Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 1

Given our current state of lockdown and distancing, I thought I would stay connected by offering Storyfix readers, regulars and guests–which is to say, those who seek and appreciate insight on the craft of writing novels–a few tasty notions to chew on and apply to their writing beliefs, processes and projects.

Hope you are all safe and staying sane.

Day One

Writing a
great story is all in your head.

Or is it?
The better question may be, should it
be all in your head?

That’s the
real issue at hand, in this or any other book about the craft of fiction. The
destination of the serious author, in any genre, is to gain an understanding of
the craft specific to it, and then apply that understanding to the development
of a story within your process of choice.

Which tees
up one of the most mission-critical memes in all of writing:

Too often we don’t know what we don’t know.

This is a
paradoxical truism by virtue of its very nature. It is also a sticking point.

Because it’s that last part—what we don’t know—where both risk and opportunity await.

Of course, none of us know everything about writing a story that works, and few of us know every nuance of the story we are about to write before we begin, sometimes even once we’re well into it.

This not fully knowing applies, as it does for us, to the famous authors we read and the gurus whose workshops we devour. And we certainly can never claim to know what the market will respond to, or why.

Nonetheless we soldier on, into the dark woods of the unexplored, defaulting to an acceptance of not knowing.

And thus we find ourselves in yet another sort of paradox. Because it is the acceptance of what is actually, for lack of a better word, ignorance, when piled on top of the sheer volume of what we don’t know, that can take us down.

These excerpts are taken from my new craft book, “Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves.” Feel free to share with your writer friends, directly or via social media.

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