On March 7th, this column challenged you to build a story piece by piece. Now it's time for Show and Tell. But before we get to that, let's talk about what we did and why.
The idea of building a story from the ground up was not to lay out the correct way to build a story. Nor was it to show you how to build a better story.
The purpose was to hopefully help you become a better builder.
If we were constructing a house, then yes, there is a correct way to do that. You start with the foundation...
No wait, maybe you don't.
A lot of houses these days are built on assembly lines and the foundation is constructed on the customer's site independently of what is happening in the factory. In fact, events in the factory are somewhat independent of each other. So even building something as well-defined and regulated as a house – can be done in surprisingly different and counter-intuitive ways.
So the question for writers is not how to build a story because there are an infinite number of correct ways to do that, but like I said, how to become a better builder.
So how do you become better at anything?
The best way is to do it a lot. But there is a problem with that. Doing something a lot only makes you better at the things you are doing. If you are not practicing an aspect of something, you are not going to become better at it. That is why almost all training breaks things down and practices the skills.
The inspiration for the series came from this column where I talked about teaching third-grade girls how to become good at basketball. I did it by creating weird rules, like only dribbling with the left hand or advancing by passing backwards.
It is analogous to what you were challenged to do by building a story piece by piece.
First we isolated and practiced setting, then plot, then character and finally theme. Of course building a story like this is hard - just as hard as dribbling with the left hand is for a right-handed person.
The reason for separating these story elements from your natural writing process was to shift the focus from the whole to the parts, not to build a better whole but to hopefully build better parts.
So now it time for Show and Tell.
This week's challenge: Show a story and tell us something about the parts.
Also let's talk about whether this worked for you and whether you would like to see similar exercises in the future.
- Post your article to Gather Writing Essentials.
- Tag your submission with MWE.
- Tag your submission with "Story".
- Include "Monday Writing Essential" in your title.
Last week's challenge to "Describe a theme you have used in a story" drew the following responses:
"What Comes First?" (Monday Writing Essential) by Kimberly Blackadar
Themes to My Stories - "Monday Writing Essential" by Lynn (Gather's Official Not-Poet) P.
Evolution of a Story (Wednesday Writing Essentials) by Len Maxwell
Weekly reminder: don't forget to recommend an article that you like (to learn why, read Ann Marcaida's article Attract More Writers and Artists to Gather!).. Also try to place a comment on at least one article and say more than you liked the piece. Tell the author what worked and what needs work.
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Comments: 16
Thanks for submitting to
The Surreal Circus.
Thanks for posting to Constructions at the Triple Name Club.
Showing is difficult. I read so many PUBLISHED books that are ALL tell; very little show. i
Showing is difficult. I read so many published books that are all tell. Not published by major publishers, mind you. I will try my hand at this.
Telling: It was a dark and stormy night. The lights were out in the theatre. MaryBeth ran back and forth across the stage. It was clear she had forgotten her lines. There was an audible hush in the audience. The audience began to shift in their seats and wondered why the play had not begun. In the audience, MaryBeth’s husband, John clapped his hand to his chest and groaned.
***
Showing: “Psst. MaryBeth. Over here. I’ve got your lines.” Greg, the stage director called to MaryBeth. “Psst! Stop running around.”
A loud, collective gasp settled over the audience. Lightening crackled. The lights blew out. The theatre was dark.
MaryBeth ran into the audience. “Doctor! Doctor! We need a doctor! My husband is having a heart attack! Is there a doctor in the house.” She spit out her words as fast as she could.
“John! Talk to me. Are you allright??” She placed her hand to his chest. “Doctor! Somebody, quick! Get a doctor!”
There was an audible gasp over the audience.
A portly man scrambled to get out of his seat, and pushed his way through the aisles. “I’m a doctor. I’m a doctor.”
Dr. Schiller ran to John, and put the stethoscope to his chest and listened. “Quiet, please, everybody.”
MaryBeth was biting her nails. She stood next to Dr. Schiller. “Please, pray for him. He has a heart condition. “ She touched Dr. Schiller on the arm lightly.
“I’ll do my best, Ma’am.”
A small crowd had gathered around John, Dr. Schiller and MaryBeth.
“OMG. OMG OMFG. A man is dying here.”
“No. We don’t know that. Let the poor man alone.”
“The good doctor is doing all he can.”
“At least there IS a doctor in the house. Can you image what it would be like if there wasn’t a doctor, what with the lights out in the city and ---“
“Shut up.”
“Is he…okay?” What is going on here?”
Dr. Schiller held up his hand. “Everybody. This man is fine.” He then turned to Greg S., the stage director.
“Okay Bro.” Dr. Schiller called out. His face was beaming. “Bro. It’s all yours. Take it away!”
Greg stood front and center stage. “Live from New York – it’s Saturday Night!”
Greg hit a switch. Lights flooded the theatre. From the CD player, “Eye of the Tiger” blared.
MaryBeth stood in the center of the stage.
“And it was a dark and stormy night. No one in the audience was the wiser, and –“
The audience clapped. They were laughing.
“We return now to our regularly scheduled program.” MaryBeth beamed. “Guerilla theatre. Audience participation. Who wants to come on stage for our next trick?” She turned the microphone on, and went into the audience to get volunteers.
I feel a bit like I'm going from H.D. Thoreau's house-construction style (building a house out of scrap wood and dumpster diving 19th century style) to a more modern approach. I've got bits and pieces of my story up already, but want to deconstruct, before reconstructing, using the same pieces. That means new stuff needs to be included, and some of the old stuff isn't reusable. I'm already working on one of the new pieces, but I'm not sure I can do the whole thing in a week. I think it's a four parter (although my first part is fine as is - The Rivanna River.)
Soooo, I'm giving this a whirl, but don't be surprised if my whirl takes longer than a week. Just a couple of questions - can you explain the telling part more? Do you want us to tell which are the themes, characters, plots, and settings when we're done? If I understand you right, that could end up being a fifth part. ;)
BTW, love this series of prompts. You got a few of us quite confused, interested, and determined to see it through. (Just don't tell them I always dribble with my left hand. lol)