Tag: story

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Guest Posts

How to Write a Great Story in 5 Steps

Guest posts

People have always had a natural talent for telling stories. It is an essential means of communication and understanding the world, from old stories to contemporary discourse. Everyone has a tale to tell, and putting pen to paper can help you become a better writer and communicator. But what makes a good storyteller? Here are five easy ways to improve your story writing skills.

What is a Story?

At its essence, a story is a connected sequence of events. However, a well-rounded story contains these five essential elements:

  1. Setting: Where and when the story takes place.
  2. Plot: The sequence of events in the narrative.
  3. Conflict: The problem or challenge faced by the characters.
  4. Characters: The people or beings involved in the story.
  5. Theme: The underlying message or lesson conveyed.

Famous Examples of Storytelling

Consider Hemingway’s famous six-word story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Despite its brevity, it prompts the reader to infer the deeper elements such as setting, characters, conflict, and theme.

Another example is “Cosmic Report Card: Earth.” This short story gives a brief yet impactful evaluation of humanity’s existence. The power of storytelling lies in its ability to provoke thought, even with minimal words.

Similarly, “ThingsFromMars.com: A Portal to the Weird and Wonderful” captures the curiosity and imagination of visitors through its creative narrative. The story behind the brand compels readers to explore a world of quirky and unexpected gifts, making it both engaging and memorable.

Types of Stories

According to author Christopher Booker, there are seven basic types of stories:

  • Overcoming the Monster
  • Rags to Riches
  • The Quest
  • Voyage and Return
  • Rebirth
  • Comedy
  • Tragedy

Each type follows its narrative arc, but all share core storytelling elements.

Steps to Write a Great Story

1. Find Inspiration

Every great story begins with an idea. Inspiration can come from anywhere—your own experiences, current events, or even a “what if?” scenario. Keep a notebook to jot down ideas as they come to you.

2. Brainstorm

Once you have an idea, start brainstorming. Think of plot ideas, character traits, and possible conflicts. This is where you explore the potential directions your story can take. The more you brainstorm, the clearer your vision becomes.

3. Outline Your Story

Outlining is key to structuring your story. Include the main events in the plot, key character developments, and any essential details. A good outline helps keep your story focused and ensures you cover all necessary elements.

4. Write the First Draft

Now it’s time to write. Don’t worry about perfecting it—just write the story down on paper. Avoid editing as you go. The first draft is all about letting your ideas flow naturally.

5. Revise and Edit

Once your first draft is complete, take a step back. Seek feedback from others, and revise your story based on their input. Afterward, edit for grammar, spelling, and punctuation to ensure your writing is polished and error-free.

Examples of Timeless Stories

Some stories have withstood the test of time. Consider:

  • The Tortoise and the Hare: A fable that teaches the value of perseverance over speed.
  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: A tale exploring the conflict between humanity and nature, filled with timeless themes of life, death, and morality.

Conclusion

By understanding the elements of storytelling and following a structured writing process, you can write a great story. Whether you’re writing a novel or flash fiction, remember that every story starts with a single idea. Embrace your creativity, and let your unique voice shine through your storytelling.

Story Writing FAQs

What is a story? 

A story is a connected series of events with key elements like setting, characters, conflict, and theme.

How do stories work? 

Stories communicate messages through characters who face conflicts, ultimately leading to resolution or transformation.

What are the different types of stories? 

Stories can fall into categories such as overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, rebirth, comedy, or tragedy.

Evelyn Johnson is a creative writer and entrepreneur with over 7 years of experience in the writing industry. As the founder of thingsfrommars.com, she combines creativity and business savvy to craft unique content that captivates audiences. Evelyn specializes in storytelling, corporate writing, and product marketing, sharing her expertise through industry insights. Connect with Evelyn on LinkedIn.

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Screenwriting

Tell A Story

Recently, I reconnected with an old Christian writer friend on Facebook. We hadn’t seen each other in about a decade when we used to go to church together. She began asking me a lot of questions about screenwriting. She is interested in turning a couple of the books she’s written into movies.

Most writers feel that because they enjoy writing and telling stories, screenwriting is an easy task. Yes, all writers are storytellers, but not all storytellers are screenwriters. Below are different types of storytellers found in the writing community.

  • Authors/editors
  • Professional storytellers
  • Content writers
  • Screenwriters

Each of these niches has its own conventions and purposes. They may even have some similarities but they are different professions altogether, success in one doesn’t mean success in another; because each medium has its unique characteristics and technicalities. Deep inside most writers understand this.

This is why I have so many writers asked me how to write a screenplay. Not that I am an expert myself or claim to be one. I’ve just studied the conventions, techniques, and process of screenwriting for the last two decades. Still, there is no magic formula, approach, or secret to screenwriting.

Screenwriters can face the age-old dilemma of story versus structure just like most storytellers do. Most screenwriting coaches emphasize, “There are no screenwriting rules, but conventions and guidelines to help a story flow better.” Screenwriting coach Scott Myers explains that “structure is only half of the story.”

American theater producer and director George Abbott shares, “In the first act you get your hero up a tree. The second act, you throw rocks at him. For the third act you let him down.”

Structure Or Story?

Author and writer Steven James explains, “The beginning isn’t simply the first in a series of events, but the originating event of all that follows. The middle isn’t just the next event, but the story’s central struggle. And the ending isn’t just the last event, but the culminating event.”

For as long as I can remember, there has been a debate in literary circles about what is more important in writing—structure or story. My personal, unprofessional opinion is you can’t have one to the fullest without the other.

What I mean is, if you want to tell the best and clearest story, you need some form of structure. Legendary screenwriting professor Robert McKee explains,

“Structure is a selection of events from the characters’ life stories that is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse specific emotions and to express a specific view of life.”[1]

When writers over-focus on the “structure” the story ends up suffering: meaning the story does not flow naturally and can come off as being formulated. Structure should always make a story clearer, but not predictable. True screenwriters have learned how to use structure to tell a better and clearer story. Below are seven steps to writing a screenplay from the Pond5 blog:

  1. Craft a logline
  2. Write a treatment
  3. Develop your characters
  4. Plot and outline
  5. Write a first draft
  6. Step back and take a break
  7. Rewrite

Notice the writer doesn’t mention any formulas or formats. The focus is more on getting the concept of your story on paper and then reworking it into a clear order. If you are still curious or worried about a screenplay format or structure there are plenty of books and resources you can purchase to learn the layout of a script, but never let structure kill the story inside of your head.

My first guide to screenwriting was The Screenwriters Bible, it is a great guide for learning the do’s and don’ts of screenwriting conventions. Always remember to keep your story clear and flowing.

Then you can choose a structure that complements your story.

“A whole [story] is that which has beginning, middle, and end. A beginning is that which is not itself necessarily after anything else, and which has naturally something else after it; an end is that which is naturally after something itself, either as its necessary or usual consequent, and with nothing else after it; and a middle, that which is by nature after one thing and has also another after it. A well-constructed Plot, therefore, cannot either begin or end at any point one likes; beginning and end in it must be of the kind just described.”

Scott Myers,quotes Aristotle

Structure?

Dick Doherty explains, “When you get a story underway, refrain from interrupting the flow. Avoid digression. Don’t go parenthetical.” Don’t let structure kill your story!

Most writers understand basic story structure. Regardless of the type of writing you do, “story” will follow a pattern from point A to point B. The only difference is the timing and how you get from one to the other.

“Story structure helps guide your audience from the beginning to the end of your book by introducing characters and settings, setting up the conflict, developing the main plot points, and finally resolving that conflict. It also helps create tension, suspense, and surprise—essential components of almost any story.”

Blurb.com

In the writing community, writers have a choice about how their story unfolds, below are three of the most common story structures used in storytelling.

  • Three act structure
  • Five act structure
  • Seven act structure

If you’re wondering what structure works best for screenwriting, it really depends on the type of story you’re telling, but the five-act structure is what I have found used in most of the screenplays I’ve read.

“Screenplay Structure Simplified: “Plot is critical, but how a writer ‘gets’ to plot is even more critical.”

Scott Myers

Whichever structure you choose, just be sure you tell a great story.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writers Chat

Writers Chat Recap for October, Part 2

Writers Chat Recap

Writers Chat, hosted by Jean Wise, Johnnie Alexander, and Brandy Brow, is the show where we talk about all things writing, by writers and for writers!

“Because talking about writing is more fun than actually doing it.“

Come Write With Us: The Practice of Creativity

Writers Chat co-host Brandy Brow explained to us how to tap into our creativity using “steps to creativity” listed by James Scott Bell in his book, The Mental Game of Writing (p.35). We worked on two creative drawing exercises. Later we shared the ideas sparked by our drawings for articles, blog posts, poems, and stories. We invite you to grab a blank sheet of paper, a pencil, and a few crayons or markers, then hit play and enjoy a different kind of creativity than writing.

Watch the October 19th replay.

Organizing the Writer

In this episode co-hosts, Johnnie Alexander, Brandy Brow, and Melissa Stroh, share their favorite organizing tools as well as helpful resources to help keep track of all aspects of your writing life. With the new year looming in the not too distant future, now is the time to try different organizational systems and see which one fits your needs best. Be sure to check out this week’s replay for more detailed information and resources.

Watch the October 26th replay.

Writers Chat is hosted live each Tuesday for an hour starting at 10 AM CT / 11 AM ET
on Zoom. The permanent Zoom room link is: http://zoom.us/j/4074198133

Categories
Guest Posts

5 Reasons Everything That’s Easy To Read Involves Some Hard Writing

The famous saying goes: “Easy reading means hard writing.” But why is that? If you have always wondered that, take a look at some of the things that you have to master before being successful at making your work easy to read:

You have to master the flow

Writing is more than just placing one word after another. Writing is creating music with words. Your story, no matter how long, has to have some flow. Simple, short sentences. Medium sentences that pop off the page and add meaning. And finally, long, detailed sentences—those that require a maximum focus on the reader`s part —that reveal secrets and mysteries.

It’s all about that flow that you can create by varying sentence lengths, emotions and meanings within a text. If you just start writing sentences of the same length one after another, it can be boring and repetitive.  So flow is an important technique to master.

You have to write vividly

Vivid writing doesn’t come easy either. It’s a tricky blend between being clear and imaginative. As a tool, writers use vivid writing to immerse the readers into their work completely. But, no matter how good it may sound, description has many pitfalls. For example, you could make the mistake of over-describing things—like nature, a person or a creature—and end up boring the reader.

The trick here is not to be too in love with your words. Sounds impossible, right?

Well, you can at least try to be sensible enough to know which parts to remove — long-winded, flowery descriptions and anything that doesn’t move the plot forward, reveal a part of the character arc or a piece of mystery. This is a good rule of thumb and it will help you to create more vivid sentences rather than boring ones.

You have to be humble

“So, it took you six months to finish that first draft, then another six to edit, proofread, edit again and revise everything. Then you had to flesh it out some more and so on. This is all amazing but the reader doesn’t have to know that,” says Alison Austin a contributor at Paper Fellows.

Create your best work and offer it humbly to your readers, as a gift. There is nothing worse than a writer trying to tell people how they should perceive something or feel about something, yet you see it so many times in books. It’s your job to tell the story, not to make decisions for your readers.

You have to be clear

Clear writing is also incredibly hard because we are so used to the notion that good writing means metaphors and thesaurus words, jargon words, long, flowy chapters and so on. However, good writing is nothing like that.

You have to be clear and, as mentioned, remove your own vanity from your writing. Be clear about what you have to say – no cliches or metaphors that you are used to seeing so often in books and written pieces. Use simple but strong words in your writing and make sure that your point is clear with each new paragraph.

You have to tell a good story

Good storytelling is never easy. You have to come up with a captivating plot that will make the readers turn the pages in the desire to read and learn more. Use your imagination, develop a somewhat logical sequence of events and use all of the elements previously mentioned to create a tale that will have something meaningful to give to the readers. Don`t forget about your characters either— they need to have a story and a development arc as well. Help them grow and learn together with the readers.

There are many reasons why easy and engaging writing means hard and long writing with many revisions and edits. These are some of them. If you really want your work to be impressive, follow these tips and continue working on making your writing better.

Ellie Coverdale is a creative writer and a blogger. She loves reading, yoga, and sharing her stories at online magazines and blogs.

Categories
My Writing Journey

Sometimes You Need a Story

My life is divided into before and after. I’m in the after now.

Eight years ago, this coming April, my world turned upside down. Eight years ago, this coming April, I began the slow journey back. I hadn’t written a book then. Since that time, I have finished penning three.

When I got sick, my daughter became frightened. Who wouldn’t be? It was the summer before her freshman year of high school, and she spent her vacation taking care of her mother who needed assistance walking and bathing. It didn’t matter what I told her, or how many reassurances were held out, she was terrified. All the soft gentle words and reassurances never made it past her fear wrapped worry.

Sometimes you need a story.

I wrote her a book about a girl who was afraid her mother would die and leave her alone. In the book, the mother does die. The girl is not left alone, however. She has family and unlikely heroes to depend on. I wrote my daughter a book to make her laugh and cry, but most of all to help her see she was not alone and it wasn’t up to her to save the world. I think maybe it was both comforting and uncomfortable for her to discover how much I understood her.

She’s not a character in a book, and she is not this character. But young girls everywhere get angry with their mothers, at times think they’ve been abandoned, and generally feel treated unfairly by life. They’re often surprised when they discover their mothers were once girls and understand all of these deeply held, secret feelings.

Among the pages of this made up place filled with pretend people my daughter finally understood what I was trying to tell her. She wasn’t alone.

Sometimes you need a story.

A funny thing happened. Out of the story, two more grew. Each of these novels stand alone, and while they don’t lean on each other, they do rub shoulders, exploring the lives of the various characters in the same fictional small Texas town.

It’s quite a surprise to find at the end of these eight years I have three complete novels. I’d freelanced in my former writing life, and even written a novella, which resides in the dark recesses of my computer files, but I’d never attempted a novel length work.

As my health improved and my responsibilities shifted, I had more time to write books. With each novel, I learned better and went back, refining and polishing. I hunted down critique partners and entered contests. I was quite pleased with the feedback I got. Now I’m ready to start querying agents.

I’m telling you this tale because, as with all of my stories, I want to encourage and bring hope to the reader. Because sometimes you need a story.

Donna Jo Stone writes YA contemporary novels about tough issues but always ends the stories with a note of hope. She blogs at donnajostone.com.

Categories
Fantasy-Sci-Fi

The Myths Behind Your Fantasy Work

Fantasy stories come in all shapes and sizes, from modern-day tales to historical adventure. One way to give your story character is to reuse a classic myth or legend. Myths, legends, fairytales and folklore are often recognizable tales that can help connect a reader to the story from the first page. By using an established story with a new twist, the reader will have discovered a brand new treasure.

The first step to using a myth or legend as the basis for your story is to decide if the tale will be a retelling of the classic story or if elements of it will weave throughout your story to give a certain “feel” to the overall narrative. Regardless which way you choose to tell the story, any tale will need to be embellished, since no myth or legend was created as a full-length novel. Use the tale as a springboard and allow your creative side to fill in the details that are missing to make your story complete.

An example of a retelling of classic fairy tales are the middle-grade novels by Liesl Shurtliff. In her books, Red, Jack, and Rump, the classic stories of favorite children’s fairy tales are retold with a more developed plot, often including characters from other stories, as well, but the basic stories are the actual fairy tales themselves.

Rick Riordan has inspired the young adult fantasy industry beginning with his Percy Jackson series by taking a myth and altering it to create a brand new story. His stories are modern day tales involving twenty-first century kids, with a basis in ancient Greek mythology. While the setting and world are quite different from those ancient myths, the rules and original characters retain their properties.

Some stories originate from a specific culture but have been changed from one society to the next. Take your time to investigate all the twists and turns the original story has taken through the shift between cultures. These differences may help shape your story to be a different retelling than any that have come before.

Know the myth or legend and the characters that make it up, inside and out. The more you know the myth, the more you will understand which elements can be changed and which should remain the same. However, be sure not to take too many liberties with the story. Allow the themes and moral dilemmas to remain the same, as the reader will notice if you make too drastic a change from a favorite tale.

From here, the story is yours. Once you have the myth or legend to base your story upon, you’ve done your research, and you know what changes to make to create a brand new story for the reader, then you’re ready to get writing. Remember, the story doesn’t need to be a mirror image of the previous myth or legend, but it does need to retain the basic themes, motivations and characters to uphold the integrity of the original tale.

Using a previously established tale can open a world of possibilities for new stories. Myths and legends can provide a fantastic canvas to paint your next novel. The only question left to ask yourself is, which myth will you choose to use first?

Laura L. Zimmerman is a homeschooling mama to three daughters and a doting wife to one husband. Besides writing, she is passionate about loving Jesus, singing, drinking coffee and anything Star Wars. You can connect with her on Twitter @lauralzimm, Instagram @lauralzimmauthor, on Facebook and at her website Caffeinated Fiction.

Categories
Mastering Middle Grade

Preachy or Peachy

My critique group says my MG fiction is preachy. Now what?

First let me say that I love my critique group. I’m not writing about y’all. We’re solid.

Getting productive feedback on your work is a lifeline. It’s critical to have fresh eyes to review your words and point out where things are working, where they can be improved, and what should be thrown out.

Now, unless you’re a pastor, you probably don’t want people to react with “that chapter/section/story is a bit preachy.”

If your first response to this kind of criticism is like mine (i.e., hackles raised and shields up), may I share with you something I’ve learned that might ease the sting?

Many people feel a calling to write for kids because they want to share their love of Christ. As one of my sisters would say, “ain’t no shame in that.” It’s only natural for that love and enthusiasm with sharing the message seep into our writing (okay, maybe for some of us it’s less of a seep and more of a flood).

At the Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference Children’s workshop, one of the faculty reminded us that our primary target audience is between eight and twelve years old. Our audience is soaked in a learning environment six to eight hours a day, five days a week.

This means they can smell a lesson from 500 yards away. If you come at them with teaching wrapped in a cute main character, they will put your book down.

Like us, kids read fiction to be entertained, escape their troubles, and explore the world. Who can blame them?

Do you have a lesson or a story?

Ask yourself – and honestly answer – if you are trying to impart a lesson or tell a story. Knowing your objective is half the battle. If your heart is telling you to teach children about Christ’s love, as important as that is – it’s not a story.  If your heart has named a character who has a unique adventure, you have a story.

If you have a story, go back through your manuscript and find ways to let the story shine. Bring it to life with realistic characters, imperfect allies, obstacles to overcome and plenty of excitement.  Doubt that it will be “Christian” enough? Don’t. Because you’re you and you love Christ, your world view will show up in the telling of it, I promise. And you never know how God is going to use your words.

Maybe you feel like you have less of a story and more of a lesson.  That’s a great thing to know. If this is the case, writing a nonfiction book may bring you more success. In nonfiction, you still have freedom to use more direct language, cite more Scripture, conduct interviews and collect data that will bring your lesson home in a very real and accessible way for kids. Instead of trying to force a tale around a message, just bring the message.

Most importantly, when you receive feedback that shakes your gut a little bit, know that you’re not alone. We’ve all been there (multiple times, probably) and lived to tell the tale. Use it for good and know your Father sees you and is working for your benefit.

Oh- and if this post comes off a little preachy, know that I hear you and I’m working on it.

Kell McKinney earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. in documentary studies from the University of North Texas. She’s a part-time copywriter, double-time mom and wife, and spends every free minute writing and/or hunting for her car keys. Connect with her on Twitter @Kell_McK or kellmckinney.com.

Categories
Talking Character

Which Comes First, Plot Or Character?

Plot and character. Two halves of any great story. Both are critical, whether you are telling a character-driven literary story or a plot-driven spy thriller.

Disagree? Consider this quote:

Plot and character are integral to one another. Remove either one from the equation (or even just try to approach them as if they were independent of one another), and you risk creating a story that may have awesome parts, but which will not be an awesome whole. K. M. Weiland in Creating Character Arcs.

Or, to put it differently, consider this statement from Lisa Cron in Wired for Story:

Myth: The plot is what the story is about.
Reality: A story is about how the plot affects the protagonist.

So then, a good story is one where the plot affects the main character. Does that mean plot comes first?

Not necessarily.

I don’t think it matters where a writer begins, so long as you remember that the two are intertwined.  The character must have goals and issues that are challenged by the plot. The plot is nothing but a series of unconnected events unless there is a character whose struggles give them meaning. A writer cannot get too far along in one before he needs to consider the other.

The big mistake is to forget they are two sides of the same whole. The great discovery is when you allow your developing character to spark plot ideas, or vice versa.

Where do you start?

 

Character first

If you are a character-first writer, you begin by crafting an intriguing character. But at some point the character will need a goal, and obstacles that stand in his way. Remember, it is a reader’s anticipation of what the character will do next that sucks them into the story. A protagonist without a clear goal gives a reader no reason to care—and thus no reason to keep reading.

Therefore a character-first writer will need to consider the complex, flawed character you have created and ask what climax moment will force the hero to face the strongest of his inner demons. Come up with a climax that forces the character to dig deep, to strive against the enemy with every fiber of his moral and physical being, and then work the plot backwards from that moment.

Plot first

If you are a plot-first writer, you start with an intriguing what-if or an awesome idea for an amazing climax scene. But at some point you will need to create a character worthy of your plot. One whose inner demons threaten to keep her from defeating the opposition.

The most powerful stories are built on a character whose exterior plot goal is in direct conflict with her inner story goal. This is true whether the story has a classic character arc or not. Even in stories where the character does not change (a flat arc) she still needs to overcome something beyond the antagonist’s evil plans. That something might be as simple as convincing everyone around her that the evil villain is truly an evil villain, but the plot must force her to dig deep inside herself to find the strength to keep fighting when no one else believes.

Therefore, plot-first writers need to stop and consider what conflict of inner need and outer goal will might work with the plot. Create a believable character that embodies those two things, (giving the character enough backstory to explain the why of it) and you are well on your way to a great story.

[bctt tweet=”The character drives the plot, and the plot molds the character’s arc. They cannot work independently. K. M. Weiland #quote #writer” username=””]

Lisa E. Betz is a Bible study leader, drama director, and aspiring novelist. She lives with her husband and a neurotic cat in a scenic corner of Pennsylvania. When not teaching or sorting books at the library, Lisa blogs about intentional living at www.lisaebetz.com.

Connect with her:

Website: www.lisaebetz.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LisaEBetzWriter/
Twitter: @LisaEBetz

Categories
Screenwriting

How Plot Can Kill Your Character

SEVEN 38

Every story begins at your Initial Stimulus – that spark of an idea that captured your imagination. The thing that got you excited and revved up. That initial flash of creativity you just knew would make for a great movie idea.

Initial Stimulus is also something much deeper though. Simply put, it’s your inspired connection to that basic story idea.

Having an inspired connection to your story idea is significant because inspiration is significant. It’s important to recognize that inspiration comes from passion, whereas motivation does not. When you’re motivated to do something you want to accomplish that objective and then move on.

Inspiration is much more profound than motivation because it stems from passion. As such, it causes you to personally invest in what you’re working on. To connect to it emotionally. In short, motivation can be fleeting, while passion always endures.

TYPES OF INITIAL STIMULUS

The Initial Stimulus can come to us in many different forms. It can be an intriguing character, like the dark side of Tyler Durden in Fight Club. It can be fascinating subject matter or event that interests you, such as the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the film, Selma, or one woman’s inspiring activism portrayed in Erin Brockovich.

Or the Initial Stimulus can just be a simple “what if” that comes from the ether of your own imagination. What if a serial killer used the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi? The “what if” behind the film, Seven with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.

No matter how it comes to you though, it’s important to understand the psychological impact that the Initial Stimulus has on the overall creative process. Having an inspired connection to your story idea is crucial to story development.

Why? Because it’s the driving force behind why you want to tell a particular story. It’s the momentum that will sustain you throughout the lengthy process of developing and writing a feature length screenplay. And it’s also the thing that can cause your story to crash and burn, killing your character in the process.

THE PITFALL OF INITIAL STIMULUS

Having taught Screenwriting at the MFA level for almost two decades, as well as having professionally consulted on north of five-hundred screenplays and films, I can say that a pervasive mistake I see all too often is that the writer gets so excited about their Initial Stimulus, that they instantly jump in and start plotting.

Never stopping to first define the single most important building block of story – character. Character is the narrative cornerstone in building a screenplay with emotional resonance that an audience can connect with.

Jumping right in and plotting your story is the equivalent of eagerly hopping into your car to go somewhere cool and exciting… Only to have no idea where you’re going or how to get there.

It doesn’t make any sense. So why do screenwriters do this then? Two reasons.

One, because plotting a movie is one of the more creatively exciting parts of the entire story development process. It’s one of things that gets the artistic adrenaline pumping. It’s enjoyable to do.

Secondly, as people we tend to be vertical thinkers, so sequencing and creating order (or plotting) is something that is intuitive, it comes natural to us.

Think about it, if a person looks up at the stars at night, the first thing their mind will do is to form shapes and patterns out of the stars.

The reason being is, they’re intuitively trying to make order out of chaos. It’s called, Pareidolia, which is where the mind perceives a familiar pattern of something where none actually exists. This is actually hardwired in us as humans.

THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF PLOTTING FIRST

This natural instinct of wanting to jump in and instantly create order by plotting our screenplay, well it ends up causing all sorts of narrative repercussions.

Most notably of course, we end up with un-compelling characters that are afterthoughts – ones that lack authenticity. Instead, they become broad characterizations that are devices solely needed to serve our plot. Human chess pieces being moved around in a story in order to oblige a plot’s end result. Which is hands down the quickest way to cut the life of your screenplay short.

Not to mention, by putting the cart (plot) before the horse (character), we often end up losing track of that inspired connection (Initial Stimulus) we originally had with the basic story idea to begin with!

All of this is why there are more unfinished screenplays than finished ones. More first drafts that never see the light of day than do. And more just plain bad spec scripts out there than good ones.

So as you begin to develop your story idea, always remember that once you have your Initial Stimulus in place… Stop!

Resist that urge to jump in and start plotting the story. Fight that feeling of wanting to instantly work on plot. Instead, first develop and define the key building block of all successful stories – character.

In doing so, you’ll be able to better craft a plot that has emotional resonance that an audience can connect with.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Long is a produced screenwriter who has sold, optioned, and pitched projects at the studio level and has had original screenplays in development with Academy Award ® winning and nominated producers. Mr. Long is also a nationally recognized screenplay consultant, as well as a former Professor and Head of the MFA Screenwriting Program at FSU’s College of Motion Picture Arts, where he taught for almost two decades. He’s currently Founder of PARABLE, an innovative online screenwriting course.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

CONTEST OR NOT TO CONTEST? PART ONE

If you read my last column, you’ll know we determined that most fictional stories contain some element of romance. That is very fundamental as I talk to you about contests. There is quite a bit of debate in the writing world as to whether entering a contest is worth the money, time, and possible rejection of your work. I will state right up front that I believe they are worth your time and effort, published or non-published.

 

NOTE: Coming from a purely romantic and fictional world, I can only speak on fictional contests. I don’t write non-fiction nor do I have a blog, both of which I believe do have contests available. I cannot help you with the logistics of them, though I hope the end results are the same.

 

This month I would like to share personal and positive experiences I myself have had with contests, solely to show you why I believe in them.

 

In 1995, I wrote my first book, a Regency, and though it was perfectly acceptable to me as I was writing it for my own entertainment, family and friends urged me to seek out publishing. (That is when you really seek out people who will read your work and tell you the absolute truth about it!) Quite by accident I discovered a very small writing contest by a very small group of writers in my genre. The only reason I entered was that the winning entry would be given the opportunity to send the full manuscript to a very iconic editor of a very large publishing company.

 

Do you think I am going to say I won it? I did not. But at that time in my “career” I got what I needed most – feedback. Each judge had used the same standards for every entry they received. I got their copies of the scoring sheets, with comments, encouragement, suggestions, and problems – galore! Oh, there were many more problems than encouragement but the suggestions made me look at the story a whole new way. And the negative comments made me look even harder.

 

(This lovely little contest is also where I got the best advice I have ever received in critique; shall I tell you? READ WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN OUT LOUD TO YOURSELF BEFORE YOU EVER SEND IT ANYWHERE! My dear friends, if you don’t do this, start. I’m talking cover to cover if it is ten pages or 300. You will “hear” when words sound out of order, when there is not enough or too much emotion, when the same word is used twice in the same sentence; I could go on and on, and this is really more for next week’s article. I just had to share to show you one of the advantages of contests!)

 

We left off with my poor little manuscript and me deciding whether to put it out of its misery or keep it. I kept it. Flash forward to 2004. My husband found my box of manuscripts (from 20 years ago) and I rewrote that sad little story using twenty years of life experience I did not have the first time and using several of the comments from that little contest. Then I went out into the publishing world to see if I fit.

 

That book, my debut, was not only published, but won the 2011 Romantic Times Reader’s Choice award and the Holt Medallion award for Best Book by a Virginia Author!

 

Was it all because of the contest so long ago? Of course, not. It was an answer to my prayer, wondering what in the world I was doing. It was being led by God to a wonderful, supportive agent (who BTW also sent it out to five random readers as a beta group who sent me an additional 5 sets of critiques!) And ultimately, it was God’s perfect timing with an editor who wanted the story.

 

Please, please do not think I am bragging. You have no idea how many “thanks, but no thanks” we heard or “can the author say it in 70,000 words as opposed to the 100,000 words submitted?” Or a million other walls we hit first. My point is that if I hadn’t submitted that original unpublished manuscript to that little contest, I would never have received all of the feedback, which I still use today. And if I hadn’t entered the published book into the ten or so contests I had learned about, I would have lost out on the opportunity to put “Award Winning Author” after my name – forever! (Can anyone say PERK?)

 

But you know what I also received, almost equally as valuable? The scoring sheets on the eight contests I didn’t win. And do you know what I’ve done with those? I used them in writing my second and third books, and, hopefully, in books to come.

 

I’d love to hear about your contest experience! Let me know below and we can talk about them. Be sure to tune in next month when I will go over the logistics, and costs, as well as where you can find contests that might be just the one for you.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

WHAT CONSTITUTES A ROMANCE?

How many of you are reading this article under protest? “I don’t write romances,” you say. Well, you might need to stick around as I clarify the word romance for you. “Not necessary,” you say? “Everyone knows what a romance is,” you say? Okay, humor me.

Merriam-Webster defines a romance as, “a love story, especially in the form of a novel.” “Ha! You say! Just as I thought.” But wait, there’s more.

Dictionary.com defines romance as “a novel or other prose narrative depicting heroic or marvelous deeds, pageantry, romantic exploits, etc., usually in a historical or imaginary setting.” That might make, say, most of the stories of King Arthur and his knights romances! Still not convinced?

Merriam-Webster also defines romance as, “based on legend and involving the supernatural.” Is anyone else thinking The Lord of the Rings? What about Star Wars? The Christmas Carol (I mean three ghosts)?

Merriam-Webster has a third definition, “a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious.” Whoa, Hunger Games just popped into my mind.

This is my final defense. Dictionary.com defines it as “indulging in fanciful or extravagant stories or daydreams.” There it is friends; isn’t that really the definition of any fiction writer?

There is a method to my madness. All of the above was meant to be a humorous way of impressing upon us as fiction writers that there is at least a grain of romance in almost everything we write. But what I wanted us to really understand is that every contest out there gives you different categories, with different levels of romance, where you must determine where your book fits.

Let me tell you that, in my humble opinion, entering contests is an important part of writing. Whether published or unpublished there are contests to fit everyone. And whether you win or lose, if you realize that you are getting terrific feedback on your manuscript for very little cost, you come out way ahead.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve entered my fair share of contests and sometimes the hardest part is which category to enter my manuscript. That is the teaser for my next column. There is no excuse to skip it anymore because you don’t write romance!

I’d love to hear from your feedback on this article and/or questions we might be able to address for my upcoming contest column.

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