“The beat is the basic unit of storytelling.”
-Robert McKee
Happy holidays, Loreates!
I’m thrilled to welcome more than 40 of you who’ve joined us this month! And special thanks to new Premium Loreates Patty C. , Julie Hébert ,Laurel ollstein , Susannah Blachly , and Jennifer L. Shaw . What an honor to get acquainted with your work!
I didn’t expect to add a third part to my series on Staking Out Your Story, but after last week’s post, Patty C. asked me to drill further into the intricacies of “beats.” I aim to please, so beats are our focus for today. And in honor of the season, I thought I’d turn to O. Henry’s holiday classic “The Gift of the Magi” to serve as our example. If you wish, you can read the whole story HERE. [Note, too, that “Magi” serves as a sly example of 2nd POV, explored a few weeks back in my post This Story’s for “You”.]
If you missed the first two parts of the Stakes series, you can catch up here:
Beats don’t necessarily change the stakes in large or obvious ways, but they create the sense that something significant has shifted, however slightly.
Beats, or Breaths?
What exactly is a “beat”? That depends.
