Being a Better Storyteller

Starbase 118, and the sims we write, are more than just actions for characters within the Star Trek realm; they are stories woven with words that give others on our ships, and throughout the Fleet, insight into a story. By participating in the act of simming, we are, at the very core, storytellers. Our words can take our fellow officers to new places, they can show others new things, and they can present new and old ideas in a way that is unique to our own insight.
And all of this happens within the realm of telling the story from our character’s point of view.
What we do here is an art, and one that requires analysis from time to time. We should always step back and take a look at how we can be better at telling the stories we tell. To that end, this Writer’s Workshop presents a special interview, during which Film School professor Howard Suber goes over a few ways that anyone can improve their skill in telling a story. We all know that film is inherantly different than normal narrative, and this interview can give some specific and helpful insight to simmers in 118 because of our kind of writing.
Just because we adhere to a script style doesn’t mean that we leave out the beneficial and in-depth side of narrative writing. Ultimately, what results is a hybrid, which allows us to tell amazing stories without requiring a huge background in writing itself. But, like all things, refining that and getting better than we are should always be in the back of our minds.
This interview serves to help you do just that.