Tag Archives: Story

Jul 2 2012

What is a Story? (Part 2)

Several months ago I asked the question, What is a story? After getting some feedback, I came up with the following definition: A story is an event or series of events that changes a noun (a person, place, or thing).

I was satisfied with that definition and myself for a while before it occurred to me, can you write a story where the purpose of the story is to find change in a verb? That is, can the point of the story be for the action to change?

I still find change to be a necessary component for a story, even if the change is to leave one state and then go back to the way it was before. Of course, that’s still change; two changes in fact. But if you have a scene where nothing changes, all you have is an image, not a story.

Anyway, I decided to see if I could write a story where nothing changes but the action. I think I have accomplished that task, thus rendering my previous definition moot, or rather, incomplete.

I have a couple of short stories I plan to put up on Smashwords by next week. Once I get it posted, I’ll let people know where to find it. It’ll be free, of course.

Until then, as a bit of a writing challenge, see if you can come up with a story where the only thing that changes is the action of the story.

Mar 28 2012

Meta Thinking

The word “Meta” gets thrown around a lot and just so we’re all on the same page as to what it means, I’ll explain simply. A meta discussion is nothing more than a discussion about a topic. Two posts ago, I asked, “What is a Story?” That discussion was a “Meta-story” discussion because we were asking questions about stories.

My follow-up post, “What is a Critique?“, in a manner of speaking is a meta-meta-story discussion because we were discussing things about the way people discuss (i.e. critique) story telling. Theoretically, we can ponder on up the meta-chain of thinking by discussing topics that discuss topics which discuss topics, but as you can see, the thinking gets abstract fairly quickly and I’ve noticed most people don’t like discussing things in the abstract, or at least not as abstractly as a mathematician like myself.

Back in 1931, a mathematician/logician named Kurt Godel (He was Albert Einstein’s best friend late in life and purportedly one of the few minds Einstein thought quite highly of) used statements of mathematics along with meta-statements to show what has famously become known as “The Incompleteness Theorem”. To keep things ultra-simple, this theorem showed that not all statements that can be made in a mathematical framework, have a proof within that framework.

What does that mean? It means that, in math, we can make statements that are true, but we can never prove they are true. Similarly, we can make statements that are false, and never be able to prove they are false.

It was a very disturbing revelation for mathematicians. They had hoped that everything that was true, could be demonstrated to be true and that which is false  could be demonstrated false. Imagine spending a large portion of your life on a problem only to find out that it has no solution. That is, unless you completely change mathematics itself.

So why have I been thinking about all this Meta-think?

It’s strange, but I was wondering if story telling was formal enough so that one could write a story that is uncritqueable?

I know. It sounds silly. But if you define your system properly, theoretically Godel’s theorem might apply.

The only problem is that it really can’t. A critique is not a simple bifurcation between approval and disapproval, like mathematical statements being provable or unprovable. A critique is a continuum, a scale of like and dislike. So no matter how much you formalize storytelling, you’ll never be able to write a story that is uncritqueable.

Unless we decide, i.e. create a framework where a critique is either approval or disapproval, then maybe we have a shot.

I know what you’re thinking. We can always say we like every story, and then there are no uncritiqueable ones.

I wouldn’t be satisfied with that. We’d have to be honest in our critiques or else, what’s the point? (Though I’m sure you’re already thinking that thought about this post. See, I told you most people don’t like thinking abstractly.)

So how would an uncritiqueable story read?

I don’t know.  Apparently, I wouldn’t be able to make an opinion on the work.

Which, oddly enough, has happened to me before. Perhaps, I’ve already read the uncritiqueable story.

Alright, need a takeaway? A payoff for reading to the end of this post?

I guess my point is, think about the way you think about story telling. What are your thoughts and beliefs about the way a story should be told, and maybe this will improve your story telling.

Next time, when I get a chance to write, I’ll discuss some of my thoughts on story telling itself.

Mar 23 2012

What is a Critique?

A few days ago I asked, “What is a story?” and managed to get some good feedback. In the comments I mentioned that I wanted to ask also, “What is a critique?” and of course, I mean this in the context of a critique of a story.

The reason I ask these questions is because I am trying to write a short story and these definitions will become important to the story.

So what is a critique?

Without looking at anything academic or any sort of definition, I came up with a two part definition:

A critique of a story is a 1) a short recap of the story without giving away the resolution, followed by, 2) an opinion as to the effectiveness of the story due to its presentation and/or execution of the resolution.

NOT elegant at all compared to my definition of a story.

I discussed this definition with a friend and she disagreed with the necessity of the first part. She didn’t feel a recap is always necessary and some critics throw out spoilers like they’re candy, so I can see her point.

The next step is to check Dictionary.com, because who actually uses a dictionary anymore? According to this site:

A critique is a detailed evaluation discussing the merits and faults of a story.

(Please note this is not exactly what the site says, but what we get after weeding out the extraneous definitions and making substitutions for similar root words.)

It’s not bad. Certainly more elegant than what I came up with.

Anyone have anything better?

Mar 20 2012

What is a Story?

I have been thinking the last few days, naturally in lieu of writing, about the most boiled down academic definition of what a story is. Of course, everyone will have a slightly different definition. Even in academia people argue definitions all the time. Without looking at anyone else’s definition, I came up with the following:

A story is an event or series of events that changes a noun. Or maybe a series of events that describe the way a noun changes. (Under the assumption that one event falls under the umbrella of a “series of events”.)

As we all remember School House Rock, a noun is a person, place, or thing.

So a story is about how a person, place, or thing changes. For if there is no change, then there is no story. There is nothing to talk about.

I’m sure many are going to say, “Wait! So much more happens in a story. How can you just limit it to such a simple definition?”

First of all, because it’s my definition. All I need to do is back it up. Second, as I mentioned above, I am looking for the most boiled down abstract definition possible. I’m not looking to make things overly complicated. I’m looking for a definition that fits every story ever written.

What is a murder mystery? A story about a person who was alive and is now dead.

What is a romance? A story about a person who goes from not being love to one that is in love.

What is an epic fantasy?

Ah! Here’s where things get a little tricky. An epic fantasy is actually a genre and not really a story type, but you can often be rest assured if a story is epic one of the major elements is describing how a country or world goes through a change. You can have all sorts of subplots, and sub-mysteries, etc. within a book/story, but I would just argue that it is actually a number of different stories woven together in the same presentation.

Try it. See if you can come up with a story that does not fit this definition.

Try and see if you can come up with a definition of your own that covers all stories. I’d love to hear what you come up with.