Experiential Storytelling

When writing in any storytelling medium, the idea is to make the story experiential . To achieve this, you must direct the action toward human experience and the the foundation of human experiences -emotion.

..but we must be careful to define expressing emotion with experiential emotion. The latter is what is essential to story.

If you have a character cry in a story, the mere act of them crying does not constitute emotion. Making a character cry is not experiential. Showing the reasons, conditions, or events that lead to the character crying is experiential.

Using the experience of a character that leads to story is experiential storytelling.

-if we see a hungry person, we can relate (we have been hungry before)

-if we see a starving person (we will feel, although we may not have ever felt starvation)

However, both of the above conditions are part of the outcome of a story, not the story itself.

Experiential Storytelling is essential to connect to the audience.

Sappy music, Over expressing emotion, cliched-poetic phrases, sentimentalizing gimmicks, or any other propagandistic devices in order to trigger an emotional response may not work, or only work in short term.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Krawczyk and Novak

  

Building experiences in characters is often used in romance/dramas..look how Experiential storytelling is given a creative twist here...

Spotless Mind(meet1), Spotless Mind(meet2)

Plot:

Emotionally withdrawn Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and unhinged free spirit Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) strike up a relationship on a Long Island Rail Road train from Montauk, New York. They are almost immediately drawn to each other with their radically different personalities.
Although they apparently do not realize it at the time, Joel and Clementine are in fact former lovers, now separated after having spent two years together. After a nasty fight, Clementine hired the New York City firm Lacuna, Inc. to erase all her memories of their relationship. Upon discovering this, Joel is devastated and decides to undergo the procedure himself, a process that takes place while he sleeps.
Much of the film takes place in Joel's mind. As his memories are erased, Joel finds himself revisiting them in reverse. Upon seeing happier times of love with Clementine from earlier in their relationship, he struggles to preserve at least some memory of her and his love for her. Despite his efforts, the memories are slowly erased, with the last memory of Clementine telling him: "Meet me in Montauk".