A story is described as "an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment." I find this definition very bland and what someone who had no idea what a story was would say. A story to me is somewhere you can escape to that gives you some sort of adventure or conflict or life lesson. A story is ideas presented to you in a way that you don't notice they're there until the end. A good story changes your way of thinking and makes you want to be better. Writing and storytelling are two crafts that cannot be defined to the narrow "accounts told for entertainment." Stories are something entirely different. They are stars inside of an author's brain that spill onto the paper and become constellations and galaxies that you, the reader, have the pleasure of naming and enjoying.
The elements of a story that make it "good" are things like symbolism, imagery, character development, world building, story arcs, plot twists, and backstories. Symbolism makes the story more than just words on the page. It takes what could have just been the color yellow in The Great Gatsby and turns it into a clue of corruption. Imagery lets you see what is happening while you are reading. Character development helps you make believable characters so that people can either relate to them or at least enjoy them. World building lets you make organic worlds that are believable and interesting instead of one-dimensional and common. Story arcs and plot twists are essential to any story. Backstories are the highlight of my writing and reading life. They are my essence and my happiness. Backstories (going along with character development) make characters so much more intersting. You can either empathize with them, understand them better, or feel even worse about their situation. For example, learning the back story of Remus Lupin in Harry Potter was one of the saddest events of my recent life.
The elements of a story that make it "bad" are just the opposite of all of these items. If you have one-dimensional characters in a bland world where your characters do nothing but walk around and have conversations rife with nothing but everyday niceties: you do not have a story. You have a journal, and a fictional one at that.
When looking over our "syllabus" for this class (that we made last year), I found myself getting a sick feeling in my stomach. What had I gotten myself into? There were so many books and essays and responses that I couldn't quite wrap my head around doing this and also doing another English class. I'm really worried about this, but I hope I can manage it all.
What I'm looking forward to in this particular unit is the chance to explore how to create such things as: world building, character development, symbolism, backstories, and so forth. I can competently create them now, but I'd like to be able to smoothly do so. I think reading and reflecting on passages will help with this a lot, but I'd also like to possibly listen to speakers on this (on YouTube or in books). I went to a literary conference last summer and I learned a lot more about writing than I thought was possible. While I'm not terrific, I find the more I learn the more I can look back on past work and see that it's getting better. I think working on the basics and the structure of writing will make it easier in the future.
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