Plot: Future of Storytelling

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What Makes A GOOD STORY?

Image Credit:  The Future of Storytelling
Which of the following emotions best describes how you feel after hearing Ben's story?

A.  Distress
B.  Empathy
C.  Both Distress and Empathy

Don't know what distress means: click here
Don't know what empathy means: click here

Watch the videos before answering:

"Stories are powerful because they transport us into other people’s worlds but, in doing that, they change the way our brains work and potentially change our brain chemistry — and that’s what it means to be a social creature."

Include in your answer why?  Your answer must be written in complete sentences.  A minimum of five sentences is required.  Start Scribbling!

Story Pyramid: Analyzing Stories

Words You Need to Know

Conflict: a problem that occurs in the story

Setting: time and place where the story occurs

Tragedy: a story ending in death and sadness

Analyze: to look at something very closely.

Most stories have the following parts: exposition (inciting incident), rising action, climax (turning point), falling action, and denouement (resolution).  This pyramid is used to show how stories move; it is a graphic plot chart. Sometimes a story can be more complicated than this pyramid, but most stories fit perfectly into the pyramid. Let’s look at each part of the pyramid…

Exposition (inciting incident): The exposition is like the set-up of the story.  The background information that is needed to understand the story is provided, such as the main character, the setting, the basic conflict, and so forth.

The exposition ends with the inciting moment, which is the one incident in the story without which there would be no story. The inciting moment sets the rest of the story in motion.

Rising Action: Rising action is a series of events and actions that move the story to a climax.  During rising action, the basic conflict is complicated by secondary conflicts (obstacles and challenges that frustrate the main character’s attempt to reach their goal).

Climax (turning point): The climax is the turning point in the story.  After the climax everything changes.  In most stories, things will have gone badly for the main character up to this point; after the climax, things will begin to go well for him or her.  However, if the story is a tragedy, the opposite will happen after the climax: things that have been going good for the main character begin to go bad.

Falling Action:  During the falling action, the conflict unravels with the main character either winning or losing. The falling action might contain a moment of final suspense, during which the final outcome of the conflict is in doubt. 

Denouement: The story ends with the denouement, also called the resolution.  In most stories, the denouement has the main character in a better position than at the beginning of the story. However, tragedies end with death and sadness, in which the main character is worse off than at the beginning of the story.

More Recent Research on the Benefits of Reading Good Literature:

Can reading Chekhov or Alice Munro improve your social skills? According to a study published yesterday in the journal Science, researchers "found that after reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction, people performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence--skills that come in especially handy when you are trying to read someone's body language or gauge what they might be thinking," the New York Times reported. 

The researchers, social psychologists at the New School for Social Research in New York City, suggested the reason for this is that literary fiction "often leaves more to the imagination, encouraging readers to make inferences about characters and be sensitive to emotional nuance and complexity," the Times wrote.

"This is why I love science," said author Louise Erdrich, whose novel The Round House was used in one of the experiments, adding that the researchers "found a way to prove true the intangible benefits of literary fiction. Thank God the research didn't find that novels increased tooth decay or blocked up your arteries.... Writers are often lonely obsessives, especially the literary ones. It's nice to be told what we write is of social value. However, I would still write even if novels were useless.”-Shelf Awareness

The Power of Empathy:  Brene Brown

Answer the following Questions:

1. What does Ms. Brown say is the difference between sympathy and empathy?
2. Give an example when you showed empathy toward someone.
3. Do you agree with Ms. Brown's conclusions about empathy?

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Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of the Written Word!

Syllabus Link: HERE

Don't Forget To Be Awesome!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I am an educator with over 25 years of teaching experience; I currently teach English in the public school system of Virginia. In my spare time, I am an avid reader. writer, reviewer, blogger, writing/art journaler, beekeeper, grad student, and MOTHER. - See more: Here