Recent posts tagged storytelling
2023
Breaking Up A Story Molecule
Or maybe it's a story salad.
You've Heard Of Code Smells? Here's Story Smells
Have you, in fact, heard of a "code smell"? If not, here's a quick primer:
Behind The Scenes With 'Shunga-Satori', Pt. 4: The Story
How the influences of 'Shunga-Satori' came together to form a surreal fantasy story.
Close One Door So Another Might Open
On the problem of audiences growing weary of stories that never actually end.
The Holographic Story Theory And Other Delusions
You never get the whole story in your head at once. Except maybe when you think you do.
The Book Where No One Eats Spaghetti
And where almost nothing else happened, either, save for people talking at each other. A case study.
2022
The Kessel Run Is A Unit Of ... Fun
How consistency, foolish or otherwise, can be the hobgoblin of small minds in SF&F.
Save The Cat For Something Else
On my disdain for instructional storytelling guides: at best, such things are meant to be outgrown.
Mystory, Repeating Itself
On examining what feels like the formula I've devised for most every book I write.
Campbell's Folly
"The 'three-act structure' and the 'hero’s journey', are editing tools, not writing tools."
The Fine Art Of The Center-Eligible Play And Other Cheats
On cheating in a work of fantasy or SF.
The Spaghetti Moment
It's a familiar story trope. A bunch of people come into a restaurant/room/hotel/office, reveal themselves in miniature, and get briefed on The Mission.
Inhuman Affections
Why would we find it easier to feel sympathy for a cartoon animal than another human being?
"Your Dreams Will Never Love You Back"
Our dreams will never love us back precisely because they are our dreams. Only you and I can love each other, and we cannot afford to let anything else usurp that responsibility.
On The Noting Of Some Turning Words
How an entire story can pivot on a single sentence, and lead to a new world in the head.
Towards A More Nearly Perfect Elevator Pitch
Being able to sum up your own stories succinctly isn't an insult to their complexity. It means you understand what they are really about.
Ring Around The Story, Pt. 2
More Marvel discussion: On entertainments vs. objects of study vs. role models.
Ring Around The Story
A few thoughts on "Shang-Chi" and the benefits of efficient story construction.
The Storyteller Is Asleep
On attempting (and largely failing) to stitch together dreams into a narrative.
The Arbiters Of The Arbitrary
Stories driven by arbitrary conceits tend to lose the reader's engagement, because in a story where anything's possible, nothing matters very much.
Behind The Scenes With 'Unmortal', Pt. 4: The Story
How everything from 'The Battle Of Algiers' to 'Soul Eater' fed into the making of my new novel.
The Story Worth Telling
"Asking 'what is the story worth telling?' is a question we can’t avoid."
2021
What We Brought To Show-And-Tell
Show the things that are best dramatized; tell the things that are best spelled out.
Moving Parts Grind The Gears
On the balance between a story with too many rules and not enough.
Them Changes
Change is the essence of storytelling: we tell a story because we want to document something that has changed. Or someone.
