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Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of right like you mean it, exclamation mark. Confetti rains down from the sky. I kind of like saying the punctuation out loud. I don't know there's something. There's something that I really hope you feel as charismatic about it, because that's how I feel right now. Anyway. All right, let's get this show started. We've been discussing narration we have for, and this will be the third episode. Unless I've gone back and change things. For whatever reason, I'm sometimes apt to do that. But let's take as our starting point, the assumption that we are where we are, and we're going to go from there. We recently discussed the importance of stressing the story in a narration. And we also talked about three different kinds of conflict. This time this episode, I want to bring two more and the final points of focus to your attention about narration before we get into the application phase of things. So those points of focus are in order of appearance. Use plenty of convincing realistic details. That's the first thing we'll talk about using plenty of convincing realistic details. Then after that, I don't want to say too much about it just yet. But the title of the section is called play fair. So I'll leave that play fair ambiguous for now until we get to it. First things first, though, let's talk about using plenty of convincing realistic details to get your narrative moving along. So what do we mean by this? It's probably not news to you hear that a good story will give a sense of having actually happened. And convincing realistic details are your best device for transmitting that sense, as well as for preventing the sermon from taking over the story. Don't just mention the pesky insects that kept bothering you as you ran through the park. No mention mosquitoes be specific and then don't just mention mosquitoes don't stop there. No, mention that particularly huge one, the one with bloodless that got onto your neck and summoned up dem memories of a bloody scene from an old Dracula movie. It's not enough to extend specificity as far as starting with bugs, then stopping it and mosquitoes as if by zooming in one level, you've produced qualitatively detail in its pure and finest form. Now you have work to do make the detail kind of come alive. I mean, there's no need to resort to Gothic effects. But including specific concrete details will help this the telling of your story ring true. And it will also avoid any impression of grandstanding or what's worse, telling, quote telling and quote, telling instead of showing the supposed cardinal sin of good storytelling, you can also use unexpected twists. Now this isn't necessarily a hallmark of good storytelling, it would be hard to define that as Hallmark whatever that may mean. But good storytelling often includes unexpected twists or provocative turns even if it's at the level of the phrase, which keeps the audience alert and engaged. So in the previous example, the appearance of the giant mosquito provided such a twist, you can also create us by revealing previously hidden aspects of the story, or by introducing new characters or elements into the narrative. Just be sure, however, that the twists are credible, and logically consistent with the rest of the story. And this is perhaps the most important point, don't turn into a pretzel of confusion.
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Another thing to be aware of is how you use key phrases or creating key phrases for specific effects. Good storytelling often relies on a few well chosen words or phrases to create a memorable image or to suggest something like a particular mood or tone. And the example that I gave a couple minutes ago, the phrase Bloodlust helped to create a sense of foreboding. While the words dem memories were conveyed toward a sense of creepiness or even colored by the sense of foreboding that came with the phrase bloodlust. You don't need to use fancy language or poetic terms phrase, you can, but you don't need to. Finding the right words to express your idea can be an important part of making your story resonate with your audience. And it's a lot of fun two key phrases careful word choice. Instead of the more generic word, insect, use mosquito that enhances the articulation of the image that's being created by the narration, it gives it that greater sense of realness that the, the use of detail aims for, and so the picture becomes more vivid. But keep in mind, you know, when you're choosing your words, that will express your idea, make sure the idea actually comes out clear and effectively expressed too much detail and over abundance can quickly become perceived as unnecessary, and have the effect of bogging the story down, which is the opposite effect that you want. Now, keep in mind that especially that point about too much detail, whatever that means bogging a story down. This is not necessarily true. But it is grounded and a kind of generalization. Though, if pressed, I think anybody would have a difficult time to finding exactly what the difference is the dividing line between too much. And just right. The Goldilocks zone of detail seems to be dependent on the story, dependent on the the intention of the author, and perhaps even ultimately, dependent upon the way it's read, or how an audience receives it in as many varying infinite ways as there are for something to be read and or received by an audience or just someone someone reader. To be totally clear, it's not a hard and fast rule. None of these definitions are rules of that sort. But there are good starting points, good guidelines, but they do not determine absolutely what should or should not be done when creating a narrative. Narration is all about inference, or so it
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has been said. Here's the thing about that, in order to know how to read and interpret a novel, A listener must be able to infer information that is left out or implied in a story. characters don't often tell their whole life story or immediately reveal their motives, and they don't tell us what they are thinking all of the time. The listener therefore, has to imagine different situations, and requires certain clues and hacks to be able to form that coherent interpretation that's needed and get the story down to its essential details. Narration is also all about narrating many stories in my ni. These many stories are typically what we call scenes, characters, they're constantly moving around, doing things during the telling of the tale. That's not exciting or unusual. The narrator's and their readers recognize these little moments as a way of filling in the space and staying in the moment. And well, the way I like to think of it is this. If you stay in the moment long enough, you find momentum. Simple descriptions of an afternoon described in a room with a couch and a clock can fill up an entire page or you know, some measure of writing space can fill up an entire section of an essay page of a novel, whatever it is doing this, it serves to place the reader in that scene in that many story. And it becomes immersive, which is another way of saying it acquires momentum. These simple descriptions of an afternoon described in a room with a couch and a clock that filled up the whole page and placed the reader in that scene that that created that immersive momentum. These are also helpful in another sort of surprising way, namely that they usually carry very little action or suspense. You know, these descriptions are very privileged moments because they serve as an anchor. In between more action filled intense page turner parts and countering these it is possible for a reader to respond. Why can't the author just get on with the story? And yet these banal moments or ordinary scenes in ordinary dialogue, are almost as vital to the telling of the tale as dramatic conference entation or beautiful characters saying nimble witted things. Understanding this, readers can then enjoy all parts of the novel, or the essay, whatever it is, and a few scenes like ordinary chitchat or background noise in a party as just a vital part of the reading experience. And now let's turn our attention to that final point of focus that I mentioned earlier, titled simply, if not somewhat, ambiguously, play fair. There's that font title, you know, Playfair display, but we're not talking about that. Here we're thinking about the two words together like a command. Here's why good can be fragile, and bad can be strong. I'll start with that claim. And it may seem like a bit of an odd claim, since usually good prevails. But battles for justice, for example, are filled with hard, bloody work and harsh disappointing outcomes. This is not to say that justice should be abandoned. But to point out that sometimes good can't always be gotten that sometimes you can not get what you want. That may mean a lot of things. But what it doesn't mean is this, it does not mean that there isn't a story to be told. See, that's the thing. There's always a story to be told. Now, it may not be as neat and tidy as this or that. So two, is it important to keep in mind that justice isn't always neat and tidy. Plus, there's those moments when you really do have to believe that no one is completely one thing or the other. No one is completely bad or completely good. Each of us, each of us. And you know this is true. Each of us has made a few bad decisions. At some point in our life. We've all played the villain.
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But don't forget to play fair, we've all done a few good things to the fact is people are complicated. And there are always complications around when you're making an argument or building a story. Stories of pure innocence versus pure evil of totally good guys versus totally bad guys tend to be unconvincing, because they are gross distortions of what everyone knows but are not always willing to admit about the complexities of life. So support your thesis energetically by all means, but do not neglect to show some awareness of the complexities. Don't you dare neglect playing fair. For example, take that narrative on running. It will be more powerful and persuasive if it grudgingly concedes somewhere that the park was beautiful after all. And though you may have hated every minute of your journey through it, you were able to notice the beauty, even if only once in a while.