Matt:
Hello, this is Sydney Story Factory. I'm Matt and this is How to build stories. Here's a question. What world do you think your story will take place on? Most of you, I'm sure would say Earth. Sure, a couple Jupiter, but that's not really what I'm talking about. So what am I asking? So what are the first types of stories you ever hear? For me it was things like Snow White, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty,
Student:
The Little Witchetty Grub Who Could Not.
Matt:
I don't know that one.
Student:
Oh, it's great. My favourite. He gets eaten.
Matt:
Okay. So we all have different favourite stories, but one thing is that they all seem to fit into a single genre: fairytales. And then within that genre, we have certain rules. The prince and the princess always end up together. Evil is always vanquished and we all end up living happily ever after.
Matt:
So we have a genre and we have rules and fairytales tend to take place in the same setting, a kind of medieval magical ye olde English type place with royalty and castles and dragons. But what if we would take the genre and the rules of fairytale, but put it in a new setting. So what would a fairytale look like if it took place in present day Antarctica or, Oh, Sierra Leone in the year, 2085 AD. So that's one genre and one set of rules. But what other genres can we play with? Uh, how about sci-fi, thriller, horror, romance, crime, western, teen drama, superheroes fantasy. There's plenty more, but let's just start there. So, what rules does each genre have?
Student:
The bomb will always get to the last two seconds before it's diffused.
Matt:
Oh, thriller.
Student:
The geeky best friend was always fit for the hero all along.
Matt:
Romance.
Student:
If he locked the cat in the house and the cat peed in a pair of shoes, those pair of shoes are now yours.
Matt:
Fantasy.
Student:
No, tragedy.
Matt:
So think of a genre and mix it up. You can take any time and any place. How about a superhero story set in future timey, Sri Lanka, or a crime tale set in the era of the Vikings. Once you've got the genre and the time and the place, then you can start being creative. You know what the rules are. So choose which ones you want to break. I mean, normally the princess always gets saved.
Student:
Yawn.
Matt:
Uh, normally the alien is always vanquished.
Student:
Snooze.
Matt:
Exactly. You know, what the genre is, so you know which rules to keep and which ones to break. And if you're unsure of the rules of the genre, just ask somebody. Everyone has a different favourite type of story. And everyone's an expert on something.
Student:
I know everything there is to know about hamsters.