by Timberry on September 24, 2009
I’m a bit off my normal thought patterns today, waking up in a generic freeway-exit hotel in the California Central Valley, headed for Yosemite National Park with my youngest daughter. 
Yosemite means a lot to me. My dad took my brothers and me there many times when we were growing up in the San Francisco area. As a teenager I went backpacking into the Yosemite high country every summer. Later on, my wife and I took our kids up into the high country every summer. That first picture is me with our three oldest in 1980, on the shoulder below Half Dome.
I’m very much looking forward to the Ken Burns series on National Parks starting this month on PBS. He calls it “America’s Best Idea.” I second that. I’ve lived in Mexico and Austria as well as the U.S., and I’ve traveled to dozens of countries, but I’ve never seen anything like our own national park system. It’s a great privilege to be able to hold the polluting effects of civilization at bay in some of these great parks. Poor Mexico, my country-in-law, has tried hard but is just economically unable to hold back the tide, even though it has some natural beauties that truly deserve it. Too bad. Let’s be grateful for what we have. The website for the Ken Burns series says tell your story; and this is mine.
The second picture here is our family plus pack burro on the far side of the river campsite at Little Yosemite Valley. That was in 1988. They used to rent pack burros in Yosemite for use by families and groups going out into the high country. We’d rent a burro for $15 per day and relieve ourselves of actually packing the stuff on our backs, which made it possible for a family to make a 4-5 day trip up into the mountains. My wife made those high-country trips into great family vacations. And we were always broke, so the $15 a day lodging cost was attractive. They don’t do that at Yosemite any more, because of problems like insurance, and people not respecting the implied privilege. And that’s too bad.
I’m particularly excited today because I’ve missed Yosemite since we moved to Oregon 17 years ago. I do get into the Oregon Cascades a lot, but I’ve missed Yosemite and I’m anxious to visit again.
This last photo, taken above Nevada Falls in 1980, is of our three oldest children, now 37, 35, and 33 years old. I can’t say that I would be looking forward to backpacking tonight (we have a hotel room reserved) but I am very glad we were able to do it when we did. And very happy to visit again, later today.
Photo credits: first one by my wife Evangelina Berry, second by some teenage boy who was talking up our teenage daughters at the time, third one by me.
by Timberry on September 8, 2009
A bit atypical for this blog, perhaps, but Larry Brooks posted this on his Storyfix.com blog. That’s a title I couldn’t resist. I clicked, read, and wanted to record. Even if just for me. Those six words are (this is all direct quote):
Compelling – will anyone care about your story? Is there a hook, a draw? Is there inherent emotional and intellectual appeal? What question is your story posing to the reader, and is the answer compelling enough for anyone to care?
Hero – yeah, we know we need a protagonist, blah blah blah. But is your lead character heroic? In what way? Do we empathize with what they need to do? What is at stake for her/him? What do they need to conquer, both internally and externally, to reach their goal? Why do we care about that goal? What is heroic about their ways and means of getting done what must be done in your story?
Conflict – nobody wants to read about a walk in the park. Really, they don’t. What opposes your hero’s quest? What does this conflicting force – usually a bad guy, a villain, but not always – want or need? What is at stake for him/her/it? Most importantly, how does this conflict exert the force of dramatic tension into the storyline, into each and every scene in the story?
Context – the most overlooked and taken-for-granted nuance in storytelling. What is the contextual sub-text at any given moment in your story… how is the past influencing the moment at hand?… how is the inherent conflict of the story exerting context into the moment at hand?… what forces influence the characters as they speak, take action, make decisions?… what is the thematic context of the overall story, and how does it manifest in the moment at hand? This is truly advanced stuff… master it and you’ll find yourself on a bookshelf somewhere. Context and dramatic tension – often synonymous, but not always – are what makes your scenes work.
Structure – that sound you hear is me once again beating this drum. Does your story unfold with a proper set-up? With the properly-placed and paced revelation of the hero’s new quest and need following that set-up? Has the context of the hero’s new journey, in a personal sense, been clearly established, and how does it affect what is said and done going forward? Are there shifts and surprises, valleys and peaks, both in terms of narrative exposition and dramatic tension?
Resolution – does the end of your story deliver an emotional payload to the reader? Does it makes sense? Will it linger once the final page has been turned? A killer resolution forgives the sins of softness in the story, but only if the hero is empathetic, the conceptual heart of the story rich and compelling, the thematic gift of the story penetrating, and the technical execution of the story optimized to make your ending the best it can be.
