![]() In response, writers seem to be moving away from Germanic/British-style fantasy stories and towards stories inspired by other traditions.įor example, recent calls for submissions by Tor, a leading U.S. ![]() Since Tolkien published his epic in 1954, many fantasy writers have imitated his style –British/Germanic folklore creatures, long-lost kings, quests to defeat operatic evil magicians - rather than developing unique stories inspired by his work.Įven by the 1980’s, it had reached the point where, as author Terry Pratchett told BCC World Book Club, the fantasy market was glutted with books by “people who had read the people who had read the people… who had been influenced by Tolkien. While I disagree with Dyson’s assessment, I must admit it’s been tempting to repeat that phrase when reading modern fantasy. Tolkien read “Lord of the Rings” in Inklings meetings. Serialisation helps to build an ongoing relationship with your audience by creating anticipation of what’s coming next.Hugo Dyson said that while listening to J.R.R. Be provocative, don’t fully disclose.ĭone well, serialised content can make your business communications work so much harder, and make them far more engaging. Just give half the upcoming story away, not the full story. One of the most obvious ways to do this is to include a comment at the end of your blog or newsletter alluding to what’s coming up in the next instalment. We fail to appeal to our reader’s curiosity by teasing out the next instalment. We don’t write them as a series, with a common theme and over-arching narrative. We fail to use the power of serialisation in our content marketing when we send out newsletters or blogs that are all too often one work wonders. When we’re doing presentations we put it all out there rather than using the “curiosity gap” principle and leaving some things to our audience’s imagination. So often we fail to do this in business storytelling and in our content marketing. ![]() Why is serialising our content important? Whilst we live in different times the most fascinating thing about Arabian Nights is how the stories are ingeniously serialised to build mystery and intrigue. Scheherazade effectively becomes the chief storyteller, although each story she tells has another story and storyteller within it, so that there are layers upon layers, stories within stories.Ĭenturies later Charles Dickens used the serialised content format for Pickwick Papers with great success, and in the 1930s Irna Phillips created the serialised soap opera format on radio. Scheherazade cleverly weaves stories within stories, becoming a master of intrigue and mystery and they continue this for 1,001 nights. The next night she finishes her story but begins a new one, and Shahryar again postpones her execution. She cleverly leaves him with a cliff-hanger to ensure Shahryar postpones her execution to find out the end of the story. When the king eventually takes Scheherazade as his wife, she tells him a story on the night of their marriage, but she doesn’t to finish it. Shahryar marries and executes several wives, each on the morning after they are married, before they have time to cheat on him. Afterwards he loses the plot and in an angry, delusional state decides all women are guilty and must be executed (I warned you they were barbaric). One day he becomes aware that his wife has been cheating on him, so he has her executed. Shahryar was a king who ruled over India and China. Disney made it into a series of animated movies and this month the Guy Ritchie- directed version starring Will Smith hit our screens.Īrabian Nights is famous for having stories within stories (Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba probably being the most famous), but the frame story for all the stories in Arabian Nights is that of Shahryar and Scheherazade – and it’s the common thread between each edition of Nights. One of the most famous tales from Arabian Nights is the tale of Aladdin. They were an amazing collection of enchanting, engaging and sometimes barbaric stories that transported you to fantastical foreign lands with rich, memorable characters. The stories ranged from historical tales to tragic romances, murder mysteries and comedies. One of the most well-known examples is the collection of Arabian Nights tales from the Islamic Golden Age. Most of us have felt the pull of serialised content on Netflix in recent years, but the concept has been around for thousands of years in the history and folklore of different cultures.
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