Warmth in story

Six days into my ’30-minutes-of-online-learning-a-day’ challenge, and going strong. That learning has been happening through Skillshare and Masterclass, revolving thus far primarily around writing.

Partly because of that, I’ve been thinking a lot about story, and what I find compelling about story. For me, there’s an ‘indescribable’ warmth to some stories, books or movies. Things like Newsroom and Harry Potter and West Wing. I wanted to try and describe it.

Driving in the car today, I wrote down the things I can think of that evoke that warmth…

  1. Stories revolving around friends and family – and the struggles and joys of moving through life together.
  2. A space that feels like ‘home’ to the characters. A space that is their own. A space that is lived in and shows its years. A space that they get to show to someone who has never been there before (along with the audience).
  3. Characters finding beauty in nature.
  4. Close groups, societies, clubs or classes – groups that feel trustworthy and are striving together towards a common goal. Often small groups or societies hidden or obscured within large ones. Finding anonymity together within masses of humanity.
  5. Characters finding beauty in unappreciated areas.

Those are my musings of the day. This list is shallow and incomplete – I will continue to build on it.

P.S. I found this fantastic website today while sifting through a graphic designer’s old daily blog. It’s Humans of New York except… rural. Check it out.


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