Week 12 Story Lab: Even Short Stories Need Goals
I've searched through and read several articles in Writers Write website. One article that really caught my attention was "Even Short Stories Need Goals". This article caught my attention because I couldn't agree more on how important it is to have aims to write better stories. Otherwise, we might risk to write a story that is read like a collection of ramblings. I've written lots of stories over the course of this semester, but I've always to improve the quality of writing every time I write new stories. So I thought this useful article can help me a lot in improving the quality of my writing.
I'm always good at writing "attention-getting" introduction. I write my stories with interesting introductory paragraph, but I found myself struggling to write afterwards because I haven't had specific aims when I was writing stories.
I agree with the author: "The inciting moment of any story is the moment of change for your character." This is when the story becomes even more interesting and readers pay full attention to see what happens to the characters.
I agree with the author that a change can't be ignored or repeats itself. In addition, the characters in my stories need goals: "The beginning of your story should give your character his or her story goal. All stories have goals. If you are stuck and don’t know what to write or if you think you don’t have a goal, go back to your beginning." I wasn't aware of this important tip, and the characters in my stories often lacked or didn't have any goals, so they often didn't have powerful effect on the plot.
I really like how Kurt Vonnegut said about having purposeful characters: ‘Make your characters want something right away even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralysed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.’ I couldn't agree more on this fact that characters without wanting anything can be just a meaningless distraction to the story.
I took this tip very seriously: "Make your character ‘do’ something." They need to do something actively to have any meaning in the plot. So for my next story, I will make sure that I wouldn't just name characters and don't give them anything to do. All of them shall be doing something small or significant to make them alive like a character is supposed to be. Many characters in my re-created stories often didn't have any purpose or reason to exist like a mere background.
I've learned so much from this article about the importance of having goals and purpose for the characters. It has made me realize why some of my re-created stories weren't so powerful. With the tip I've learned, I'm confident that I'll create more powerful stories with lively and purposeful characters, which will in turn add more energy to the plot and story.
I'm always good at writing "attention-getting" introduction. I write my stories with interesting introductory paragraph, but I found myself struggling to write afterwards because I haven't had specific aims when I was writing stories.
I agree with the author: "The inciting moment of any story is the moment of change for your character." This is when the story becomes even more interesting and readers pay full attention to see what happens to the characters.
I agree with the author that a change can't be ignored or repeats itself. In addition, the characters in my stories need goals: "The beginning of your story should give your character his or her story goal. All stories have goals. If you are stuck and don’t know what to write or if you think you don’t have a goal, go back to your beginning." I wasn't aware of this important tip, and the characters in my stories often lacked or didn't have any goals, so they often didn't have powerful effect on the plot.
I really like how Kurt Vonnegut said about having purposeful characters: ‘Make your characters want something right away even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralysed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.’ I couldn't agree more on this fact that characters without wanting anything can be just a meaningless distraction to the story.
I took this tip very seriously: "Make your character ‘do’ something." They need to do something actively to have any meaning in the plot. So for my next story, I will make sure that I wouldn't just name characters and don't give them anything to do. All of them shall be doing something small or significant to make them alive like a character is supposed to be. Many characters in my re-created stories often didn't have any purpose or reason to exist like a mere background.
I've learned so much from this article about the importance of having goals and purpose for the characters. It has made me realize why some of my re-created stories weren't so powerful. With the tip I've learned, I'm confident that I'll create more powerful stories with lively and purposeful characters, which will in turn add more energy to the plot and story.
Short stories need goals. Source: Even short stories need goals
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