Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 16

A few flash tutorials today.

Not all songwriters are professional level singers. Just as not all singers are songwriters. As authors of fiction, we need to be both when it comes to the music of our storytelling.

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That singular misplaced belief—that you can write about your idea — a story world, a character, a belief system, a super power, a moment in history — rather that apply that idea as context that stages a fully-vested, premise leading to a plot that arises from it—is responsible for more derailed dreams than perhaps any other.

Because an idea is not always a premise upon arrival. Some writers require years to fully understand this truth.

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If, when asked about your story, your answer is, “Well, it’s kind of complicated,” and then you can’t un-complicate it quickly and clearly, then you may indeed have a context problem. Your vision for the story may not be working as well as it needs to. Because your vision for the story is clouded, very probably because of the delicious toxic fumes of the original idea and its shiny object that started the whole thing.

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Depending on the degree to which the writer commands the core principles, telling a new author to just write may be like telling a medical student to just cut. Just write is half of the answer, for half of the question, applying to half of the writers who hear it, sometimes long before they should even consider it.

Because just write is advice about process, not product. And process is always fueled by what you know, even when just write seems to be the solution when you know very little. A paradox, indeed.

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

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