Showing posts with label plot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plot. Show all posts

June 19, 2020

No new stories only repeats of the same plots.

The storytellers have for centuries, forever, told traditional stories that have a simple plot: “Once upon a time there lived so-and-so in a land far away.” The time, characters, place settled then to the event to solve, climax, and conclusion. Simple!

The ancient fable Hare and the Turtle,
The set-up – careful Turtle slower that the over-confident Hare;
event - a race;
final event – arrogant Hare (nemesis) falls asleep;
climax- slow, plodding Turtle (protagonist) wins;
and conclusion – Hare can’t believe the Turtle won, and neither can the Turtle believe she won.

The basic plot remains the same, speaking to our genetic bodies. Verbal stories are inbred into our spirits, souls, and physic centuries before writing, photos, movies, or computers. The bones of our stories connect to our bones. We have heard stories for eons in many versions. Writers and storytellers tailor narratives for us; they enhance, fabricate, and re-image the characters and places, and use basic plots. Think about all novels and movies based on The Hare and Turtle. The same simple plot satisfies the teller, writer, listener, reader, and viewer.

March 4, 2020

Family traditions and customs are included in my stories.

Including family traditions and customs in my stories is what makes them real.
The fun of writing is telling what I know. My life as analogies or metaphors are in my characters, usually the ole grandma, auntie or cousin names changed, places changed, and time changed. 

The stories of elves, trolls, pixies, fairies spirits and unwanted guests came from different places and times to the Oakgrove gardens (my yard). These characters from mythology arriving here for the adventure of living with humans. Each character brings a story (folk stories, myths, or legends), mostly from what I perceive and blended with what I have read, researched, experienced, or traveling.

AS I SAY, "Adapted, enhanced, re-imaged, embroidered, modified, elaborated, embellished, and fabricated from what I know and am into the story." 

The spirits from the other dimensions are especially interested in what the human youngster Lassie JooJee does her friends and the days of parties, holidays, and celebrations now and before. They compare what they know from their homelands (realm) to what they see and hear from the human Lassie JooJee. And so, the stories started.
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AS I SAY, "Story is my life from my early years fishing and haunting the gold museums in my Colorado, to backwoods travel in Alaska, and then nesting in the richness of diversity in the Bay Area of California. I know my stories through child, daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, and grandmother as well as art, teaching, writing, and verbal telling – everyone important to create an outstanding fantasy." 
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February 4, 2020

Has a photo inspired my writing?

watching a river flow
A real-life view inspires my writing. A photo is static and seen through a frame while a view from a high rock looking into a valley with a river emerging through evergreen trees offers decisions, or resting under a tree by the river with the light flickering through the leaves and branches, or sitting in a rocking chair looking at the birds and foliage of plants mingle with a few flowers offers story discovery. During any of these meditations, a story can flutter into my mind. First, an image then as a movie or short a
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video. And as fast as I can, I rush for a pencil and paper to decipher the inspiration later what happened, what was said, and why.

The fun is creating the words and a need for anyone to read or hear the story. Most of my stories are thrown into my 'later' box. A few I combine, and that's when the real journey begins --> characters and a plot develop and twist the reader through the words as if they are floating on a river that splashes through the trees and creatures along the valley floor.

August 1, 2019

My writing taking me by surprise!

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Well, not writing specifically; verbal storytelling came in with a blast. Twenty years ago, the computer I used wiped from within and the floppy disk all my children's stories, a first draft novel I finished, and a family tree I had spent 3 years compiling.

 As I recovered on my couch, a thought ran through my mind, "Time for you to stand up and tell a story." To stand up and tell one of my creative stories, never. A disgusting, impossible idea, farther more where to start.

I never heard a person tell stories, only lectures about specific subjects. (This was before YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, google blogs, before the cell phones and the videos we watch.) I did find a program at a Park and Recreation Center. Finally at Dominican University in San Rafael, I found a whole series on "How to Tell a Story." Verbally telling was precisely like writing a story; characters, plots, and scenes. And, there were thousands of public domain free stories, the TRADITION TALES, from all over our world to preform.

SO, I stood up and told a story.


NOW . . . TODAY - I write traditional fractured stories. That means I re-write or re-tell folklore by adapted, enhanced, re-imaged, embroidered, modified, elaborated, and embellished characters, scenes, and make subplots. I fabricated to suit my time and to create a better read. All folktales, fairy tales, legends, fables, myth are analogy, metaphors, or simile we use in writing. Traditional tales are the bones of today's movies and novels.


March 29, 2019

Writing a AH-HA moment.

the insecure writers group
Help - just deleted my whole post - I'm going off to cry for a while and will be back to rewrite!

So a couple of days have passed, of course I forgotten what I was writing about the AH-HA moment. YES!

What scene do I always want help describing without giving away the ending and to keep the read interested.

The scene in every story, the scene where the character is hit, smacked, or dumped on the head by the premise of the whole story, The moment the character realizes, why the journey, mystery, adventure, or the quest in the first place. How all the bumps, detours, battles, arguements, and questions make sense. Why character is driven for a conclusion. The moment the whole fits together for the character without giving the plot away, and the audience stays connected to the stroy until the end!

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I have designed a fact sheet as my helper.

At the defining moment of AH-HA describe the charater:

What does the character look like?
What is the character doing?
How does the character move?
What does this character feel?
How are the feelings conveyed?

This 'FREEZE FRAME' moment is the character seen by the storyteller, writer, or film director and not the audience.

December 21, 2017

Interview, Part 9 - FIRE, the Hunger

The best question, how does the storyteller work up their stories.

First to find stories liked, then print them out, and read over and over to see if plots are suitable. Then I make what I called a ‘Summary Page’: how long the story is, my first sentence, my last sentence, a summary of the plot, and where I told the story, adding notes about the telling that I need to remember. 


If I have enough stories on a theme like the FIRE stories, I make a frame, bridge, or a segue through them. That means I plot out each story; have 'character bios' as on FIRE, humans, gods, hummingbird, beaver, Grandma Spider, monkeys, hunters, Bertha Digby. Then make a 'motivation sheet' on each character about their driving concerns that moves the plot forward to the next story. 


The beginning, the gods have FIRE and humans and animals want its warmth and light. So, the middle events: Hummingbird gives to the Pines, Beaver gives to all trees, Grandma Spider throws light to the night sky. Until the climax event, a hunter steals the FIRE from the monkeys to the final event, FIRE burns up the forest. The ending conclusion, Bertha Digby replants the forest for all of us.

If you join my newsletter called the EVENTING. . ., I talk about writing and storytelling. As a new subscriber, you receive the Story Charts used for plotting, character motivation, scenes, framing or the segue, with the bonus of the hero’s journey. There are 12 charts in all. The charts were compiled from storytellers, who shared how they organize their stories. I give this information to whoever wants to craft their best stories to tell or write, please honor this.


April 21, 2015

Always plan too much to accomplish!

Rhyonna is finished! — on 12/31/2014 her story became a book and she flitters around excitedly appearing here and there, well mostly sitting and watching the streaming.
Rhyonna waits for her story to be offered as an Amazon Kindle. So I'm taking Kristen Eckstein’s 30DayKindle Challenge

The Kindle challenge is a jump started for my next e-publishing project of all the picture book stories I wrote and compiled into the 'Bryce Community'. My master project in story writing while active in SCBWI. These stories came before writing the 'Elfin Letters' for my granddaughter. My masters in being a grandmother and lover of the elves and trolls and other land spirits.

So busily viewing videos for LearnScrivenerFast by the Scrivener Coach Joesph Michael to reformat the Bryce stories and the Elfin Letters. All this while in NaNoWriCAMP to start my story series 'BOLD TALES TOLD'. Because I love story have learned and told hundreds. Included in the ABC series are many of my original stories and others learned while verbally storytelling. The first ABC segue is about Able Womenfolk. 

And all this while going while going to classes to master wordpress; one must have a website. Or, does one, too much is too much! I'm sure all above are important for the plan I have, e-publishing my stories.

And if that was not enough, now taking a online class Virtual Podcast Tours, to go on the virtual road and share my stories in audio form. 

The Producer for BobbieTales

       

June 3, 2009

Storytelling helps the writing!


Oral story, the oldest form of storytelling, vibrates
in our bones. We tell stories all day to many
people. Writing the stories follows the same
structural processes of plot, characterizing, and
scenes as a verbally told story but we use word
symbols for the voice symbols. In verbally told
stories we can use body movement and facial
expressions for the characters. For both crafts,
concise, clear words paint images and bring the
characters alive to hear and see.

When crafting the ‘oral story’ the first sentence is
the set-up -- the when, where, who, and what:

Once upon at time so-and-so lived somewhere and felt something. In a picture
book the first three illustrations are the set-up (when, where, who, and what). In
a chapter book or middle-grade novel it's the first page, and in a young adult or
adult novel the first chapter is the set-up for the story. Then the listeners or
readers are lead by words to the emotional event -- the why: a conflict, problem,
or puzzle to resolve.

Clear, accurate words direct and focus the journey. Plotting starts. For the
youngest audience, one character interacts with someone or something in three
to five scenes. For the more mature audience, many characters interact in the
main plot with subplots traveling an A to Z path with many emotional events.
The storyteller or writer intrigues the audience with twists and mystery to
enhance the story.

Carefully selected written or verbal words focus the characters in action. The
characters move, react, and talk -- not telling but showing the characters in the
scenes. Words connect images to the listeners or readers. The present or simple
past tense makes the drama stronger. The characters push the plot forward.

The emotional actions, reactions, and dialogues of the characters reach out and
emotionally cord, bonding to the listeners or readers, who then plug into motives and feelings of the characters’ or their own. The charge is the emotional impact of conflict, adventure, or the puzzle. The audience is glued into the story waiting for the final charged event -- the how. Satisfying stories have a solution for the audience. The conclusion shows change in the characters, and the ending brings the audience back to their world.

A story can be told in five sentences or written into hundreds of pages to enjoy
for days. To know how your written story affects readers, tell the story to
listeners and watch their expressions. The facial expressions will tell if the story
is good, or needs more work.

STORY seems so simple, however; STORY is complicated on many levels.
Here are websites that post events and classes, fests, and workshops for
storytelling, ultimately helping in crafting the written story.

Stagebridge is a school for seniors in acting and storytelling. In one semester you'll experience teachers and their special skills and styles.You learn how to have fun while developing stories. Check their website stagebridge.

Storytelling Association of Alta California has a calendar of events for storytelling. STORYLINE (SAC newsletter) is a $30 yearly subscription, which lists all upcoming
storytelling events. Check out SAC Facebook

SAC Storytelling Festival, 2010 was the 25th celebration Bay Area Storytelling Festival, which is a feast of stories told by selected professional storytellers. Check out BASF for next years events.

National Storytelling Network, NSN for a listing of event and storytellers.

A MUST! An archive of stories since September 2006! A feast for the ears! Jackie Baldwin's radio show, Story-Lovers World!, airs every Sunday from 5-6 p.m. Pacific time on public radio station KSVY in Sonoma Valley. Contact to Jackie visit her website story-lovers.

Bobbie Kinkead is an illustrator, author and storyteller, can be viewed at following web addresses to learn more about BobbieTales and her work: