All the reading for this week was extremely interesting, but Telling True Stories was especially revelatory. It was honestly such an interesting read that I got caught up and read beyond the assigned pages and totally screwed myself in another class. Oh well. It was worth it. As such, I'm going to focus on it in particular.
Honestly, I think this might be one of the most valuable books I've ever purchased. The clear, concise formulas that Franklin presents are already changing the way I approach writing. His readable prose really demystifies the process of constructing a story. There are a lot of insights and truths that seem forehead-slappingly obvious now, but were never clear prior to my reading.
His chapter on outlining is particularly helpful. I don't need my toes to count the number of outlines I have made, because they seemed kind of constricting. In fact, I took perverse pride in my ability to write without one. I see now that this was misguided, mainly because his description of "spaghettieing" hit close to home. My mental outline is usually good enough to prevent a catastrophe, but I do struggle sometimes.
The simplicity of his outline model is marvelous (and much less painful than the "ETR" model), and I can't wait to try it out.
Also, his chapter on structuring stories based on "focuses" is a mind-blow, too. I would have never noticed this, but all good stories pretty much follow the five-part development that he outlines. This should prove enormously helpful in my own writing.
Also, reading about structure made me think of another interesting mdoel for storytellign espoused by Dan Harmon, the guy behind the first three seasons of Community:
1. A character is in a zone of comfort,
2. But they want something.
3. They enter an unfamiliar situation,
4. Adapt to it,
5. Get what they wanted,
6. Pay a heavy price for it,
7. Then return to their familiar situation,
8. Having changed.
Food for thought. Anyway, I think I'm going to read the entire book, and i would encourage others to do the same, because it's worth it.
Hey Trevor,
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure its fourth week? I wish it was 5th... this week is too much.
I, too, am too cool to outline. I can just never find a place for it in my process. But Franklin's suggested process for it is, as you write, so simple, but yet can help to draw out the most important elements of a story which the writer can then fill in with imagery and transition later on. I love his analogy of the "woodwork" too, as I think it illustrates his process of layering a story quite well.
See you soon!
Charlotte
He really should just call the outline something else because it's so revolutionary and doesn't at all resemble what we've all come to know (and often loathe) as outlines--as he so frequently points out.
ReplyDeleteSO glad you found it useful, Trevor. BTW, it IS 4th week and the book is Writing for Story. Telling True Stories is the beige one.
I couldn't agree more with your comment about Franklin's suggestions being forehead-slappingly obvious now that we've read the book. His two stories make everything look so easy, and then he breaks it down by showing how simplistic things can and need to be. Also, I love that model for storytelling by Dan Harmon. I'll definitely have to remember that for the upcoming profile piece.
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