Story and Structure: A Complete Guide
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley June 21, 2024
Author Leon Conrad
Distributor: Amazon
ISBN: 9780955639135
Publisher: The Squeeze Press
Release Date: November 2022
Website: https://www.amazon.com
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Leon Conrad has spent a life time researching story, or stories, teaching, lecturing and tutoring in the art of story creation, analysis and restructure and also in pursuit of the answer to the time old question, where do stories come from.
In the Preface Conrad explains much about the motivation behind his journey, why he has applied the mathematical principle created by Prof George Spencer Brown to literary (Story) analysis and how it makes the breakdown of any story ‘visually intuitive, easy to understand and extraordinarily powerful’.
After you negotiate the first chapter which is somewhat daunting, as it lays out the six primary symbols used in breaking down the context of Story, you are carefully lead into the absorbing journey relating to the creation of a story, what causes a story to evolve and how, using the positive and negative environment to create a flow, a story arrives in all its captivating glory.
Story and Structure: A Complete Guide is a pilgrimage through the world of words formed into cautionary tales, academic writing, enriching and thought provoking poetry and riddles, all of which tell a story in long or short form.
Over 18 distinct story structures, several of which are familiar tales told in childhood, others are more complex such as West African dilemma tales and the intricately crafted Ki-Sho-Ten-Ketsu, Conrad applies the six symbols to clearly illustrate the ebb and flow, positive and negative of the storyline.
As the chapters unfold it is very easy to become absorbed into what is a Masterclass in writing, which when understood and applied, has been proven to improve the writing style of all forms of story; storytelling and story creation.
A very comprehensive end section, beginning with the very short Epilogue, leads into the four Appendix further discussing various area of construction and analysis which concludes this exemplary book.
For anyone studying literature of any classification, considering writing a book or has written a book Story and Structure: A Complete Guide is a MUST have book of reference.