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Week 6 Lab

This week, I read Chapter 2 of Empoword, a writing resource for college students. It was a great crash course of sorts for the basic elements of composing a story or narative, with thorough outlines on how to keep the plot moving, sequence, pacing, scope, and reflection. I found the refresher on point of view especially helpful, since I am planning on writing my storybook from a third person limited point of view (from little Egan's perspective!). What I really want to try incorporating are the examples given that illustrate proper characterization and flow. I really worry about writing a boring narrative that sounds like the same old story people have read before. This website gave tips on how to include more and specific details that help the reader share the vision that the writer is trying to create. It is much more effective to talk about the unique traits of each character, understanding that the reader will imply the rest (obvious traits), and make them memorable. Characterization will be a big element for me in plot development since each chapter will be mostly free-standing, and it is important to quickly develop each new scenario and the new characters they bring in order to get right into the plot. As such, I think a good approach is to make my main character very dynamic, illustrating his changes during his journeys. The people he encounters will be more static, stuck in the same place for a long while, unchanging and constant. This will help develop the morals and impacts I want the reader to experience.
There were a bunch of fun charts and graph Empoword included in this chapter too, to help writers collect memorable experience and lay them out visually to weave into an intricate story. I loved the sort of mathematical approach, assigning different experiences different "wowness" values and then graphing them based on how interesting they are. Readers want to be impressed, and the best way to achieve that is give them something they've never experienced before.

Azuki Hedgehog: ready for an adventure!

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Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 22, 2019 at 2:43 PM

    Hey Moriah,

    I was very glad to come across your story lab post. I do not think that I have previously visited the empoword site, so this was great exposure and I will use it in the future. Thanks for pointing it out! It sounds like you took away some very helpful tips. I will try to incorporate some of these into my own writing.

    -Andy

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  2. Rose BlushFebruary 24, 2019 at 11:44 AM

    Thanks for giving such a thorough reveiw of empoword. I shall have to check it out, as it sounds like an excellent source for writers. I'm glad to hear you gained a lot of useful knowledge from it. The charts and graphs you mentioned sound super interesting! It's true that new, creative ideas are impressive.

    P.S. Cute Hedgehog-I want one!

    ReplyDelete

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