I always seem to be preaching about using vivid words and keeping in mind the five senses when you are preparing a speech or writing a story. I got my come-uppance last week when I did a speech – which was, in effect, a complete story – and asked an experienced speaker to evaluate it. [...]
Archive for November, 2008
Gotcha!
Posted in Brighten the story, tagged five senses, language, vivid on November 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s Not What Happens…
Posted in Finding the right story, tagged action, Character on November 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The conversation went something like this:
“Tell me about your story.”
“Well, there’s this guy, see, and he’s hit by a car….”
“So the action in your story is the car accident?”
“Oh, no. That was just the start of it.”
Exciting as a car accident sounds, it isn’t a story. It’s just an incident.
A story has a character or [...]
“Yeah, but…”
Posted in Brighten the story, tagged but, obstacle, problem, yeah on November 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When you are writing a story “Yeah, but…” is almost as magical a phrase as “What if…?”
Sometimes, as I’m writing a story I realize that everything is going just too well. Whether it is fiction or a personal story the protagonist is moving along too smoothly through life. Any obstacles fail to slow him down [...]
What if?
Posted in Brighten the story, tagged building story, what if on November 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“What if?” is the magic phrase for story tellers. It’s a combination of ‘Abracadabra’ and ‘Open sesame!’ It turns an ordinary, everyday incident into a real story.
It works like this. You experienced or watched an incident that was kind of interesting. Kind of. Not truly interesting or intriguing, but there was something about it that [...]
