to be cold outside. Judging by the thick sweater I saw someone out there wearing, it is.
Someone at school amused me by pointing out that the little half courses we take are 2.5% of our MBA. And when I started to think about it - I'm already 20% through the darn thing. This is kind of cool, though it will be cooler of course, when the percentage is higher. Working on that, too. ;)
In other news, I read another short story out of "Low Port", edited by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, yesterday. The short stories in and of themselves are okay - but they don't have the same feel as the Liaden series. Which is only fair, since this book doesn't even pretend to take place in the same universe as the Liaden series. The thing of it is, I'm not usually a big fan of short stories - oh, I read them occasionally, but let's face it: short stories are almost always depressing. They are just little peeks at what could be a really interesting universe, but you never learn enough about the characters or the universe to know if it's really interesting. Just when I want the story to keep going, it always ends. And it usually does not end happily. There is conflict there, yes, but it seems that in order to be a good short story, the hero must fail.
*sighs*
No, I don't like the formula that seems most often found in that particular format of writing. Go figure. As a result, it will take me a while to finish reading "Low Port". I don't think anyone will mind.
Yes, I am procrastinating, how can you tell?
I've been reading every once in a while this book loaned to me by a friend, called "Tell Me Another". It's written by someone named Bob Barton, a fellow who is a bonafide storyteller. Or so it seems, if you read the biography on the back of the book. I haven't gotten very far - just 3 chapters into it. So far, it's been about choosing the right story for your audience and making the story your own. This is an interesting book, since it's not about writing a story or making up one of your own, but about telling a story, no matter where you got the material from. It even goes through a couple of ways that people can use to make the story their own - from reading it over several times, to writing it out in their own words, to charting it out. He goes on to say that the storyteller should consider adding or deleting characters, rearranging the events (and using flashbacks or other techniques) and so forth. He also suggests going back to reread the story, after you figure out how you want to tell it. Look for events you've forgotten, characters you've neglected, and words that add to the tone and feel of the story. You might want ot incorporate them into your own telling.
It's all part of making the story uniquely yours, even if it's a story that's been told a million times by a million people.
So far the only new thing, so to speak, is the idea of charting the structure of the story - I hadn't really thought of it in those terms before. Give yourself touch points through the story, so you can reorient yourself if you get lost. And always make sure to memorize the beginning and the ending. Because if you're a little flaky in the middle nobody will care so long as your beginning is crisp and and your ending is bang on.
