Damn Fine Story
Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative
by Chuck Wendig
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 18 Oct 2017 | Archive Date 8 Nov 2017
F+W Media | Writer's Digest Books
Description
What do Luke Skywalker, John McClane, an da lonely dog on Ho'okipa Beach have in common?
Simply put, we care about them.
Great storytelling is making readers care about your characters, the choices they make, and what happens to them. It's making your audience feel the tension and emotion of a situation right alongside your protagonist. And to tell a damn fine story, you need to understand why and how that caring happens.
Using a mix of personal stories, pop fiction examples, and traditional storytelling terms, New York Times best-selling author Chuck Wendig will help you internalize the feel of powerful storytelling. In Damn Fine Story, you'll explore:Fretytag's Pyramid for visualizing story structure--and when to break away from traditional storytelling formsCharacter relationships and interactions as the basis of every strong plot—no matter the form or genreRising and falling tension that pulls the audience through to the climax and conclusion of the storyDeveloping themes as a way to craft characters with depthWhether you're writing a novel, screenplay, video game, comic, or even if you just like to tell stories to your friends and family over dinner, this funny and informative guide is chock-full of examples about the art and craft of storytelling--and how to write a damn fine story of your own.
A Note From the Publisher
He, along with writing partner Lance Weiler, is an alum of the Sundance Film Festival Screenwriter's Lab (2010). Their short film, Pandemic, showed at the Sundance Film Festival 2011, and their feature film HiM is in development with producers Ted Hope and Anne Carey. Together they co-wrote the digital transmedia drama Collapsus, which was nominated for an International Digital Emmy and a Games 4 Change award.
Chuck has contributed contributed over two million words to the game industry and was the developer of the popular Hunter: The Vigil game line (White Wolf Game Studios/CCP). He was a frequent contributer to The Escapist, writing about games and pop culture.
Much of his writing advice has been collected in various writing- and storytelling-related ebooks.
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781440348389 |
PRICE | £14.99 (GBP) |
Featured Reviews
If you want writing advice, this isn't a bad place to stop. If you want advice on how to put a story together, this is a great place to stop. It has all sorts of anecdotes and examples about how good stories are put together, and sometimes about how well-known stories fail (think The Phantom Menace et al). It works just the same whether you're talking writing a book, a screenplay, or sometimes even a good joke. Oral storytellers would benefit too -- Wendig gives examples from his father's oral stories too.
If you're easily offended, though, maybe you want to avoid it. Wendig swears freely and relates stories his kid thinks are awesome, often scatalogical. He's irreverent and sometimes he spoilers stories like Star Wars, or doesn't but doesn't in a way that takes aim at them, and... Yeah, just, if you have any sacred cows, you might want to avoid.
My main criticism is that sometimes the jokey asides just felt like filler. I enjoy Chuck Wendig's humour and randomness at times on Twitter... it felt out of place in the middle of a chatty seminar on storytelling. Time and place, dude. Time and place.
An incredibly useful and inspiring book for anyone who wants to write, whether it be for novels, essays, books, poems or newspapers.
Some very practical exercises and techniques that I have not found in other books on the same subject.
An easy book to read and digest, as I think most people who would read something like this want to be getting on with a project very quickly afterwards, if not while reading the book.
Would definietly recommend to artistic friends.