The Illusion of Universal Storytelling Methods

Every day I see the internet virtually inundated with alleged tutorials on how to write a good story. For all the world, as if the author’s methods are the only way to achieve success, and, even more arrogantly, as if by following their step-by-step manual, every story you produce will become a massive hit. Quite frankly I think that people who make such claims belong to one of two categories: they are either unrepentant liars, or they are dangerously stupid, and arrogant to boot.

The cold hard fact is that there will never be one set way to become successful, and what works for me may not work for you. Even if you do discover your own tried and true method to story-telling, not every story you write will be popular. In all likelihood not even MOST of your stories will be popular, because, let’s face it, the ratio of bad ideas to good ideas is pretty damn high, and every story starts with an idea. I once had the idea to write a high fantasy in the style and tone of a pulp P.I. story. You can all probably guess how that turned out.

It is my personal, (and not so humble), opinion that the single most important trait for any good storyteller is this: a deep seated desire to play god, because, when you get right down to it, that is what all storytelling consists of. You create characters, each with their own hopes and dreams and fear, and you give them personality, depth, and history. You breathe life into them with your written word. Lastly you plot out all sorts of god-awful messes for them to get themselves into. And you don’t stop there, because what good is a character if they don’t have a world to inhabit? By the time you’ve finished you have created your own pocket universe, complete with worlds and cultures and wars and everything in between, whose sole reason for existence is your personal amusement. If that isn’t playing god then what is?

If the above paragraph describes you then congrats! You have what it takes to become a storyteller. But there is a vast distance between a mediocre storyteller and a truly great storyteller. How does one become a great storyteller? The answer is simple. Passion. Passion is what separates the men from the boys is writing stories, and I’m not talking about a half-assed “hey this could be neat…” passion either. I’m talking about a full-blown, foaming-at-the-mouth obsession. A driving need to get these thoughts and ideas tumbling through your head onto paper because you feel like, if you don’t, your brain is going to explode.

If you have the passion and the god complex then you basically have everything you need to start writing. All that’s left is a working knowledge of the fundamentals and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of experimentation until you figure out what works for YOU.

What I propose, following this post, is a community driven series of posts chock full of basic tips and tricks to help all the novice writers out there get started. The purpose of this endeavor is to give them and all of us the largest possible pool of knowledge to draw from, so that if we are ever stuck, then maybe, just maybe, we will be able to easily find what we need to get unstuck. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention that this proposal is in no small part a selfish request, because I too have the creator’s curse and am doomed to never be satisfied with my own inadequate work. And who knows? Maybe if we all come together and learn from each other something spectacular will arise and we will all be better off for it.

So what do you say my fellow creators? Shall we take that next step and tumble down the rabbit hole of discovery, or shall we stay put on comfortable grounds and forever doom ourselves to mediocrity? Because it is my opinion that mediocrity is a terrible, terrible fate.

I would also like to say that while comments and criticism are both welcome and encouraged in all of my posts, for this little project they will be absolutely essential. After all, without everyone pitching in and contributing their ideas and advice it will just devolve into another lame and unhelpful tutorial where I state my own opinions, and the overall quality of the series I’m currently working on (Bloodsport Fairytale) demonstrates perfectly just how much room I have to improve. So please, I beg you, write comments or message me your thoughts and ideas and criticism because nothing will be ignored and all ideas will be included in future posts. For the sake of expediency the first topic can be methods on how to take an idea and flesh it out into a story.



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