Storytelling

"This is Water," by David Foster Wallace's commencement speech

 

 Ira Glass on Storytelling, Part I

 

How to approach your stories

If interviewing multiple people, watch "What Does America Stand for?"

If talking about race, families, parenting, and/or survival, watch "A Conversation with my Black Son"




If writing about traveling abroad, watch "Adele's India Video Diary"

If writing about a concept, watch "Art & Copy"



If writing about how to tell a story, watch "Ken Burns: On Story."

 


If writing about a memory using mostly voice over narration with video, watch "Disneyland 1990."


Disneyland 1990 from Chris Zabriskie on Vimeo.

Why Your Story is Needed

Chimamanda Adichie and "The danger of a single story." Why multiple stories are necessary for us to "understand the complexity of humanity."

Other points of view in your podcast

The Homecoming podcast tells the story without voice over narration, internal monologues, or first person perspective. Here are some examples of short fictional podcasts that use other methods to tell the story.

1. Limetown, episode 1. This podcast uses radio announcements, emergency phone calls, on-site news reports,  and voice over narration to tell the story.

2. The Truth: a story about an election, using campaign speeches and news stories.

3. "Miracle on the L Train"from The Truth: short piece with internal monologue. Takes place on the train. Uses subway announcement and chatter of others in the train and sound effects. 4. "Sleep Some More" from The Truth: story about a roommate who won't shut up. Sounds come from the unending chatter of the roommate and the internal monologue of the narrator.

Short multimedia videos from The New York Times

"Girl Boxer"



"This is What a Refugee Looks Like"

 


 "Midnight Three and Six"

 

Story Structure

I love this excerpt about storytelling structure in cinema. I've only seen about half of these--maybe less than half. What have I been doing with my time? Not watching The Gilmore Girls, that's for sure. More on that later (maybe). I don't like how the two main characters talk to each other in these quippy, unreal ways.

We'll talk more about these approaches to story-telling in class on Thursday.

 

From The Moth

Many, many excellent examples of nonfiction storytelling from The Moth.

Here is Timothy Bell on revisiting his mother's space after aging out of foster care.

First day of class

We'll have to establish the expectations, rules, boundaries, pet peeves, likes/dislikes, cat/dog preference, and overall, gauge the tenor and tone of the group.  First classes are like blind dates--you're not sure what you're getting, if you're interested, if you will be able to keep the conversation going, if it's going to be a good fit. I'm excited to discuss storytelling and technology, so I have confidence that the class will go well.


We need to look first at what story-telling is. I've yet to find a good video or Prezi or interactive piece that captures the central ideas, so we'll have to go back to some basics about the differences between a good story and a bad story.


We all know people who are bad story-tellers (mom?). They start from the very beginning ("I went to the grocery store to buy apples"), they interweave unimportant details ("the golden delicious were on sale for 49 each. I was thinking of baking a pie or maybe a strudel"), and often, when they reach what they think is the climax of the story, it's underwhelming and possibly even unrelated to all of the information that's been told previously ("and when I left, I realized that I had a flat tire").


If we're lucky, we also know people who are great storytellers. They hook you in early ("The kid who slashed my tire was someone I'd made enemies with in high school"), the details they give you matter to the telling of the story ("he had a brother with a stutter who I used to make fun of"), and, when the story finishes, you have made a discovery of some kind, related to what's come before ("I confronted him a week later and he said his brother was over his stutter until he saw me at ShopRite. Just seeing my face made the stutter return"). Or something like that. Good storytellers weave the details and the scenes together to create a whole piece, one that has a sense of completeness; a feeling that without each particular sentence, the story would fall apart.

Here are some examples.

And an excerpt from Louis CK's stand up about the boredom of being a dad.