Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 2

More grist for the craft-seeking, solutions-starved author.

Day 2

Sometimes knowledge is misinterpreted as formula.

Especially if what you are writing is considered a genre novel, versus a book considered to be a literary novel, ala writers like Jonathan Franzen or Ian McEwan or Phillip Roth. Because the expectations of the genre audience is far different, and in many ways, more rigidly demanding.

Consider the best dish you’ve ever eaten. Somewhere there’s a recipe for it. Even when you or your favorite chef can whip it up straight out of your head.

When that recipe varies, the dish nonetheless turns out wonderfully because you know where it needs to end up.

But if it varies too much, will it still be that dish? Maybe not, it may be inedible. If not for you, then for some.

So is that a formula? And if you believe that it is, or even if you don’t, does that word even matter? The dish works because there is an accepted identification of requisite ingredients, proportions, and preparation that lead to a successful outcome. All of it somewhat flexible, because “season to taste” remains an open invitation. But there are also standards and expectations that tell us not to pour a pound of cayenne pepper into the wedding cake.

Formula is a word for cynics and the uninitiated, often applied to an uninformed perspective on story structure.

It is an overly simplistic view in an avocation that is anything but simple. Craft is the better word to apply.

Craft is the practice of putting knowledge to work within an artful nuance of creativity and within a framework of expectation, standards, and best practices. At the professional level, when your intention is to publish, craft becomes essential.

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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