Final Post-Piano: My Favorite Thing-Andrew Moul

Philosophy of Storytelling

A story is a picture; although instead of using pixels or paints, we use words to convey a message, meaning, or happening. From the moment we learn to talk, until the day we take our final breath, we all tell stories. But let’s not forget the listener. They are just as important, if not more than the teller of the story itself. For the story has already had a chance to leave an impression on the teller, but with every listener, the story has a new opportunity to leave an impression, good or bad, on someone else.

In kindergarten, we are taken to the computer lab, to create a fridge worthy masterpiece in MS Paint. We may be asked to create our favorite thing or place, or we may be asked to show our family members and pets. In this simple case, we can now share a piece of ourselves with our classmates. Through this digital medium, by using our limited range of skills, we can find similarities or differences, and build friendships and connections by illustrating a story. Our story.

In high school, we enter the computer lab with a set of new experiences and lessons. In assignment one, we are asked to create a drawing in Illustrator to express a thought, or a feeling towards something. Once completed, these drawings can be posted on blogs so the others may share in our passions. Through this more complex software, we can more deeply communicate our ideas. Our story.

Once we become members of the workforce, we have spare time which we occupy with visits to movies or museums. At the movies, we get to see stories of science fiction or romance, and at museum we see beautiful works of art. These movies and pieces afford us a glimpse into someone else’s story. We get a chance to listen and learn from their experiences. Their story.

After a life of work, we have seen many pictures. Some of which are ours, and some of which belong to others. We are given a choice of whether we share these pictures with others, or if we keep them to ourselves. Do we allow them to impact the life of someone else? Do we open our albums and old home videos to share our pictures? A picture is worth a thousand words. Our story.

 Reflection

At first, I really didn’t like this class. I was accustomed to assignments that had a correct answer and a few ways to get there. But here, there were no right or wrong answers, and the road to get to the answer is only limited by your own imagination. I didn’t like that. The class was hard for me at first I think because I was overwhelmed with choices. What do I write about? What do I say? What style should I use? What on earth is a philosophy of storytelling? Although I may not have liked it, I’m glad that this was the environment of the classroom because storytellers need freedom to tell their stories. It also got my mind to think creatively and ‘outside-of-the-box’ that I have stayed in for so long.

Something else in this class that helped me with my assignments and projects was a chance to see the writings, videos, and stories of different people. I think it helped even more though that they didn’t use typical, everyday styles. For example, in Bluets, Maggie Nelson writes in numbered paragraphs. She breaks her thoughts up into small bite sized chunks which proves to be a very effective method of storytelling. It’s kind of like an image. If you use a greater number of smaller pixels, the picture is clearer and more accurate to the scene it captures.

Or in Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, he uses many descriptions of seemingly many different cities to only describe one city. Through many points of view, he talks about the same thing. It reminds me of the peer review aspect of the class. As much as I didn’t like having my unfinished work on display for all to see (or hearing my own voice for that matter) it was nice to get to see my project through others’ point of view. Even if I didn’t agree with them, my project still made someone think. My project still had a chance to impact someone else. There is never one right

All in all, I went from disliking the class, to appreciating what it had to offer me. It helped me think outside the box and really challenged me to not conform to one idea or another. I have always been someone who only likes to do something once. ‘Why not just do it right the first time’? But as this class has shown me, it is important to review your work again and again. This is so that it can be fine-tuned in order to accomplish what you have set out for it to do. Stories are extremely powerful tools and that is why it is important to make sure that they are right. Even if I don’t like it, revisions are an important part of the storytelling process.