This exercise elaborated on the previous one and introduced me to a more in-depth story structure: Nigel Watt’s Eight-Point Arc. I find this topic quite hard to engage with. I have always loved to write stories, create worlds, and consider narrative within my art, but the idea of writing out a plot and following it stresses me out. I like the open-ended ‘let’s see where I end up’ approach to storytelling, preferring to go back at the end and tie up loose ends and fill in all of the gaps. It might not be the most efficient way to create stories, but it’s much more enjoyable for me.
When I was a child I would participate yearly in NaNoWriMo, a global challenge for writers to complete a whole 50,000-word novel in one month. I didn’t ever accomplish it, as I was young and easily bored by writing, but I loved the community and the concept. We, as participants, typically sorted ourselves into two groups – plotters and pantsers. I was a pantser, someone who came into the challenge with a vague concept for a story assured that I would figure it out as I went along. I take the same approach now when tackling an assignment or project: I start, and trust I’ll figure it out by the end.
Breaking down the process into great detail and then applying this to my future projects completely disinterests me and puts me off doing them entirely. So as expected, examining story structures and figuring out how to apply them to my own work does much the same. Reading over Nigel Watt’s Eight Point Arc, I notice that it simply expands on the ‘beginning, middle, end’ structure I used in Exercise 4.4, which interestingly didn’t feel restrictive and stressful. Maybe this was because I was simply doing it, rather than overthinking it, I’m not sure, but viewing Watt’s story structure in this way definitely helps.
If I was to approach the development of my work using this structure, I think it would be useful to break it down into several steps. First, undergo the steps in Exercise 4.4, finding a simple ‘beginning, middle and end’ structure. Then, break each of those frames down further, seeing how they could be expanded upon – much like how Watt’s theory expands on the three concepts. If there simply isn’t a way to expand it further, that’s fine, and if there is, that’s great! This approach would likely feel less restrictive for me and more like I was exploring options as I go, rather than trying to plan ahead.
I’m generally more focused on the ‘big picture’ when it comes to everything in life. Breaking things down and hyper-analysing them doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s why I’ve always struggled with the in-between bits of my illustrative process – I have the ideas, research and concepts down, and I know what I want the final piece to look like, but every step along the way feels tedious and finicky. I can see how using a pre-existing narrative structure could help me to ensure my stories are well written and the best they could be, but I think I need to approach them more as inspiration rather than a strict process to follow.
Learning Log 