There is so much that goes in in people's lives that is never found in traditional storytelling. There is no epic poem where a guy is sitting on the toilet and realizes there's no toilet paper, nor is there a scene where a lady is waiting in line and can't figure out where some pungent odor is coming from. The minutia of life is just that, minute. It is small and insignificant, not worthy of being a story.
Of course, we all know that's just not true. Stories about the random stuff in life are so popular that they get their own genre: slice of life. Jerry Seinfeld made one of the most popular sitcoms of all time based on that very premise. 'Seinfeld' was called "a show about nothing", but it wasn't really about nothing. The stories always ended up becoming epics in their own right. There was a perfect storm of bad luck that made all of those little things into significant stories.
If you like to write about the little things, there's no problem with that. It's the little things that make up life. But try to give those stories a point. A subject or a message or an important task gives the audience something to hold on to and make them care about what happens next. Sometimes, real life is boring. That's why we like to escape into a good story and not just some stranger's diary.
About Me
- Kevin Bahler
- I am a writer. A writer is one who writes. By the same logic, I am also a thinker, an observer, and a puzzle solver. I am a graduate from the State University of New York at Cortland with a degree in Professional Writing. The idea of the program is that one studies all three aspects of writing as a whole: Creative Writing, Technical Writing, and Rhetoric. The knowledge I have gained in those subjects is put to use in every aspect of my life. The worst thing a person can be is boring. I am most interested in people who can pique my interests. An example is people who can correctly use the word 'pique'.
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