Discovering the Elements of Good Storytelling
As I walked down the hall to Professor Schwartz’s office I find myself wondering how I should conduct this interview; should I be friendly or professional? As an aspiring screenplay writer, Professor Schwartz is a role model for me. He completed graduate school in Iowa and attended the best writing program in the country: Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop. Soon after, he launched a successful career as a screenplay writer, selling multiple scripts to Hollywood studios including some that were adapted to feature films. He is currently writing a book on screenplay writing titled “Screw the Pooch," a satire based on the well-known “Save the Cat”. He is happy to share his experience and acquired knowledge with the lucky few who take his class, and I am one of those.
Before I know it I have arrived at his office and can feel my nerves begin to manifest. I have the questions I'm going to ask him, so why am I so nervous? My mind races when he greets me but fortunately, the great thing about him is that he is easy going and makes you feel comfortable. Once in his office, I express admiration for his work as a screenplay writer and explain that I’m there to learn about what makes a good story. During the interview we easily dive into conversation and after a while my tone shifts from professional to relaxed. Professor Schwartz and I veer away from structured interview questions to discuss his writing process and the fundamentals of storytelling. It wasn’t until after the interview, once I got a chance to ponder over our conversation, that I was able to identify the key elements of good storytelling that he had revealed between anecdotes: gene and rhetoric. In this paper I am going to discuss what I learned from our interview and explore the foundation to good storytelling. First I'm going to talk about genre and why it is necessary, and then about the importance of rhetoric and how it pertains to storytelling.
Genre
Before you ever start writing a story you need to know what the genre is and how to identify it. Genre is commonly defined as “A class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique or the like of” (
dictionary.com). To better understand how this concept is applied in practice, I asked Professor Schwartz what genre means to him and how he goes about choosing a genre for this stories. Professor Schwartz explained, “Genre is the type of story you are going to tell. A genre is something that tells you what the movie is about before even seeing or reading what the story is.” Staying in the theme of films, all horror stories have the same conventions making it easier to target an audience, or if you are the audience you can easily identify a horror film if that is what you want to see. There are other ways to understand genres; Kerry Dirk suggests, “When something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response. Then when that situation happens again, another person uses the first response as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who encounters this situation is basing his/her response on the previous ones, resulting in the creation of a new genre” (Dirk, 2010, p.252) This tells us that genres form from a series of precedents that are telling of how similar future situations will be understood. “Think about genres as tools to help people to get things done” (Dirk, 2010, p.252).
So, how do you go about choosing your genre? It was a simple question for Professor Schwartz who said, “It’s easy for me to choose my genre because I don't really stray too far from what I always do. I really enjoy dramas, so I write dramas and usually ones with a female lead.” Evidently, Professor Schwartz sticks to what he knows. After reading three of his screenplays I recognized his go to’s, or ‘moves’, are drama-based narratives with a female lead with a secret. All three of his screenplays follow these ‘moves’ and they have yet to fail him. Moves make this part of the process easy for people like Professor Schwartz, not that one has to be constrained by one genre. Fierce Dolan (2012) famously says, “I write across several genres. I’m a slut for words. I can't keep it in my literary pants” (p.1).
“It could be argued that the genre doesn't matter just as long as you pick one,” insists Professor Schwartz; “Whether it's an article, story, or student essay, you have to choose your genre, and preferably one that helps get your point across.” Genre is very important and it helps reach a target audience. If you don’t have a genre, then you can’t move onto the next step. In other words, genre is a building block in the writing process and a block the foundation for storytelling can’t do without.
Rhetoric
Genre and Rhetoric tie closely together; you can’t do one without the other. Rhetoric is potentially the most important part of storytelling and for some people, the only thing that matters in screenplay writing. Aristotle (350 BC) writes, “It is absurd to hold that a man should be ashamed of an inability to defend himself with his limbs, but not ashamed of an inability to defend himself with speech and reason; for the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs” (p.1). He also argues, “Anyone can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person at the right time, and for the right purpose and in the right way — that is not within everyone’s power and that is not easy” (p.1). This is my favorite quote on rhetoric since it is simple to understand. There is a time and place for every tone, as Aristotle so cleverly put it. Professor Schwartz and I talked a long time about target audiences and rhetoric. Professor Schwartz believes that modern day storytellers and mainstream Hollywood films don't treat their audience as intelligent individuals. “Today’s films force feed material to their audience as if they can’t figure it out by themselves” (Professor Schwartz, 2015).
Professor Schwartz has been writing to the same audience for years and he know his audience, so his rhetoric is the same from story to story. I have read two of Professor Schwartz’s screenplays and, because he already knows his audience, he knows he doesn't have to spell everything out or use simple language. Instead, he gives his audience deserved-credit and trusts them to understand his story. He believes his audience appreciates that he does that. If Professor Schwartz wrote ‘on the nose dialog’ or explained every detail about the scene or story for the audience, they would be inclined to never see or read his work again. Professor Schwartz calls it ‘regurgitation over digestion’. After reading Professor Schwartz’s work, it is easy to recognize that the tone is directed to a mature audience. He serves up a platter of set ups and pay offs and prefers to suggest rather than tell. Because he knows his audience, he can do this through rhetoric. A writer who doesn’t effectively use rhetoric or know their audience is flirting with disaster. That makes rhetoric just as important as genre.
Janet Boyd (2011) agrees; “choosing how to express your meaning is every bit as important as the message itself, which is really what rhetoric is. Every time you go to write anything (and every time you open your mouth), whether actively conscious of the purpose or not, you are making decisions about which words to use and what tone to establish as you order your thoughts based upon what is appropriate for your intended audience in that context” (p.1) With this in mind, I ask what tool of rhetoric Professor Schwartz uses; “In my screen writing book I can use heavy jargon because I know my audience. My audience is writers themselves or students exposed to screenplays” (Schwartz, 2015). Boyd (2011) concurs that, “Jargon is the terminology used by those in a particular profession or group to facilitate clear and precise communication, but this rhetorical tool is not limited just to the professional world” (p89).
Conclusion
In conclusion, rhetoric and genre are the foundation to good story-telling. From stories to articles, every writer should first be a master of genre and rhetoric in order to be an effective storyteller. Kerry Dirk (2010) explains that, “It is more important to understand the word genre than just be a master of one” (p.259). As suggested by Dirk (2010), it is useful to understand genre as a whole because you can use it several different ways to help get the point of the story across or lead into an answer within the story. This applies to rhetoric as well. Before you ever sit down to start writing, one has to first understand what you are writing about. This is a crucial step in the writing process. The second step is to identify a target audience; Are they old? Are they from a different generation? Is my audience politicians or construction workers? This question is so important and some might say it is the most important step before writing. Whether you believe genre or rhetoric comes first is of no matter as long as you sit down and take the time to go over them before you write. If you don’t go through this process before writing, whether it is a narrative story or a lecture, the results could be catastrophic. Thus, genre and rhetoric are the foundation to great storytelling.
References
Aristotle (350 BCE). Rhetoric (W. Rhys Roberts, Trans.). In Daniel C. Stevenson, The Internet
Classics Archivei. Retrieved from http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.mb.txt.
Boyd, Janet (2011). Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking). In Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky
(Eds.), Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing.
Dirk, Kerry (2010). Navigating Genres. In Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky (Eds.), Writing
Spaces: Readings on Writing.
506180-i-write-across-several-genres-i-m-a-slut-for-words.
academic-genres/.
