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FINAL STORY OUTLINE : CURIOUS GEORGE & THE WHALE

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FINAL STORY OUTLINE : CURIOUS GEORGE & THE WHALE

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Drama: Man vs Nature

PoV: First Person

Genre: Fantasy (initially) - later changed to Fable

Plot: Focal Character

Voice: Character Voice

A baby whale is trapped in a small pool in the jungle.  When the whale outgrows this confinement he is helped to reach the sea by his monkey friend, Curious George,

NB: suggest contact estate of Margret & H.A. Rey (originators of the Curious George book series) before proceeding to write this story.

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The narrative voice describes how the story is conveyed: for example, by "viewing" a character's thought processes, reading a letter written for someone or retelling a character's experiences. Choose one or more types of voice to be used in our story.

STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS – the narrator attempts to detail the thought processes—as opposed to simply the actions and spoken words—of the narrative character. Often, interior monologues and inner desires or motivations, as well as pieces of incomplete thoughts, are expressed to the audience but not necessarily to other characters. Examples include: the character Offred's often fragmented thoughts in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaiden’s Tale” and the narrator's nightmarish experience in Queen’s hit song "Bohemian
Rhapsody".

CHARACTER VOICE – a conscious "person" (in most cases, a living human being) is presented as the narrator or ‘viewpoint character’. Examples of viewpoint characters include Doctor Watson, Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird and Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby.

UNRELIABLE NARRATOR – in this case the viewpoint
character used is a dubious or untrustworthy narrator. This mode may be employed to give the audience a deliberate sense of disbelief in the story or a level of suspicion or mystery as to what information is meant to be true and what is to be false. This lack of reliability is often developed by the author to demonstrate that the narrator is in some state of psychosis.  Examples include Nelly Dean in Wuthering Heights, "Chief" Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Holden Caulfield in the novel The Catcher in the Rye. Alternatively the unreliable narrator might be naïve, one who is so ignorant and inexperienced that they actually expose the faults and issues of their world. Examples include, to some degree, most child narrators.

EPISTOLARY VOICE – uses a series of letters and
other documents to convey the plot of the story. Although epistolary works can be considered multiple-person narratives, arguably they have no narrator at
all—just an author who has gathered the documents together in one place. One famous example is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which is written in a sequence of letters. Another is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which tells
the story in a series of diary entries, letters and newspaper clippings.

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Narrative point-of-view describes the narrator's position in the story being told. You follow the character almost like a camera: at a distance, on the character's shoulder or in the character's head. Chose one of the following point-of-views.

FIRST-PERSON – the story is relayed from the point-of-view of a character in the story. The story is revealed by referring to this viewpoint character as "I" in the narrative. Often, the first-person narrative is used as a way to directly convey the deeply internal, otherwise unspoken thoughts of the narrator.

SECOND-PERSON – in which the narrator refers to the reader as "you", making the audience member
feel as if he or she is a character within the story. The second-person point-of-view is intended to create an intense sense of intimacy between the narrator and the reader, causing the reader to feel implicit in and powerless against a plot that leads him, blindly, towards the denouement.

THIRD-PERSON – this narration provides the greatest flexibility to the author and thus is the most commonly used narrative mode in literature. In third-person narration, each and every character is referred to by the narrator as "he", "she","it", or "they". In third-person narration, it is obvious that the narrator is merely an unspecified entity or uninvolved person that conveys the story and is not a character of any kind within the story being told.

ALTERNATING – most commonly the point-of-view alternates between first and third person. The storytelling will move back and forth between a
more omniscient third-person to a more personal first-person (typically the protagonist). Often, a narrator using the first person will try to be more objective by also employing the third person for important action scenes, especially those in which the protagonist is not directly involved.

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Plot is character, character is plot. The characters involved in any drama propel the story, making decisions and counter-decisions which drive the plot to its denouement. Dramatic characters come in many stripes and spots so their selection determines in many ways the character of our story. Listed below are some common character types, kindly chose the number, if any, of each

type you wish to appear in our story.

FOCAL CHARACTERS – are the characters on whom the audience are meant to place the majority of their interest and attention. The focus can be a separate character to the protagonist. The focal character is the "excitement" of the story, though not necessarily the main character about whom the audience is emotionally concerned (i.e. the protagonist). The focal character is, more than anyone else, the person on whom the spotlight focuses; the centre of attention; whose reactions dominate the screen. Example focal character: Sherlock Holmes (Doctor Watson usually serves as the stories protagonist).

Number of focal characters in our story: ____1____

PROTAGONISTS - are the main characters (the central or primary personal figures) of our story, who enter conflict because of the antagonists. The audience is intended to identify most with the protagonists.

Number of protagonists in our story: ________

ANTAGONISTS - a character, group of characters, or institution that
represents the opposition against which the protagonist(s) must contend. In other words, an antagonist is a person or a group of people who oppose the main
character(s). Example antagonist: Professor Moriarty.

Number of antagonists in our story: ________

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS – are characters in a narrative that are not focused on by the primary
storyline. Sometimes supporting characters may develop a complex back-story of their own, but this is usually in relation to the main character, rather than entirely independently. Example supporting character: Mrs Hudson or any Sherlock Holmes clients.

Number of supporting characters in our story: ________

FOIL – character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character. A foil usually either differs drastically or is extremely similar but with a key difference setting them apart. Example foil: Inspector Lestrade.

Number of foils in our story: ________

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Drama is conflict, however, conflict comes in a variety of flavours. Chose the type of conflict you would like to see in our embryonic story (in each case "man" is the universal and also refers to women) :-)

MAN AGAINST MAN – involves stories where characters are pitted against one another. This is an external conflict. The conflict may be direct opposition, as in a gunfight or a robbery, or it may be a more subtle conflict between the desires of two or more characters, as in a romance or a family epic. Examples include Dorothy's struggles with the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Luke Skywalker’s confrontation with Darth Vader in Star Wars IV to VI.

MAN AGAINST SOCIETY – characters are forced to make moral choices or frustrated by social rules in
meeting their own goals. The Handmaid's Tale and Fahrenheit 451 are examples of man against society conflicts. So is Charlotte's Web, in which the pig Wilbur fights for his survival against a society that raises pigs for food.

MAN AGAINST NATURE – conflict is an external struggle positioning the hero against an animal or force of nature, such as a storm or tornado or snow. The man against nature conflict is central to Ernest Hemingway's “The Old Man and the Sea”, where the protagonist contends against a marlin. It is also common in adventure stories, including Robinson Crusoe.

MAN AGAINST SELF – the struggle is internal. This is a conflict that is usually associated with an external conflict. A character must overcome his own nature or make a choice between two or more paths - good and evil; logic and emotion. An example of "man against himself" is J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Bridget Jones's Diary also focuses on internal conflict, as the titular character deals with her own neuroses and self-doubts.

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Genre describes the setting of a story, including broad expectations of how that world works. Review the following list and choose a genre for our embryonic story:-

FABLE – narration demonstrating a useful truth, especially in which animals speak as humans; legendary, supernatural tale. Examples: Watership Down and Animal Farm.

FAIRY TALE – story about fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children. Example: Film Epic, Moomins (any).

FANTASY – fiction with strange or other worldly settings or characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality. Examples: Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones.

HISTORICAL FICTION – story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting. Examples: Pride and Prejudice, Treasure Island.

HORROR – fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread and sometimes fear in both the characters and the reader. Examples: Dracula, World War Z.

HUMOUR – Usually a fiction full of fun, fancy, and excitement, meant to entertain and sometimes
cause intended laughter. Examples: The Colour of Magic, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

MYSTERY – fiction dealing with the solution of a crime or the unravelling of secrets. Examples:
Sherlock Holmes (any) and The Da Vinci Code.

SCIENCE FICTION – story based on impact of actual, imagined, or potential science, usually set in
the future or on other planets. Examples: Star Trek, Star Wars, Inception.

TALL TALE – humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the
impossible with nonchalance. Example: Baron von Munchhausen, Princess Bride.

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Wikipedia defines creative writing as: “any writing that

goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes.”

In other words: writing which is larger than technically needed, yet surrounding and all pervasive. People aren’t machines – they learn best through stories. These speak directly to our inner hero - who has an indomitable spirit to succeed.

Our task today is to construct the outline for a fictional story. Such transportive tales have many threads to weave, so let us begin…

Each Story Thread note describes different aspects of a story and details the decisions we need to make before writing our story. Read each note and decide how you wish use each aspect - then continue to the next until all story aspects have been chosen. Review your choices and see if they spark an idea for a story. Then write a brief outline of you idea, a paragraph or maybe more!

Try not to agonise over these choices, in this exercise there are no right or wrong answers. If you want to experiment, feel free to review whatever choices you made at any time,