storytelling – Confabulator Cafe

Can’t Let Go

Jason Arnett - December 12, 2013

Been awhile since I’ve been here in any regular capacity. It seems, as I expected, that the Cafe has survived quite nicely and even thrived in my absence. For those who don’t know, here’s the short version: I got sick, really sick, and had to take some time to get healthy before I could think […]

First-person, Past Tense: Playing to My Strengths

Larry Jenkins - July 1, 2013

I am a slave to first-person point of view. As I’ve said before, whenever I write a story, I want to connect with the reader. I like the storyteller approach, and I want the audience to feel like I’m talking directly to them, or at least give the illusion that my main character is. For […]

A Shelf of Possibility

Jason Arnett - April 5, 2013

(Rolls d20) Eighteen. Damn. That means I have to write this post in the first person. What’s really important when I’m choosing which story to write is how best to tell it. Whose Point of View is most important? Is that character reliable enough or not to tell the story? Because if not, that […]

It’s All About Storytelling (Again)

Aspen Junge - February 7, 2013

Humans are a storytelling species. Stories are how we make sense of the world. Stories turn raw data into intelligence. We cannot make decisions without telling ourselves what stories we would like to make true. My federal counterparts hire contractors to do the information collection and repackaging work that I do for the state. On […]

We Will Always Need Cautionary Tales

Kevin Wohler - February 7, 2013

After Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 — his dystopian novel of a world where books are burned — he reportedly told interviewers “I wasn’t trying to tell the future, I was trying to prevent it.” Fahrenheit 451 is a cautionary tale, like so many of my favorite stories. If you think about it, some of the best stories are those […]