The Beauty of Storytelling: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

So, something that I've just mildly obsessed with lately is the Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

If you've heard of them, yay! If you haven't, go watch them right now!! They are so amazing and as happens with lots of amazing things I like, all I want to do is share them so that other people can fall in love with them too.

I started watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries with hesitancy, but not too long after I started I fell in love, because the LBD had everything I loved in books. (By the way, the LBD is a youtube web series that is a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice). That is, amazing characters, amazing writing, and a beautiful story that makes you think about the world and people in general.



One genre I'm not too fond of is historical fiction. But I was so fascinated with the LBD that I read Pride and Prejudice. It still isn't my favourite, but I have much more appreciation for it and its core message thanks to the LBD.

Since mostly writers read this blog, I'd really encourage you to watch the LBD if you haven't. There are so many things you can learn about writing and storytelling from this little web series. There is so much stuff that happens beyond what the characters are actually saying. You would think in a vlog-style web series, where the characters are talking directly to the camera, it would be hard to do the "show don't tell" bit of storytelling. But the LBD team does it amazingly.

So, I guess I would just say watch it and learn about writing from it, because I certainly have. :)

Stories That Create The Desire to Write

As you may have noticed on the sidebar of my blog, I have now committed to start posting every Monday. I wanted to do this so I won't procrastinate on writing blog posts, and also maybe it'll force me to write blog posts that I normally wouldn't write, stuff that turns out to be blatherings squeezed out on short notice. I also wanted to have a goal this year of talking more about my personal writing, which is something I normally shy away from on the blog most of the time. I thought that probably if I was scrambling for things to post about, it'd be more likely I'd fall back on talking about my writing (because that's basically what people do on writing blogs).

The other day I saw Les Miserables for the first time. It was amazing, and I'm fairly certain I was on the verge of tears for almost the entire movie. I love things like that, whether it be books or movies or any form of art, that evoke such emotion from you, and make such an impact on your emotions or your mind. I love how much story, no matter what form it's presented in, can affect a person.

When I feel affected by a story (like Les Mis), it inspires to affect other people with the stories I have to tell. @CostelloShields summed it up perfectly on twitter:

"I want to write things that matter. I want to write things that people will love."

That's exactly what I want to do with my writing, and brilliant stories like Les Mis, or The Fault in Our Stars, or Okay for Now, or Life of Pi, or even the Lizzie Bennet Diaries make me want to do create stories that matter even more. I want to write something that will affect others in the way all these other stories have affected me.

I love it when I come home from a movie or when I finish reading a book, and the first thing I want to do is write.

What kinds of things create a desire to write in you?