Writers, You Have Two Jobs
Writers, You Have Two Jobs
1.Learn story 2. Learn style
The Story Writer’s Path
1.Learn story 2. Learn style
When we talk about mastering the craft of writing, we most often lump it into one big topic.
Writing.
Because that’s what we do, right? We polish our skills of characterization, description, plotting, planning setting, writing dialogue, and so on. All the elements of writing.
Two aspects
In truth, mastering the craft is more complicated than that. (But it’s a glorious complication, because as far as I’m concerned playing around with writing is the best thing in the world.)
Broadly, there are two main arenas to writing. And guess what? You get to master them both. But it pays to think of them as two distinct things, because, well, they are. And by separating them, it gives you a better chance to learn them.
The two aspects are:
Story
Style
Let’s look at each in turn.
Story
Your first, most important job is to figure out the story. For most writers, this is what happens as you lay down the first draft. Sure, you probably have a good idea how your story will go. And maybe you even have an outline or plan to follow.
Writing the Discovery Draft
Also known as the rough draft, the first draft, and the vomit draftwritingcooperative.com
But story is an amazing beast of its own and it will surprise you. A character may pop up who insists on playing a role. Or you’ll suddenly find yourself creating a new setting, which leads to a whole new plot complication you never imagined.
So you follow those story threads, creating a story world on the page for yourself — and ultimately, your readers. It may turn out very different from what you initially envisioned. Or maybe it is exactly the same. But, either way, figuring out the story is your first task. It will probably take you another draft or two to get it just right. You’ll know more about the story when you get to the end of each draft.
Style
And then there is style. I think of this as the way you put words together so that they are beautiful on the page, so that they convey the message you want the reader to grasp.
Most often, this doesn’t happen the first time through. The more you write, the better you get at this, so it will start to become easier. But when your brain is engaged with story, you don’t want to have to stop to think of a strong verb or consider whether to break a sentence in two.
You want to just write. And get the story on the page. So style comes later. It will get stronger with each draft you complete, because you’ll be more confident in how the story works. Then you’ll have more space in your brain to do the tinkering work that style demands.
And then there will come a day when you don’t need to write so many drafts. But don’t worry about that now. Your job is to just write.
Some tips for learning story
Google “elements of story” and you’ll be advised there are five main elements of story. Or seven. Or eight. Or ten. I say we keep it simple and go with five. These are: character, plot, setting, theme, and style. Whoops, we’ll go with that one in the next section.
Story Starts with Character
Know your characters, know your storywritingcooperative.com
If you remember, as you write, that stories are about characters in conflict, conflict being the operative word, you’ll do fine. And in order to watch that character change and grow as he confronts conflict, we need a structure to contain it. Here’s a simple story structure devised by Dean Koontz in his book, How to Write Best Selling Fiction, which I’m not even going to link to, because it is out of print and copies are selling on Amazon for hundreds of dollars. Study this structure and you’ll do fine.
Put your character into trouble as soon as possible at the start of the story.
Have him try to get out of trouble, but what he does makes things worse.
Your main character’s situation looks hopeless.
But, then! Because of what she’s learned from battling these conflicts, she meets the challenge, confronts her flaws, finished the journey, accomplishes the feat she set out to do.
That’s really it. Another structure I recommend is the hero’s journey, explained well on this site. I also highly recommend the work of Christopher Vogler, who popularized this theory based on the books by Joseph Campbell. Study this and you’ll recognize how it plays out in so many of the stories and shows you watch. Soon you’ll apply it nearly automatically to your own work.
Some tips for learning style
Style encompasses a broad arena, and discovering your voice is a big part of it. The question of developing a writing voice is bandied about endlessly, but I have sure-fire advice for finding yours: write. A lot. Rinse and repeat. Some ideas:
— Set a timer and write to a prompt every day. If that’s all you did for a year, at the end of it you’d be a better writer — and at least be on the road to finding your voice.
The Only Writing Tip You Ever Need
It will change your writing lifemedium.com
Write a story, beginning to end. (Keep a list of ideas so you have something to go on.) Doesn’t matter if the story works or it is terrible, write it anyway. Many bad stories eventually lead to good ones.
Write in your journal, write morning pages, just write.
Eventually, by writing a lot, you’ll develop more ease on the page. You’ll start to recognize your voice. And then you can develop it into a style. You might discover that you like to write in long, flowy sentences. That’s great — now go back and make sure every word in that long sentence serves a purpose. Or you might realize that you love writing dialogue and your scenes are full of it. Wonderful — now make certain that your dialogue sounds real and works to convey information without sounding wooden.
Don’t forget that style encompasses things like correct grammar and punctuation. Don’t groan. If you hate this aspect of writing, spell and grammar check is your best friend. You can also run your work through Grammarly, which checks for all kinds of grammatical and style issues.
So that’s a simple guide to story and style. Go forth and write stylish stories for the world!