Creating Stories

The number one thing in creating a new and interesting story is to avoid cliches.  Cliches are what they are because they have been overdone.  They don't surprise your audience and lead to a mundane story.  One way to avoid cliches is by coming up with creative characters. There are two types.  The protagonist and the antagonist.  The protagonist drives the story and usually the story is told from their point of view.  The antagonist is there to stop the protagonist.  The two of them aren't working toward the same thing, but on their way to their individual goals they cross each others paths.  This causes friction between the two and creates the story line. Another way to keep characters interesting is to not let them be too much like the audience.  If the audience can identify too much with the character they will get caught up in predicting their behavior and possible tune out the actual story.

Character Profiles

Sports agent- Generally agents are very hard working and relentless.  They have to be extremely persistent and willing to do anything for their clients.  Those qualities are probably what got them into their profession.  They have probably always been driven and outgoing people.

Police officer-  There are two types of people that I believe go into this profession.  The first are by-the-book hard asses that hide behind corners to try to bust people for driving 3 mph over the speed limit.  Those guys probably got made fun of in high school and have been looking for revenge.  The other are nice guys that really do want to protect and serve.  They will let little things go, but make sure to take care of the important things.

Grade school teacher-  These people are usually very caring and gentle people.  They have to like children to be in their profession which also means they have great patients.

Story Telling

On Friday we went around the room and everyone told a story.  There was no criteria for what the story should be about, but there seemed to be a common theme. Everyone wanted to make the class laugh and usually at their own expense.  Stories are meant to be entertaining and as long as someone can speak reasonably well the message will be received by the audience.  While we were going around the room there was laughter that came from nearly every story and it was just an added bonus if the person was a good storyteller.  One way for a story to be better and more engaging is repetition.  Personally, I've told my story probably a hundred times.  I love the story and have tested it on countless audiences and knew that I would get a laugh in class.  A story is probably a good one when it gets told over and over again because is was successful when it was first told.  It's hard to beat a good story and especially when the audience enjoys it.

Stories

Every time someone is writing for the media they are telling a story.  We were informed Wednesday that there are ten and only ten different types of stories.  Professor Jenkins seems rather confident that those ten are near impossible to find and will reveal them later in the semester.  There are simple necessities for every story which include characters (at least two), conflict and resolution.  There is also always a beginning, middle and end.  After the basics there are a couple ways to keep your audience engaged. The first is by selling your story to them.  As a story teller you need to let your audience know why they need to hear your story. Let them know what's in it for them. The other is to only have one idea per story.  By doing this you will be able to keep your story concise and focused.  There is a reason so many stories have been around for so long.  They give valuable information or lessons.  Most stories that we all heard as children were meant to teach us something that wouldn't have been understood just by telling us.  People remember stories. They are engaging, easy to understand, easy to believe and easy to share.  Those characteristics make stories the perfect vessel to convey a message.

Day 2

The main things we learned on our second day of class is that people are lazy and most don't read very well.  The average reading level in the U.S. is a fifth grade level.  That seems crazy to me, but I guess my sample size is a little smaller than the entire U.S.  Since the average person doesn't have a large vocabulary and is inherently lazy, our goal in the media is to use sharp, simple and precise language to reach a broad audience.  Technology has created a need for the immediacy making it difficult to hold anyone's attention for an extended period of time.

The first day of class in Fundamental Writing for the Media was similar to most first days.  Everyone filed into the classroom and listened to the introduction of the class.  Professor Joel Jenkins told everyone what to expect  in the class and how it would be run. After the basics Jenkins had everyone go around the room and introduce themselves and tell their favorite snacks.  This is the first of many blog posts to follow.