Story Trumps Structure Quotes

“We are artists. We are writers—slightly neurotic and probably addicted to coffee, late nights, sunsets, laughter, tears, and heartache. Creativity is our drug. We lose ourselves in the smell of old books. We’re bewildered by how we can live in a world this full of glory and grief and not be awestruck every moment. And we write stories to help wake people up before they fall asleep for good.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“In one of the paradoxes of storytelling, readers want to predict how the story will end (or how it will get to the end), but they want to be wrong.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“to be a fiction writer, you also need to be a psychologist (understanding people’s personalities and intentions), a philosopher (asking big questions about meaning and human nature), and a poet (breathing life into your words and the spaces between them).”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“Don’t try to be different or memorable with your storytelling voice—be authentic.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“If you’re writing a full-length novel, you don’t need to bend over backward trying to be clever in the first line or two. Readers will understand that there’s a lot of story to tell, and they’ll give you some space to do that. Don’t rush the opening.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“I can’t think of any other field in which people who aren’t experts critique other people who aren’t experts in the hope of everyone becoming an expert.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“Think of a caterpillar entering a cocoon. Once he does so, one of two things will happen: He will either transform into a butterfly, or he will die. But no matter what else happens, he will never climb out of the cocoon as a caterpillar.
So it is with your protagonist.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“Typically, readers don’t get bored because too little is happening but because too little is being promised.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“Propaganda is when a viewpoint is promoted regardless of truth. Art is when truth is rendered regardless of agenda.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“For a twist to work, it needs to be (1) unexpected, (2) inevitable, (3) an escalation of what preceded it, and (4) a revelation that adds meaning to what has already occurred.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“The truth is, if you like long hours in solitude, emotional turmoil, constant self-criticism, and bouts of heartrending disappointment, you’ll make a good writer. And if you can actually tell an engaging story, you might just make a great one.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“Organic writers are never directionless because we can always work on scenes that fulfill the promises we’ve made earlier in the story or go back and foreshadow the fulfillment of promises we think of as the story takes shape.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“A story might be character-centered (revolving around personal growth), plot-centered (relating to tasks to be completed), or relationship-centered (focused on developing connections between people), but the story is never driven forward simply by character studies or the procession of events occurring.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“To uncover the plot of your story, don’t ask what should happen, but what should go wrong. To uncover the meaning of your story, don’t ask what the theme is, but rather, what is discovered. Characters making choices to resolve tension—that’s your plot.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“Anything that interferes with the protagonist reaching her goal and fulfilling her unmet desire is the antagonist. That means it might not always be another person. It could be a storm or a demon or a dog. It might be the protagonist’s past or her unfulfilled dreams or her grudge against her friend. Since the antagonist isn’t always a human being, some story theorists refer to the “forces of antagonism” in a broad sense, rather than “antagonist” in a narrow sense.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“External struggles ignite reader interest and curiosity while internal and interpersonal struggles engender empathy.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“If readers don’t care about your protagonist, they won’t care about your story. Your protagonist might be sarcastic, but she must not be smarmy. She might be unhappy, but she cannot be whiny. She might do undesirable things, but she cannot be unlikable. If your protagonist appears childish, easily intimidated, or cowardly, readers will naturally look for someone else to cheer for. If the hero cowers in the face of evil, readers may end up liking the villain more. You’ll need to fix this to keep readers on your protagonist’s side. Readers want to either empathize with or admire your protagonist. It all depends on the genre.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“Readers couldn’t care less how many acts are in your story. In fact, if you write it well, they probably won’t even be able to keep track of them. Instead, they care about the forward momentum of the story as it escalates toward its inevitable and unexpected conclusion. Let the shape of the story determine the number of acts, not the other way around.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“In real life we want only the best for the people we care about. In fiction, we want things to get the worst for the characters we care about the most, at least on their pathway to the climax.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“To uncover the plot of your story, don’t ask what should happen, but what should go wrong. To uncover the meaning of your story, don’t ask what the theme is, but rather, what is discovered. Characters making choices to resolve tension—that’s your plot. If your protagonist has no goal, makes no choices, has no struggle to overcome, you have no plot.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“Go ahead and break the rules, flip expectations, twist the story world around backwards—as long as it’s in the service of your readers.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules

“In real life we avoid crisis events. In fiction we seek them out.”
― Steven James, Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules