I consider myself lucky that I have never had an assigned summer reading list for school. I don’t mean to make reading out to be an undesirable or low-rated activity (certainly not here on storydevice!), but unless I’m missing something, I don’t see why teachers would assign students something they could have assigned during the school year. But if it turns out the reader likes some of the books by the time fall hits, then I suppose would be a good thing.
All I know is that I only enjoyed a minority of school-designated books. There’s a reason Sparknotes is so popular in these cases.
But what I’m doing this summer is choosing my own books. I feel that much of what I’m reading will matter a lot toward my future (pssst! by the way, this is why there hasn’t a blog post this summer. Unless I’m binge-reading like this, it won’t happen again. Thanks for understanding!)
First book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I’ve been meaning to read this thing, and I’ll admit that I’m only getting to it now because the movie’s coming out this fall. This is a great book to read with a beginning author’s eye – I’m picking up on all kinds of techniques I could use to introduce, reveal, or flesh out characters and settings. I’ve read Potter books before, but it’s just been a really long time. As of now, I’m well over 200 pages in, which isn’t even halfway. Better work on that!
That’s all for the moment. The book I’ll be discussing next time is one of non-fiction. See you around!
Writers have a few things they need to do to grab a reader’s attention. Good writers do even more to hold that attention.
One story creation aspect that no author should dare ignore is pace. A slow pacing in the wrong spot can hit a story where it hurts. Misused fast pacing can cause anti-climax, or can give the narrative a superficial weight. What a writer needs to do is the time the “incidents” and “fallouts” when writing long-form content.
setpiece: A location that sets the stage for a dramatic highlight in a story
Now to manage the scope of this concept a little better, we’ll only be focusing on action setpieces. Maybe I’ll write other versions of this post for other genres in the future.
Let’s start with the bare minimum. You have a hero and a villain, and the two are engaged in battle. They are on flat land, and fighting within the other’s personal space at eye level. Hmm. This has potential. But how about we throw in…
The scene in the movie Casino Royale where Bond chases a man who is attempting to destroy a large airliner is one of my favorite action sequences ever. But even I wondered why I valued this one over so many others. That is, until I took notes. It may surprise you when you discover what common devices so many action scenes use to get an audience’s pulse going.
In everything we do in life, we’re telling stories. Just ask a business owner what made him start it all – that’s a story. Or when you and some friends are gossiping. Even when you tell someone what you bought for lunch today. Then there’s the other type of story we all know – fiction. When it comes to stories, fiction is a deliberate art. The setting, the characters, their motivations – they’re all in place for a reason. And how we respond to all of that is dependent on how well it’s crafted. After all, why do so many people prefer Terminator 2 over Terminator 3?
That’s why Storydevice is here – to break down the concept of story (in books, movies, etc.) and offer different ways of looking at it, even using examples of things you’ve already seen or read.
But here’s the kicker: I plan to write stories of my own and get them published around the world. In other words, I want to become an author. My first story, still in the rough manuscript stage, will be the first of a multi-part sci-fi/fantasy arc. You’ll get details about my progress on that, and any other writing venture of mine, periodically right here on Storydevice. So come along and subscribe to watch this story unfold.
DandyID
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