For Sale: Baby shoes never worn. .

. . Ernest Hemingway once wrote a 6 word story. If you think that it's sad, then you made it sad. It's left open to the interpretation of the reader, is it a tragic ending or just a baby that's particularly picky when it comes to shoes?



Stories are so powerful that we lie, exaggerate and omit the truth in favour of telling a good story - Errol Morris. 

Everyone's a storyteller, whether it's the latest gossip, what you got up to at the weekend or the next bestseller, we all have stories to tell. For a long time I didn't see myself as a storyteller, as someone who loves reading and has an absolute ton of ideas that could be made into stories, it's the putting pen to paper and running from beginning to end that I struggle. This being said, we were presented with two new briefs in studio this week, one for the general illustrators (me) that was a competition brief under "Secret London" whilst the other was the MacMillan Children's book competition. I like a challenge so I've decided to go for the book option, but to do the London piece as a portfolio piece when I have time.

With an emphasis on storytelling in the briefs, we were given a little lecture on the fundamentals. In the lecture we were shown a TED talk of Andrew Stanton from earlier in the month, it was extremely useful.

Andrew makes the point that we as storytellers have an aim to make the audience care, we need to carefully consider characters, the plot, the messages that we send out through the story. He also highlighted the importance of the beginning of the story, where we make a promise to the audience that the story is worth their time. I particularly liked that he said storytelling has guidelines, not hard set rules*. Something that can be applied to most things, rules can be broken, as long as it's done in an appropriate way and purposefully. *See Hemingway quote at top of page!
Before I saw this talk, I was debating on which brief to take, the one set for me (the safe option) or the challenging children's book. After this talk I whole heartedly went for the MacMillan brief, I want to challenge myself, I want to be able to tell a story, I want to evoke wonder! Who doesn't?!

Kurt Vonnegut on the shape of stories.

Dan Harmon's Story Circles.

 Here's some of the tips I picked up today:

• There needs to be fluctuation in a story to make it interesting.
• You have to be aware of the problems you introduce in your story; every problems needs to be solved.
• You have to mindmap all the possible ways your story can go in order to get the best possible plot; explore every possibility.
• Write what you know! Draw from experiences.
• Don't be afraid to tackle sensitive topics, it can be done!
• Exercise your imagination!!

I want to tell story that inspire, are imaginative and carry a message. Although I do struggle to write a complete story, I feel that if I stick to these reasons for writing and I'm passionate about the subject then I'll be able to.

Like I said, everyone is capable of telling a story, you just have to find the story that you want to tell!