The class itself is exactly what I was hoping it would be! For our first class, we talked about what actually makes a story. We talked about what it takes to turn a scenario into a story, and practiced doing so both verbally and on paper. We also watched some clips from the movie "Benny and Joon" to help illustrate some of the concepts we talked about. At the end of class, our instructor gave us an assignment to work on for the week. We need to work out some of the details of the scenario we were given, and then construct the beginnings of the "inciting incident" that will begin our term-long assignment of writing a more developed story.
Here's what I (re)learned:
- A story has a beginning/middle/end
- A story has conflict
- A story has a main character that changes
- A story's main character must want something
- A story must have an antagonist
- Conflict must be introduced fairly early on
- The author must answer the question "why today?" Why did the story begin when it did? What was the inciting incident or the catalytic character? What is the tension/hook?
- The author must decide what genre the story is
I love that everything is so basic. It's so helpful to get down to the fundamentals because sometimes it's really the simplest things that get forgotten when thinking about the larger scope of a story. We also talked a bit about whether or not an author needs to have an outline for the entire story (with the end in mind) before they begin writing, or if the story can just unfold as one writes. I think a little of both is really the best, but I'm sure every author works differently.
Anyway, I really have no idea what I'm going to do with my assignment yet, but I plan to take some time tomorrow to work on it. I have homework!
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