Sunday, October 11, 2009
Radio radio. A fine example of a small story told well, from This American Life--a four-year-old grows very interested in Jesus and what he taught, and then she sees a connection to a new person she learns about, Martin Luther King. Go to Kid Logic (Episode 188) and skip ahead to 13:10 in the audio.
What takes this from a story to a good story? Well, there is something at stake: the father says that he is telling his daughter important things that she's never heard before, and you can tell that he's trying to be true to the richness of the teachings of Jesus and King without overwhelming the child. And the child is hungry for information about Jesus. So, something at stake.
And the people are not static. Their life together is unfolding through the child's growing understanding of the values taught by their two leaders. She's not quite the same at the end as she is at the start, and the father might not be the same either. The people move in their lives.
And there is suspense, maybe two ways. How will the father teach these complex things to his young daughter? How will she take them up? And further: once she figures out one thing about the example of their lives, will she figure out the second thing that is lurking there, that we as listeners know? And if she figures it out, how will she respond? This suspense ties into the stakes.
And an insight into human experience will be lightly stated or implied, as a result.
I remember a writer diagnosing a faulty draft of another writer's short story largely based on the idea of something being at stake. If someone stands to gain or lose, and the progress of the story depends on how that is worked out, that's a good sign about the draft of a story. If a writer has trouble saying in a sentence or two (to another writer or friend) what is at stake, then the story probably isn't clear about it either. Then the story isn't done. The story may have been told, but it hasn't been shaped, crafted, polished. It's not artful. (Source? I'll have to go find it.)
So there are formal elements that you can start to recognize in a good radio narrative. Having done so, maybe the chances of writing a better story improve. Or when you listen to a story, do you notice more about the people and our common humanity because you understand this aspect of story-telling? Maybe so.
[0 & P]
What takes this from a story to a good story? Well, there is something at stake: the father says that he is telling his daughter important things that she's never heard before, and you can tell that he's trying to be true to the richness of the teachings of Jesus and King without overwhelming the child. And the child is hungry for information about Jesus. So, something at stake.
And the people are not static. Their life together is unfolding through the child's growing understanding of the values taught by their two leaders. She's not quite the same at the end as she is at the start, and the father might not be the same either. The people move in their lives.
And there is suspense, maybe two ways. How will the father teach these complex things to his young daughter? How will she take them up? And further: once she figures out one thing about the example of their lives, will she figure out the second thing that is lurking there, that we as listeners know? And if she figures it out, how will she respond? This suspense ties into the stakes.
And an insight into human experience will be lightly stated or implied, as a result.
I remember a writer diagnosing a faulty draft of another writer's short story largely based on the idea of something being at stake. If someone stands to gain or lose, and the progress of the story depends on how that is worked out, that's a good sign about the draft of a story. If a writer has trouble saying in a sentence or two (to another writer or friend) what is at stake, then the story probably isn't clear about it either. Then the story isn't done. The story may have been told, but it hasn't been shaped, crafted, polished. It's not artful. (Source? I'll have to go find it.)
So there are formal elements that you can start to recognize in a good radio narrative. Having done so, maybe the chances of writing a better story improve. Or when you listen to a story, do you notice more about the people and our common humanity because you understand this aspect of story-telling? Maybe so.
[0 & P]