We were privileged to learn more about our church-family members as we found interesting segues into the kinds of writing that surfaced. We were also pleasantly surprised at the diversity of themes .
Robin and I would like to thank everyone who participated in our Life Group last night at the church. We had a good time writing and telling stories, but most of all, we experienced a deeper sense of camaraderie which developed around the fellowship of human interactions.
We were privileged to learn more about our church-family members as we found interesting segues into the kinds of writing that surfaced.
We were also pleasantly surprised at the diversity of themes. And, although the dog-centered themes outnumbered the cat themes by three to one, the cat perspective definitely made the story very enjoyable and creative.
It is this kind of creativity and playfulness that we were hoping would come to light during these sessions. All of the stories were very interesting and well thought out.
There were several testimony-type, first-person accounts, as well as many fiction-based stories. I am hoping that the information regarding the “narrative arc” was helpful as well for the future of our group. With all of this being said, I would like to introduce a new topic to the group called “tropes”.
Tropes are basically themes that occur in a variety of popular stories – either fiction or non-fiction – and can run the gamut of romance or character. Tropes can also be overly done and become cliched. Some of the more common romance tropes are:
· Stuck together - Trapped in an Elevator (or any other small space)
· Friends to lovers
· Forbidden love
· Second chance.
· Soul mates
Some of the more cliched movie tropes are:
o The damsel in distress
o The trusty sidekick
o Undead
o Walking away from an explosion
So, for next week we are going to be continuing with creating the short story and adding in some “TENSION” for better reader engagement and also better writing. So, until then, Hasta La Vista Baby!
John and Robin