Storytelling, whether fiction or nonfiction, can consume you or repel you depending on the content.
Every day we encounter storytelling; through speeches such as business deals, meetings in the workplace, or speaking to someone at work, speaking over the fence to your neighbour or chatting with your family and friends. Or you can read books, e-books, check out the internet or go to the movies.
Whatever a person is speaking about, or negotiating with, it is a story about something or someone, or some event that happened or is going to happen.
Life is one big story!
People can feel their emotions being stirred within them depending what stories they read, are being told, or involved in.
Fiction or Non-Fiction
Stories, whether fiction or non- fiction, can change people’s lives if it has meaning to the reader. You can read to learn, to be entertained, or to learn to be a writer yourself. It does not matter what level you are at the moment; it is the level that you want to reach that is important.
Fiction
I would like to tell you about fiction. Ask yourself, is observation just about watching people? Definitely not! Next time you are with a group of people, pay attention to their interactions. What are they saying, and how are they saying it? Who are they interacting with? You can get a lot of information for a story just by observing people. Listen to the group of people and ask yourself.
- Who is full of themselves and self-centred?
- Who is giving and caring?
- Who is a bitch?
- Who plays games?
- Who is deceitful or trustworthy?
- What personality are you attracted to?
- Who is the villain in the group? It is often the people you least expect.
People interact verbally in a group more than others. If you are observing and not being verbal, take note: who is trying to involve you in the group, and who is ignoring you and is pumping out all their news?
You find that your observation will give you heaps of information to work with, learn from, or to write about.
If you are new to writing and don’t know where to start, try observing the next group of people you are with. Use the people you have observed and turn them into characters, but remember to change their names, circumstances, and their appearances, etc. You don’t want to identify anyone, but you want to use them as a base to write your novel. Then extend the story and their personality as you create your fiction. This is how I stated writing fiction. I was in the most boring team meeting imaginable when I worked in the State Public Service. I felt I was wasting time, so I identified the villain, the caring person within the group etc, and set the scene in 2011, during the floods in Ipswich. Of course, my novel is nothing like what we were speaking about in the team meeting, but I had my characters sorted. There is more to writing than I have mentioned, but if you cannot think of characters or what to write, this is an idea for you to think about, and get started.
Delece Ford – June 2022
