Ira Glass on storytelling: Part 1

Here is Ira Glass (“This American Life”) talking about storytelling. Today Part 1 (note: slightly distorted audio):

Glass talks about two concepts key to telling a story: (1) Anecdote — by which he means the sequence of events. (2) Moment of revelation — where the story conveys what it means.

Screenwriting takeaway: You can have a great series of events, but if they don’t turn out to mean anything, you’ve got nothing. Conversely you can have a significant revelation filled with meaning, but if the events themselves are uninteresting, again you’ve got nothing.

Tomorrow Part 2 on storytelling with Ira Glass.

The “This American Life” website here.

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