15
How to Choose Story Material
Variety
At first, it seems impossible to find any general rules concerning the basic material. Stories are as varied as life itself. Everything that can be imagined can also be told. A story can deal with a Sherpa mountain climber or with the Queen of England, it can dramatize death and agony, or it can describe an idyllic planting of flowers.
Instead of attempting to impose a narrow definition upon such bountiful freedom, we proceed to make this very variety our first demand: stories must be different from one another. The audience constantly wants new stories, the public desires to hear new things. Thus variety is an essential attribute of the story.
Still, in all this multitude and variety, there are elements ...
Get Vale's Technique of Screen and Television Writing now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
