I find the best word for locating the essence (if we are talking about the same thing) is exploration, the word you used frequently here, but not exclusively. A murder mystery is an exploration for all the characters of some aspect of that crime, for tighter writing, the same aspect. For example, it could be the injustice of the event and how each character reacts to that injustice. And understanding that essence really helps to stay focused on the same thing throughout, much better than a character arc, which is for only one character, and the character arc may have nothing to do with the essence. Perhaps the character arc is becoming mature enough to handle the inheritance. Short stories mentioned: Shirley Jackson - The Lottery Ted Chiang - Exhalation Isaac Asimov - The Last Question Ernest Hemingway - For Sale: baby shoes, never worn Terry Bisson - They're Made out of Meat Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried The only objection is I think the title would have been better as 'setting out to write' instead of 'writing' as this is more the planning stage more than the editing stage. I will have to rewatch it to go deeper. Some nice points. Congratulations on the awards.
Thank you for the comment! And yes, you are on the correct track. Character arcs, themes, and the essence and sometimes talked about and lumped together as all the same thing. Essence is sometimes like the combination of arcs and themes--for instance, the theme of a story might be 'Revenge is Bad', the arc your main character goes through is something positive like learning to forgive their advisory, and the essence is 'Love is Stronger than Hate'. This is all abstract because we aren't looking at something specifically, but I hope you get where I am coming from! Thank you again for watching and for the comment!
@@wrestlingwithwords Yes, it was very understandable. I commented on the exploration because it is something few are talking about (I've seen it only once before) and it really helps with bringing the story together and finding the audience. It is something that should be talked about more.
@@wrestlingwithwords When someone asks what your story is about, what they really want to hear is that essence, 'It explores how people react to xxx.' Of course, if it is a a genre piece, like a superhero adventure or romance, then that may be the full extent of the story: the superhero or love wins out. I realised in the last week that we write literary fiction, so different rules apply, like the existence of character arcs. Not saying that a genre piece cannot have a character arc, but those readers are not looking for one. They want an escape, period.
"Anyone can write a lot. The trick is to write well." -Me In all seriousness, this was a very well-made and informative video. My personal favourite type of "story form" is the novella. Short enough to get by relatively quickly but also long enough to be detailed and thought-provoking. I like to think of it as a novel distilled down to its core. Will you make a video about novellas? It's not a very explored topic compared to short stories and especially novels.
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He's back!
So glad to see you back! And always, great advice!
So glad it was helpful! And yes, very glad to be back!
I find the best word for locating the essence (if we are talking about the same thing) is exploration, the word you used frequently here, but not exclusively. A murder mystery is an exploration for all the characters of some aspect of that crime, for tighter writing, the same aspect. For example, it could be the injustice of the event and how each character reacts to that injustice. And understanding that essence really helps to stay focused on the same thing throughout, much better than a character arc, which is for only one character, and the character arc may have nothing to do with the essence. Perhaps the character arc is becoming mature enough to handle the inheritance.
Short stories mentioned:
Shirley Jackson - The Lottery
Ted Chiang - Exhalation
Isaac Asimov - The Last Question
Ernest Hemingway - For Sale: baby shoes, never worn
Terry Bisson - They're Made out of Meat
Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried
The only objection is I think the title would have been better as 'setting out to write' instead of 'writing' as this is more the planning stage more than the editing stage. I will have to rewatch it to go deeper. Some nice points.
Congratulations on the awards.
Thank you for the comment! And yes, you are on the correct track. Character arcs, themes, and the essence and sometimes talked about and lumped together as all the same thing. Essence is sometimes like the combination of arcs and themes--for instance, the theme of a story might be 'Revenge is Bad', the arc your main character goes through is something positive like learning to forgive their advisory, and the essence is 'Love is Stronger than Hate'. This is all abstract because we aren't looking at something specifically, but I hope you get where I am coming from!
Thank you again for watching and for the comment!
@@wrestlingwithwords Yes, it was very understandable. I commented on the exploration because it is something few are talking about (I've seen it only once before) and it really helps with bringing the story together and finding the audience. It is something that should be talked about more.
@@wrestlingwithwords When someone asks what your story is about, what they really want to hear is that essence, 'It explores how people react to xxx.' Of course, if it is a a genre piece, like a superhero adventure or romance, then that may be the full extent of the story: the superhero or love wins out. I realised in the last week that we write literary fiction, so different rules apply, like the existence of character arcs. Not saying that a genre piece cannot have a character arc, but those readers are not looking for one. They want an escape, period.
"Anyone can write a lot. The trick is to write well."
-Me
In all seriousness, this was a very well-made and informative video. My personal favourite type of "story form" is the novella. Short enough to get by relatively quickly but also long enough to be detailed and thought-provoking. I like to think of it as a novel distilled down to its core.
Will you make a video about novellas? It's not a very explored topic compared to short stories and especially novels.
Damn what time does bro wake up????
Upload schedule was a bit off today 😅...