Week 4 Story Lab: EmpoWord

This week for the story lab assignment, I chose the EmpoWord assignment, reading Chapter 2 on the guide to telling a story. I loved the last interpretation of the Doctor Who quote on the first page: “Our individual stories have no definite conclusion until we can no longer tell them ourselves. How can you tell a piece of your story while it’s still up to you?” Off all the interpretations the author provides for the quote, I enjoyed this one the most because it seems the most impactful and implies more so than the others that you can control your own story. 

One idea from this article I’d like to apply to my own writing is the use of sequence and pacing to signify importance. Giving certain events or ideas more time than others, and even placing them out of order on occasion, can really help create an impactful moment for the reader and help them understand why I’m writing. Freytag’s pyramid is the common method for storytelling, but I’d like to experiment with other methods and see how that impacts my writing. 

Another thing I’d like to incorporate into my own writing from the article is the use of different points of view. I almost always write stories in the third person, from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, and I’d like to try writing more in the first person. Giving characters the ability to think and struggle internally and to expose the reader to that is something I think I’d enjoy writing, so I’d like to give that a try. 

Lastly, I’d like to work on characterization, which was also discussed in the article. Giving the characters experience or thought processes to show their internal development seems very important, especially in longer stories, and it would be interesting to try developing a character in my storybook. 

Link to the source material here. 

Story Quote from Chapter 2