The Seven Moments in Storytelling that Really Matter
Christian Blake
Amazon Digital Services
Nonfiction, Writing
**+
Description
What makes a person sit in a theater for ninety minutes, or sit with a book for nine hours? Why are some tales universally embraced while others are instantly
forgotten? After lengthy analysis of popular movies, author Christian Blake discovered seven recurring elements in every successful story.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
Review
I give Blake credit for attempting a different approach. Rather than focusing on the three-act structure or other staples of writing books, he instead offers seven
elements that occur in well-crafted stories on screen or page. Unfortunately, I found these points too vague to guarantee interest; each one can be just as easily abused
as properly used, and they still don't answer the age-old questions of how to construct a good story arc. To illustrate his "moments," Blake includes a short story of his
own crafting - a story so cliché and unresolved that it distracts rather than elucidates. It might've been more interesting had he pointed out his seven moments in
existing popular work; many classics are in public domain, so rights shouldn't have been an issue.
On the plus side, Blake offers a different way to view plotting and story structure. On the minus side, he fails to demonstrate his "seven moments" effectively. His
approach might help some struggling writers, but, sadly, not this one.