Hey ,

The last few hours of 2020 are almost upon us, and soon we can say goodbye to this wretched year full of hardship and strife, hopefully looking out at a new future a bit more careful and wiser.

I was able to connect with my immediate family of only 3 people, so it was very simple for the holidays, I hope yours was enjoyable.

Speaking of simplicity, I'm starting off my new for 2021 YouTube Tutorials a 6 minute tribute to my take on writing a better story.

What exactly makes up a memorable movie/play/comic book? When writing a story, how do you get people to follow you into your world? A big point to keep focused on is rather easy, but a lot of creative people miss it. I call it:

Storytelling Mechanics.

It's as simple as this: Who are your characters? What happens to them? Where are they coming from, where are they going? Who's up, who's down. Who's winning/losing? Just like that. If you stay focused on that, keeping your audience in the front seat with a very clear rendering of the action, you'll keep them interested much longer.

How does storytelling mechanics work? A clear example can be found in Mother Goose:

"Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after"

Jack and Jill

• Who's in the story? Jack and his girlfriend Jill.
• What do they have to do? Take a pail to a well up a hill and fetch some water.
• How does that work out for them? Not good. Jack fell down.
• Was Jill any help? Sadly no. She just fell down with him.

A four-year-old could recite the nursery rhyme verbatim. It's actually a fairly detailed story, lots of things happen in it. Yet it'd be no problem for the four-year-old. Why? It's got the mechanics of the story, the relationship of how things work/interact clearly shown with direct impact.

Next time you're reading a book or watching a movie, pause the movie or close the book for a second and ask yourself how well you know where the characters are in your story and how well they're faring.

See you New Years!