Well here we are at the end of yet another year that seems to have flown by and I’m looking back over this past year at what’s been achieved, what’s been enjoyed, and thinking of plans for next year.
The most logical place to begin this ‘Storytelling Year In Review’ is with some article highlights…
Article Highlights
Something I managed to do this year was wrap up the articles for the ‘Essential Elements Of Storytelling’ (EEOS) series, which was a huge achievement and has given me the foundation of content to begin assembling the book whilst digging deeper into each element in future articles.
The first article I’d like to highlight from 2023 is The Fundamentals Of Story Setting.
I enjoyed writing this one a lot because it gave me the excuse (not that I needed one) to rewatch Jurassic Park and view this classic movie through the lens of a storyteller searching for hidden gems.
And there were plenty.
But in particular, the article’s focus was story setting fundamentals and gleaning as much as I could about how Jurassic Park used setting for storytelling.
The article also dug into different types of settings, looking at the five main categories of setting:
- Geographic Location
- Physical Location
- Environment
- Time Period
- Social And Cultural Environment
And then we get to the article that wrapped up the EEOS series – 12 Methods For Learning Storytelling Craft.
This is an article that I’m already tempted to revisit and one that I’ll be digging into a lot more in future articles because it was hard to capture all of this into a single article.
Here’s an excerpt from the article that highlights some of the methods mentioned for learning or improving storytelling craft –
Craft is built on experience, and the best way to gain experience is by doing – to help you on your way, here are 12 methods for learning storytelling craft:
- Study The Masters
- Learn Story Structure
- Know Your Audience
- Understand Your Motivations
- Keep Your Focus
- Hone Your Empathy
- Embrace The Revision
- Take Many Risks
- Collaborate With Others
- Expect The Failure
- Keep On Practising
- Never Stop Learning
With the EEOS series wrapped up nicely, the tail end of this year has seen me get stuck into deeper dives and more focused topics that I’ve been longing to start writing about, beginning with Story Keystones.
“A Story Keystone is the foundational message that lies at the heart of your narrative – a message so integral to your story that all other elements converge around it, much like an arch forms around its keystone.”
My first real venture into this subject was the article 9 Types Of Keystone Message Found In Stories which looked at the most common categories of Story Keystones in detail and gave a well-known story example for each one.
Those Story Keystone types are:
- Moral Lessons
- Survival Information
- Identity And Belonging
- Hope And Optimism
- Awareness Raising
- Social Commentary
- Cultural Preservation
- Empowerment And Independence
- Wisdom And Life Reflections
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these articles as much as I’ve enjoyed researching and writing them!
I’ve already mapped out a pipeline for next year’s article content and I’m super excited to get stuck into that.
But it’s not all writing at The Art Of Storytelling, we need to put the art into that brand name, so let’s take a look at a roundup of artwork and illustrations…
Roundup Of Artwork And Illustrations
Admittedly, most of 2023 was spent consuming content and figuring out a direction from an art and illustration standpoint, so a lot of the more ‘finished’ work wasn’t created until this latter part of the year.
The most fun thing I worked on this year though was definitely Inktober 2023.
I managed to create and post an illustration every day for 31 days following the prompts suggested by the Inktober team – I also followed my own theme of storytelling throughout too so each illustration had a storytelling focus.
You can see some of my favourites and how they’ve inspired the beginnings of a new story and fantasy world to explore – A Story Born From Inktober.
Going back to Jurassic Park, I also managed to create an A3 traditional charcoal drawing of an ‘Iconic Story Moment’ from the movie…
I used the Procreate app for all of my Inktober illustrations and as a newbie to digital art, it was a fun exploratory way to learn the basics. It also highlighted how much easier it is to just pick up an iPad and create a piece, as opposed to the effort required for working traditionally.
Whilst I’ll always prefer traditional media, digital has become an enjoyable format that I’m growing fonder of each day.
With the Inktober illustrations, they clearly looked digital, but I wanted a way to explore a traditional-looking artwork created digitally, so I got stuck back into a subject that’s always inspired me…
Over the past couple of couple of months, I’ve created a whole new series of Japanese Geisha artworks that look as though I’ve painted them with oil paints but are created entirely on an iPad, using a similar approach as I would if they were created traditionally.
I don’t miss the cleanup of working with real oil paints, but I must admit I do miss the smell of turpentine.
Top Book, Movie, And TV Show of 2023
I felt this section belongs in this post, especially as I intend to do a lot more from a story review standpoint in the future.
There’s been a lot of great content released throughout 2023, and it was hard to only pick one book, movie, and TV show but this could’ve quickly got out of hand if I allowed myself to choose more…
Book: Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Movie: The Menu
Now I know this one was released in 2022 but hey, I didn’t watch it until February 2023 so I’m counting it as 2023!
TV Show: Silo
I’m not going to go into reviewing each of these in this blog as each one could be an entire blog of its own, so let’s just suffice to say they’re my top three and I’d highly recommend them!
Plans For The Art Of Storytelling In 2024
- A lot more storytelling tips and advice
- A series of illustrated short stories
- Getting back in touch with blogging and journaling
- More video content, especially shorter form content for TikTok but also potentially YouTube for some deeper dives
- I’ll be bringing back my ‘Studying The Masters’ workshop for art and art history enthusiasts
- And more!
The aim of the game for 2024 is simply – CONTENT.
I hope to see you there, and don’t forget to Join The Journey so you don’t miss anything I release over the next year!
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JGlover - The Art Of Storytelling - Art, Illustration, And Storytelling For Artists, Writers And Storytellers. 