Storytelling

Storytelling is unique to each author, along with the use of mixing fact with fiction. It is the art of cohesively blending the truth of a story with its exaggerations and inaccuracies, its negligence to stick to the details and facts. In my opinion, the little details are not necessary when trying to create a good story. By this I mean, small details like the time of day, the actual day, the exact words that were thought or spoken, etc. As long as the reader can get the overall image of what the story is about, the other details are not needed. In a speech by Tim O'Brien he says, "And I don't devote a lot of time or a lot of energy worrying about the hows or the whys of it all, instead taking a kind of lazy man's conviction in the belief that stories require no justification; they just are".

"One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come staight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night..." A quote from Forrest in the self-titled movie, Forrest Gump. The movie is a story of his life, from beginning to where he was, sitting on that park bench. He glorified some parts, focusing his attention to details that would make his story even more vibrant, and skipped over others. Take for example the quote from above; he talks about the rain and explained it so whoever was listening would begin to feel as if they were standing in a rainstorm themselves. In another quote from the movie he says, "She got cancer and died on a Tuesday. I bought her a new hat with little flowers on it. And that's all I have to say about that". He wants to share the experience of losing his mother without getting too indepth with his memory.