avatarGrace Mary Power

Summary

The website content likens creative writing to painting, emphasizing the importance of crafting a story with depth, emotion, and a lasting impact, similar to a Van Gogh masterpiece.

Abstract

The text draws a parallel between creative writing and painting, suggesting that both art forms aim to evoke emotions and leave a lasting impression. It argues that a compelling story, much like a captivating painting, requires a well-developed theme, vibrant characters, and a narrative that resonates emotionally. The author stresses that a story's success lies in its ability to affect readers deeply, through a blend of substance, twist, and cohesive elements that tie the plot together. While acknowledging that individual reactions to art are subjective, the author encourages writers to paint their stories with passion and precision, ensuring that their work will connect with the right audience.

Opinions

  • A story should be crafted with the same care and attention to detail as a painting by Van Gogh, with texture, vibrancy, and a flow of significant words.
  • The effectiveness of a story is not just in its plot or theme, but in the emotional and mental impact it has on the reader, which requires sufficient development and exposition.
  • A story with a twist at the end for shock value alone, without a deeper exploration of the theme, is unlikely to be memorable or impactful.
  • The personal experiences and tastes of readers will influence their reactions to stories, and this diversity is acceptable as it reflects the broad spectrum of potential audiences.
  • A well-crafted story, painted with passion and preciseness, will find and resonate with its intended audience, achieving the status of a "magnus opum" or masterpiece.

Paint your own story

“Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh duplicate — Courtesy of Alisa Dennoiz

Creative writing is a bit like painting. With both, you envisage the theme or the “big picture” you want to create or manifest, then you use different paint colors or words to develop and produce a fine work of art.

A painter reveals a visual picture in full glory with visual stimulation that imprints a snapshot on the mind. This still shot can conjure feelings of pleasure, wonder, satisfaction, excitement, fear, dislike or even loathing, all based upon the observer’s personal experiences.

A good work of fiction uses words to paint a moving picture. Any narrative or plot can paint a story, but just like a still picture, it can surface as being boring or plain with no special “punch” or “kick” to it, i.e. with little power to affect one emotionally or mentally.

This may be due to a staid plot or to not enough substance to flesh out the plot and the theme, as there has to be enough exposition of both, for a lasting effect. Having a twist at the end of a story for a shock effect, illustrating a common theme like “Anything can happen” without painting enough strokes lifting the theme, through WHY anything can happen, is not likely to be memorable.

A story with a lasting effect is like a painting by Van Gogh, with texture, vibrancy, sharpness, and a flow of colourful or significant words, with a unified theme, and sometimes with sub-themes or sub-plots, which must seamlessly tie in with the other elements.

With balance among the setting, the characters in active response, the narrative and the background, just a few words can say a lot.

What tickles the fancy of one person, or deeply gratifies or impacts / changes a person who reads a story or who views a painting, may have little effect or none on the next person. This is okay because the “World is our oyster” or there are many readers and observers in the Universe, whom have different tastes or experiences or interests.

As long as your painted story reaches and touches the heart-strings of its intended audience (which of course are those who are interested in your theme or topic), and it is YOUR “magnus opum” or masterpiece, painted with passion and preciseness and with color, then it will “ring the bell” (or be just what is needed for someone somewhere sometime).

Just like an amazing painting.

So here’s to painting your Story and painting it well.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, you may like to read my short story “A Valentines Story”.

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