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I would take this as an expression of what I think of as knowing the difference between history and story. Every story is embedded in a history. A history is a sequence of event connected by causal...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2020-01-03T20:41:58Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48205 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T13:01:56Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48205 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T13:01:56Z (over 4 years ago)
I would take this as an expression of what I think of as knowing the difference between history and story. Every story is embedded in a history. A history is a sequence of event connected by causality. A plot, in itself, is a history. A story takes place within a history, but the story is not the history. A story exists when a character faces a choice of values. It is a choice they don't want to make, so they do everything they can to avoid making it. A story is a history in which they are forced to make it. To construct a story, though, you have to convince the reader that the character has the values between which they must choose. The start of the story is the place where those values are illustrated and the set of events that will force a choice between them is set in motion. If you start earlier than that, you are just giving history. Yawn. If you start later than that, we can't live the story because we don't know what is at stake for the character. So start the story at the last possible minute in which we will still understand what values are at stake for them. Anything before that is superfluous. Anything after is too late.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-09-26T00:02:39Z (over 4 years ago)
Original score: 9