Story Values

A good story intertwines between positive and negative values.

We all have values that direct our lives, goals, and reaction to society. In a story, it's all the more apparent because in every Beat, Scene, Sequence of Scenes, Act, and the Story itself, values need to change from positive to negative or vice-versa.

For example, one of Beatriz's values is 'Feeling'. She's the protagonist in my novel, The Dance of Life and Death, and I think she's pretty awesome. The story starts with her controlling her emotions, using them with the grip of her thinking.

Scene by scene, she learns to let go, but we can't change immediately in life. We go through a journey where we take a step, two back, three forward, and one back, until we consciously or unconsciously reach the place we desire. She'd change from negative 'feeling' to positive 'feeling' or the other way in every scene, 'till she is feeling, or something in between.

Now, remember we talked in the last post about exposition? Show don't tell? The funny thing is that if no value changes in a scene, it's immediately considered exposition. What do you do in that case?

You erase what you wrote and start anew.

There's no place for just exposition in a story.

It's just an example, but every character can have several values which change in every scene, and the values of the story itself need to change as well.

By moving from positive to negative to positive, we bring the story to its climax, releasing the tension the audience has been building up through it.

I hope you enjoyed this small piece of information. In the next post, we'll open it up even further.

*In the picture- a positive turning point of the 'adventure' value in my life.

Show Don't Tell

The book that I'm writing is important to me in many ways.

But one of the main reasons I write is to show my philosophy, that I've been developing through my life.

I respect all philosophers, but I don't want to be like so many of them that I start reading their books and want to kill myself out of boredom.

I want to give you the best story I can provide, which implies my philosophies to the end of the line.

Speaking of a good story, let's talk about a good Exposition.

Exposition is the way of the artist to give you the relevant information you need to know of the world or its characters to understand the story.

One thing to be careful of in Exposition is to provide just enough information: Not too much so that the reader would become bored and incurious, nor too little so that they'd feel stupid and confused.

In both cases, the reader would put down the book and do more fun things that don't mock their intelligence.

The rule 'Show Don't Tell' tried to help. It means that the writer implements the information in the story so the reader wouldn't feel like they're learning.

For example, if a character has anger issues, you wouldn't say, 'He was walking in the street trying to figure out how he got so angry at work that he threw a cup at his boss. Another one of those anger issues, he realized.'

No. Instead, you'll show, "Another thing to put on my head?! Don't you think five different assignments are enough?! You are making me crazy here!" he screamed, grabbing a coffee mug filled with cigarette butts from his table and throwing it at his boss.

Many writers bombard the reader with information at the beginning of the story so the reader wouldn't encounter obstacles later.

But this is also wrong. You use those bits of information to keep your reader curious.

As the story goes, you give more and more vital information, so that by the final act's climax the reader gets a crucial piece of knowledge that would leave them in awe.

Save the best for last.

So that's exactly right.

I don't want to tell you my philosophy. I want to show it to you.

And it's going to be fun.

*In the picture—me, letting our world's exposition sink in

The Boundaries of Storytelling

There is a straightforward way to tell a good story.

Although they vary in genres, styles, meanings, and each one stands uniquely on its own, almost all good stories follow the same rules.

I'm not one for rules. As any person who knows me would tell you, I won't stand others telling me what to do.

But rules in art do have a place in our world. People have been working all their lives to find them and gift them to us.

As long as we have a healthy relationship with rules, they can totally contribute to us.

For one thing, they can always be broken, but as I see it, there's a big difference between breaking a rule from ignorance as opposed to understanding. Only once we understand a rule can we break it and create something better. Something that adds to the rule and does not take away from it.

Breaking rules out of ignorance brings chaos, while breaking them out of understanding sometimes brings a better order.

From another perspective, rules contribute to creativity.

Creativity does not come from someplace where there are no boundaries, as many people think.

Boundaries create creativity.

Children invent games, which are a set of rules. Once accepting them, they can play with one another.

Copywriters create a boundary in their minds to think only about things that relate to their target audience.

They use limits to create a thinking area where they can think creatively.

Rappers let themselves think only of words that rhyme, them more rhyming words come to their heads.

We too, in our day-to-day lives, set boundaries in order to have a healthy relationship with one another.

The posts to come will describe the fundamental storytelling rules I'm studying, which I find brilliant.

I'm thrilled that they help me in my writings every day.

Stay tuned.

DOLD update:

In the past week, I've been working on eighteen characters' biographies and creating eighteen Enigmals (special animals in the story's world). It was a bit frustrating because I couldn't continue writing until I got it all in order.

But today I finished with these and got back to writing, so I'm pleased.

*In the picture—my friend, standing at the edge and trusting a boundary so he won't fall.