I would like to take this opportunity to flag up the brilliance of a tweet I got from Teri Carson (@dizzydentfilms) yesterday. Not just for its humour, and of course succinctness, but because there is a lesson for us all in these 140 characters – a lesson in story delivery in subtext.
So, before I oversell the thing, here’s Teri’s tweet:
“Honk all you want. When I got shit to tweet I don't give a fuck what color the light is..”
You think… You read it again… The penny drops… You laugh. And you get a picture – a picture of a girl sitting in the car, waiting at a red. She’s texting on her phone, so she doesn’t see the traffic lights change, and there is a guy in the truck behind getting mad with her, and he starts letting her know about it by leaning on the horn. She is unmoved and is determined to finish her tweet before pulling away...
Now look carefully at the words I used to describe the picture she created. Not one of the words I used appeared in her tweet. You had to make that whole scenario up for yourself from the verbal clues she gave you. And THAT is master storytelling.
You give the audience only signposts, and they do the rest themselves. Stories are not about giving information, but holding it back and having the audience project it for themselves.
Thank you Teri - you're amazing. If, like I do, you'd like more of Teri, go to her blog at http://dizzydentfilms.blogspot.com and of course, she’s always welcoming followers on Twitter…
For an entire chapter on all types of story subtext and the methods writers use to embed subtext in their stories (and another example like this one, taken from a newspaper small ads column), you need The Story Book, chapter 4. Tell you what, drop me a line and I'll send you an article on subtext for FREEEEEE!!!!
David
Great post, David. Brings home a very important point that we should give the audience only signposts, and they do the rest themselves. That is indeed master storytelling.
ReplyDeleteHi David! Just came by to say thanks for the follow. :-)
ReplyDeleteHahaha I love that tweet and it's so true about how we only give the roadsigns.
You're right. I read, I didn't react. I read again, each word more carefully, I paused, I laughed. A lot. I might write that on an A4 sheet and keep it next to me when I write.
ReplyDeleteNot buying your book yet though; it's the way you phrase it - 'you need The Story Book'. I got a bit of automatic recoil for anything telling me I need it, anything phrased to suggest it's the best. It's got a lack of linguistic nuance I'm suspicious of, like crappy all night food joints, called Tasty Taco or Yummies Pizza, trying unimaginatively to draw you in. If they're unimaginative with their name, what about the Pizza?
I mean that in a friendly way; love your blog :D