“If you study the different types of stories, the details make it different. It’s the setting, the character that give it its uniqueness. And that’s also something that a lot of people need to get over: they feel like they don’t need to follow the tenets of storytelling. Actually, you do need to follow the tenets of good storytelling, you do need to learn what makes a story work and where things fit in a story structure because those are the tried-and-true facets of a good story. And if you feel like diverging from those is what makes you unique, then you’re doing it wrong. Because what makes you unique are the people in your story, the characters, the protagonist, the small elements, the details. You can tell the story, the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet a thousand different ways if the details of that story are different. It’s the same general theme, the same general structure, but it’s a different story if the characters you’re bringing into it, the details you’re bringing into it, are your own.”
Jay Staudt is a Mason alumni who studied integrative studies with a concentration in multimedia and internet studies.