Week 10 Story Lab: EmpoWord

EmpoWord Chapter 2: Telling a Story

The very first page is such an interesting and powerful beginning. The idea that in the end, we're a huge collection of stories is a great way to begin, pondering the different stories that we have to tell, as well as what everyone else could tell. However, while telling our stories, we need to remember to write them in a way that keeps people intrigued, as there are many portions of our stories that may not interest everyone else.

I like the example that the author uses to explain why we want to only include the highlights of the stories if the goal is to keep people interested. One way they say to do this is to consider it as a few photographs, rather than 24 frames per second video. By mixing in the interesting portions and leaving out some of the monotonous details, we can write a better and more captivating story. Despite it making for a good story, I question how good of advice this is. These techniques feel like the reasons we see social media being criticized, as we see only the highlights of other peoples' lives, and it makes us forget that they don't always have these incredible moments. It can create a false perception about the person and their life. Although the example is a good one for why we would want to write this way, I wonder what kinds of effects it has in the real world.

They also discuss different ways to explain the plot, and different plot arcs. One of my favorite arcs that we see today is in medias res, where they begin with the middle of the story to create some suspense and interest, before going to the beginning. The first example I can think of that uses this arc is Breaking Bad, where we find Walter White in his underwear in the middle of nowhere. Another way to play with the plot arc is to slow down or speed up certain segments, dependent on how important you or your audience see them.

Walter White

Source: TVOverland

We also look at how the point of view affects the story. Dependent on not only who tells the story, but also what way it's portrayed, such as tone and the mood, the point of view can determine so much as far as how the reader interprets the work. In the story The Three Little Pigs, simply switching to the wolf's point of view can dramatically alter how the story is seen.

Overall, combined with everything else in the chapter, I found it to be a very fun and interesting thing to read. While I may not have to consider all of the information provided while I write my stories in this class, I will likely write them again at some point in the future. I do worry that promoting this type of storytelling, at least for our own personal stories, can create the same issues we see today on social media and how we share our lives, but outside of this critique, I believe it was a very useful article to read.

Each Day is a New Story

Source: QuoteFancy

Week 6 Story Lab: Ted Talks

Sources:

Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley

A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman

I really found the first one by Nina Paley to be very interesting. At first, the title seems to make no sense. I had never thought of copyright as this terrible thing, but she made some very good points. For example, I never knew that copyrights could be permanently withheld from someone else. I had always assumed that it meant you had to pay royalties to use someone else's intellectual properties, not that they could reject your attempts to use their media, even if you pay. I feel similar to her in that this is a stifling of creativity in a way, and can only hurt the exposure your idea may receive otherwise, as nobody else could use it and bring attention to it. I also found the permission culture comments she made to be an interesting take on the world currently. Because of laws surrounding things such as copyright, we immediately begin to self-censor ourselves in a way, as we know we are unable to use certain ideas or forms of media due to their protections. She mentioned early on that she has comics from earlier in her career that not only are not producing additional money due to their copyrights, but it also prevents them from gaining the exposure that could boost her career as a comic artist. These types of things I had never thought about before.

The other Ted Talk by Scott Barry Kaufman intrigued me. The opening story of Blaine, a child who was diagnosed with many disorders, such as ADHD, General Anxiety Disorder, and more at the age of 8, turning into someone who excelled in school and simply learned in different ways was astonishing. Many times in our educational system, kids who learn a slightly different way or who struggle to grasp the concepts the traditional way are treated as incapable of learning, when they simply have different strengths when it comes to retention strategies. I highly disliked art class as a child, and to this day struggle with creativity because of these types of things in those classes, such as a struggle to focus and constantly needing small breaks to regain my focus and attention. I also found his discussion about IQ tests to be very interesting as well. When he talked about it, I went and looked at some online examples (short attention span, constantly shifting and getting off track, I know), and on some of the questions, such as language, it marks you incorrectly for having a different definition of a word than the one they assign to it, which affects trying to decide what you believe is the best antonym to said word. I can understand where they are coming from with their choices for the correct answers, but some can be subjective based on the interpreter. I was also amazed by Dr. Kaufman's personal story. He was a student who was listed as special education in elementary school, which for many children can be a death sentence, but he was able to get out of the classes with the help of a teacher, went to college, completed a doctorate at Yale, and is not a staff member for UPenn, one of the most prestigious schools in the United States. I absolutely loved his story and his speech, as I can relate to many of the things that he spoke about and found the material to be phenomenal.

Almost everyone has seen these "If you see it, you're a genius" posts on the internet

Source: YouTube