Story – that’s what it’s all about.
Not the hokey-pokey, as you may have been misinformed in childhood. 
A few years back, when XVI was being shopped around, I bought myself some writing books to (hopefully) improve my writing skills. Among them was Robert McKee‘s, STORY.
I’d love to say that I dug in and applied everything I learned and became a fabulous author. But, that’s not what happened. The reality was that XVI was sold and I got caught up in editorial letters, revising, and then writing book two. My plans to become a better writer went by the wayside.
Now, two published books (and three years!) later – I’m no longer working a day job and have plenty of time to work on getting better at my craft. So, I took my copy of STORY off the shelf and started studying. Not just reading (I’d read the entire book when I got it) but this time really studying it. For me, this includes having a dictionary by my side, because Mr. McKee has already used a few words that I figured out contextually, but I needed to really understand what he meant. Thank goodness for The Living Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language! It’s an oldie – but definitely a goodie! My go-to word resource!
Back to STORY – I was nearly disheartened when I read in chapter one, “You must be born with the creative power to put things together in a way no one has ever dreamed.”
Enter Self-Doubt – stage right!
Fortunately, McKee closes that chapter by saying, “Rare as story talent is, you must have some or you wouldn’t be itching to write. Your task is to wring from it all possible creativity.”
That reminded me of basketball great, Larry Bird (a Hoosier, just like me ) He took the talent he had and made himself remarkable! Read about his practice routine here!
I hope by digging into STORY and learning the principles of good storytelling, I’ll be able to practice and practice and eventually get better!
What about you? How do you work on the craft of writing? I’d love to know!
Oh – and because I wrote “encyclopedic” above, and it’s from “encyclopedia” – I have to include this video, because I still sing this song in my head whenever I write any form of e-n-c-y-c-l-o-p-e-d-i-a!
