This week we spent time looking at how a story may be constructed and fleshed-out from even the most basic of plot points and character descriptions.
It was really interesting to see how everyone played with the ad-lib-style exercise and how the basic CHARACTER – OCCUPATION – ACTION template could be the foundation of so many different kinds of narratives.
In my group we tried to find ways to link all the bits of information together. By doing this we created stories that seemed to make a reasonable amount of sense. It was definitely interesting to observe how even changing one piece of plot information can result in a shift in the narrative’s focus and themes. For instance, changing a character’s occupation led to that character becoming a completely different person. This meant that we had to come up with new motivations and reasons behind each character’s actions.
What this exercise really highlighted for me was the importance of action in a narrative product. Constructing a story around characters who do nothing is something that seems almost impossible, and I think there is certainly a need for action to keep a story moving forward. Without actions such as “Kills” or “Sends flowers to” linking individual scenes together, creating a cohesive and holistic story will be made very difficult.