I believe we live in a universe governed by laws of causes and effects even though we don’t yet fully understand all the causes and all the effects. When it comes to art, in particular, it is immensely difficult to know what cause will result in which effect. So it is tremendously difficult in the realm of words to know which sentence, which metaphor, which plot device will resonate with a majority of your targeted genre’s readers and turn a bunch of words into a great story. Though we don’t know these things with precision, I do believe that there are quantifiable causes and effects in play.

Wired for Story is Lisa Cron’s assertion that we do in fact have (some) science in the realm of writing that enables us to understand the causes and effects of good storytelling.

I’ve not heard much of this book, but it is well reviewed on Amazon, and the start intrigued me, so I thought I’d give it a look. I, too, have given it 5 stars, but not without a few reservations. Let me explain…

Cron’s thesis is this: “…our neural circuitry is designed to crave story. The rush of intoxication a good story triggers … makes us willing pupils, primed to absorb the myriad lessons each story imparts. This information is a game changer for writers. Research has helped decode the secret blueprint for story that’s hardwired in the reader’s brain, thereby lifting the veil on what, specifically the brain is hungry for in every story it encounters.” The intent of her well-documented book is to share with aspiring writers this secret blueprint.

Heady stuff, no? Finally, a “blueprint” that will ensure we can write a story that our target audience will find compelling.

Too good to be true?

Too good to be true.

It is not so much that I don’t think a blueprint might exist, or that she does not share a long list of references to substantiate her argument. Rather, what she shares is essentially all the conventional wisdom we already know about writing. In this sense, her book is not wrong – on the contrary, I think highly of it – but it does not offer a new blueprint. Its strength is that it is a concise summary of many lessons learned over the centuries that we writers need to keep in mind to keep our readers engaged. Cron provides some scientific evidence to explain why these things matter to readers, but most of it is so self-evident that it does not need science for validation.

Though she writes well with an engaging and at times flippant style, I found the book to be somewhat episodic, especially the later chapters, as if each chapter were a stand-alone entry.  There is nothing wrong with that, but it is inconsistent with the notion of an integrated blueprint.

Again, I think highly of the book and have already reread some potions of it. Here are just a few of the many nuggets I find of value with a few thoughts of my own:

“I love a beautifully crafted sentence as much as the next person. But make no mistake: learning to ‘write well’ is not synonymous with learning to write a story. And of the two, writing well is secondary.” – I aspire to great sentences, but have reluctantly come to believe that she is right about this. I do fear, though, that some writers will infer that they can be lazy with their writing, which is a mistake. Good stories are further elevated by great writing.

“A story is designed, from beginning to end, to answer a single overarching question.” – I agree, though there are times when I find such efficient writing so direct that it is almost like reading a business report. Though we do read a story to find out what happens, if that was the only purpose in reading, there would be no novels. All stories would be concise summaries, simple explanations of conflict and resolution. I think most of us would agree that part of the joy of reading is going along for the ride, becoming emotionally engaged in the story, going to places we have never been before and enjoying the journey as much as the resolution.

“…everything in a story gets its emotional weight and meaning based on how it affects the protagonist.” – I agree with this one, and a smart observation. I’ve been thinking of this one as I have been proofing my recent work.

“…the less you tell us how to feel, the more likely we’ll feel exactly what you want us to.” – Totally agree. Present the story. Let the reader develop his or her own emotional response.

“A protagonist without a clear goal has nothing to figure out and nowhere to go. [Without it] the things that happen will feel random.” – Yes, but… Sometimes a bit of random helps fill out the story and keeps it from becoming too linear.

“A story is about how the plot affects the protagonists.”—Another interesting assertion I need to think about some more, though it feels right.

“Feel fist. Think second. Story takes the horror of a huge, monstrous event – the Holocaust – and illustrates its effect through a single personal dilemma – Sophie’s Choice.” – I agree. Very much so.

“By defining your protagonist’s internal and external goals, then pitting them against each other, you can often ignite the kind of external tension and internal conflict capable of driving an entire narrative.” – Let’s talk about this one in more detail…

Among all the other insights she shares, Cron puts great emphasis on internal and external conflict; she argues that the more conflicted the more compelling the story. She makes light of an internal goal of survival (and external forces that want your protagonist dead) because we all want to live. I don’t agree with her on this one.

I’ve heard this line of reasoning many times over the years, and I’ve never been able to fully convince myself that the only path to a great story is resolving a conflict between internal and external desires. For instance, though I might get an argument on this one, I don’t think Paul Atreides of Dune was internally conflicted. He spent most of the novel trying to stay alive and reconciling how to behave and what to do as he gained power and insight. Ripley, in “Aliens”, knew very well what she wanted to do without any internal conflict at all: She wanted to save herself and a little girl from a horrific death at the hands (so to speak) of the alien matriarch. Katniss Everdeen never seemed internally conflicted to me, either. And having read a number Clancy’s books, I can’t think of a single character that had a conflict between their internal and external desires. So I think Cron is too fast to dismiss survival as a credible goal for a character. It is not the only theme, but I think it a powerful one.

Cron has a background that includes television, and in her book and online bio talks about what she has learned from television ads, how they hook us and appeal to us emotionally. These are important things for writers to understand, but this background has not only fueled her thinking on how stories are constructed, I suspect it also drives her to want to make stories as efficient as possible. Television and movie production costs can be tens of thousands of dollars a minute, so efficiency is critical. I’m not convinced that writing needs to be just as efficient.

Discounting these quibbles, Cron’s book is well worth reading for writers who wish to hone their storytelling skills, and to enjoy a number of other insights about the craft. So though I was wired to latch on to a “blueprint” for writing stories, this is not it. I encourage all writers of fiction to check it out on Amazon via the “Look Inside” feature. It will provide you with enough to get a good sense of her writing style and her line of reasoning. Alternatively, you can watch this 17 min video to get a summary of her thesis:  If you enjoy the video, consider the book. Though the video summarizes her thesis, it is only a small part of all the gathered knowledge she shares in Wired For Story.

Wired to disagree? Share your thoughts.

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Apocalypse Now is one of the “best” movies ever made, in my opinion (acknowledging that “best” is in the eye of the beholder, though there are a lot of people that think this). More than that, it is a brilliantly told story, albeit the storytelling is via a movie. Of course, it is a retelling of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In case you have missed it, the story is about the descent of one man into insanity to confront another who has already descended to that place.  Who knew there is an exceptionally thoughtful review of it on YouTube?

The movie was directed by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, and includes an amazing cast: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and Harrison Ford (long before Indiana Jones and Star Wars). But the movie is more than just a director and talented actors. This is one that transcends the standard two hours in a theater. This is a story that magically pulls you in as few stories do.

Like many of us, I’ve sat through more than enough lit classes. I’ve been told by innumerable professors what the author was really saying after we finished the last reading assignment. So at this point in my life I’m usually uninterested in hearing another critical review or analysis of a story.

As luck would have it, though, today I stumbled onto a ~80 min reivew on YouTube of Apocalypse Now. Not only is it one of the most fascinating analysis of that immensely complex movie, it is also very fine editing to show the visual evidence of the various points the reviewer was making.

I’m gushing on, but it was a brilliant analysis of the theme, characterization and character development (a lot on this, actually), the plot, how the plot was structured, subtle (and not so subtle) foreshadowing, etc.

One of the things that most fascinated me about this movie is that the main character is surprisingly passive. In spite of that, he is an immensely complex character who drives the story, but in scene after scene he is alone, he rarely speaks, and in a movie thick with action and violence, he is strangely a bystander through much of it (until the final scene). This intrigues me because one of my MCs is similar, which is challenging as a storyteller in our world which favors dialog and does not like “telling”.  You can read more about her here in one of her more active scenes.

In all events, whether you know the Heart of Darkness story or not, the person who did this analysis covers a lot of ground any storyteller should be attentive to and from which they can benefit.

Sharing it here in the hope you will find it helpful as you work on your own fiction.

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I saw a question on a board the other day asking what does it mean to “practice writing”? This could be several things, but my view is that there are three things I practice. And to be clear, I think all writing is practice. Even the things I publish are not perfect. They were just good enough to publish.

Writing Science Fiction

It does not matter which genre you prefer. My preference is military and military science fiction (see an excerpt from my own forthcoming military sci fi novel). But no matter. All good writers only become good through practice. And practice does not mean just cranking out more pages. Like all things, practicing bad habits only reinforce those bad habits. We must always be self-critical when we write, and every time we write — certainly every time we proof our work — we should do our best  to make it better.

The hardest thing for me to learn when I began to take writing seriously was trying to figure out how to tell a complete story. This was the hardest thing for me to learn. I had a difficult time figuring out where the end was. Like many young writers, I had dramatic scenes in my head, some of which I put on paper. That was great, but that is not a story. I even wrote several 100K word “stories” but they were inconclusive and were not really satisfying.

Sentence Variety

This is another thing I work on.  This another one that may sound simple, but we are all creatures of habit, and then to do the same things over and over again. To help address this one, I’ll pick up a class work such as Dune and turn to a random page. I’ll look at how a few sentences are structured, Then I’ll turn to my manuscript and randomly land on a page. I’ll look at a few sentences and find one I can change to a structure that I don’t normally use, for instance paralleling what I found in Dune.

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs”

So says Stephen King, and I’d be reluctant to argue with him. When you write, practice not using adverbs. Force yourself to write sentences that don’t use them. You’ll be surprised by how clear your writing becomes, and how much more descriptive it will be. There will always be a few adverbs, so don’t freak out if you see some. My goal when I write — when I practice writing — is to keep them to no more than one adverb every 200 words. That may sound like a lot, but try it…you’ll find that it is harder than you think.

How do you practice your writing with an eye to improving it?

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Don’t you love it when you get feedback on your fiction that you are doing too much “telling” and not enough “showing”?

When we think about how to write a novel and to be a successful writer of fiction, we must understand the balance of showing versus telling in our work. This is one of the critical skills and one that we can learn. There is no formula, and we need to do both. The trick is to keep them in proper proportion.

There is great commentary on the topic from a number of accomplished writers, though on the surface, some of the guidance might seem contradictory. I wanted to take the opportunity to speak to this one with my own creative writing blog.

Sol Stein has written a wonderfully helpful book for writers titled Stein on Writing.

It has been positively reviewed by almost every reader.  He includes a chapter on “Showing versus Telling,” as does almost every book on the craft of writing. Here is the example he uses to illustrate an instance of “telling”: “She boiled water.”

Stein starts with this three-word sentence and progresses through several revisions until he gets to: “She filled the kettle from the faucet and hummed till the kettle’s whistle cut her humming short.” He says of this revision, “ …the addition of detail makes the visual come alive with more action.”

We would probably agree with his conclusion. However, there is some sleight of hand here. Note what else happened. First, he presented additional facts:

·         She filled the container

·         The container is a kettle

·         The kettle has a whistle

·         She filled it from the faucet

·         She was humming

We now have much more information than we would get from just a statement that “She boiled water.”

You might argue that is the point. But to be explicit — to present all these additional facts — the sentence went from three words to seventeen words. That is an almost a six-fold increase! There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but it is important to understand everything that happened as we went from a three-word statement of fact to a mini-scene.

Hold this thought. We’ll come back to it.

Another great resource for aspiring writers wanting to learn how to write a book is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers  by Renni Browne and Dave King.

In spite of its title and cover art (that make it look like it is about the hugely important and excruciatingly dry topic of copyediting), it is an insightful collection of essays on writing that complements Stein’s work.

Browne and King include a chapter on “Proportion”. In it, you will find this passage about a man who is rescuing his wounded Indian friend (named “Sunshine”). It goes like this:

Eammon flung the peavey to shore, reached down, and lifted Sunshine by grabbing his jacket collar with his left hand and his belt with his right hand. He then spun around, clutching the Indian’s left shoulder, leaned down to put his right shoulder into Sunshine’s belly, his right arm between the Indian’s legs, and straightened up. He slowly turned on the log that was supporting them, moved down its length toward the bank, jumped to another log, walked the length of that one, then stepped on top of several logs running lengthwise of the river until he finally stepped down into the shallow water near the shore.

In short, Browne and King argue that this is too many words for this one incident. There are several reasons. It takes up valuable page space and your reader’s limited time. Additionally, there is not much left to the reader’s imagination.

They suggest an alternative: 

Eammon flung the peavey away, grabbed Sunshine by his jacket collar and belt, threw him over his shoulder, and made his way across the logs to shore.

In this revision, they clearly “show” much less. Of note, Browne and King have shortened this passage by about the same percentage that Stein increased his example.

So what is going on here? Which is correct?

It is this, and Elmore Leonard probably said it most concisely: “…leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” Conversely, do write the parts that your audience wants to read. Sometimes that means showing more. Sometimes that means telling rather than showing.

Showing and telling has been a topic of interest to me for a long time. On occasion, critiquers have told me that I’m showing too much. Other times I’ll get feedback on a submission that I’m “telling” too much. I have thought about how to reconcile what initially sounds like potentially conflicting bits of feedback.

When I see comments about “showing” more I sometimes think: But I don’t want to show that. I simply want to establish something and move on. Going back to Stein’s example, if all I want to establish is that my character boiled water, I will simply write: “She boiled water.”

Of course, I sometimes get it wrong.

I had my next novel — Lonely Hunter —  going through a review cycle with beta readers recently.

One chapter ended with my main character discovering an abandoned village in a forest in the middle of the night while she was being hunted by aliens. The readers gave it positive reviews as an engaging scene with a suspenseful “cliffhanger” ending. Determined to keep my novel “concise”, I made a conscious decision to have the next chapter start several days later with the main character summarizing to her father what she had found in the abandoned village. She did so while standing in the sunshine of her home village surrounded by friends and loyal soldiers. So it was now a “telling” summary presented in a perfectly safe location. I was roasted by my reviewers for not showing her exploration of the abandoned village.

What happened? I got the proportion of showing and telling wrong. I kept the story concise in as much as I kept the word count down for the novel as a whole, but I had given away all the suspense created in that scene that my readers wanted to “see”. So I have a new chapter to write and another that is going to be dramatically shortened.

Another example: In my novel, my characters had to attend a meeting. I chose not to show that. Instead, I summarized the outcome in a few sentences. One critter thanked me for not dragging them through the meeting. In that instance, I seem to have gotten the proportion of telling and showing correct.

So the critiquing process there is hugely beneficial in helping me get my proportions right, and helping me understand what readers want to see, and what they’d rather be told as narrative summary. I’m rarely responsive to individual comments to this end, but if a significant percentage of the reviewers are saying the same thing, I will pay attention.

My takeaway is that more often than not, when a majority of your critters advises you to “show” more of a certain scene, it is because they find the scene particularly engaging and want more of it, or they find it confusing and are looking for more insight into what is happening and what the characters are feeling.

Conversely, they prefer “telling” when they want a quick summary to get the relevant facts that are driving the plot forward or showing a character’s development without having to be dragged through all the details of how a given fact came to be.

Additionally, going back to the example from Browne and King, if you are doing too much showing, even if you are doing it well, it may not be interesting and you will get feedback that you are being “wordy” or your writing (or at least a given passage) is boring.

After all, we can’t and don’t want to show everything.

Imagine if writers tried: Books would explode to thousands and thousands of pages. Atlas Shrugged and War and Peace would be analogous to flash fiction! No reader would ever get more than two pages into a novel because the endless “showing” of minutia would be too exhausting, boring and without purpose.

As a writer, we have to make decisions. Though we may know how to plan a story, at the end of the day, how much showing and telling we do in our writing is our decision. My first novel is now live on Amazon. It is presented as a framed narrative and is a historical novel. At the start, I very intentionally mimic the tone and structure of a historical summary – which is very “telling” – and then drift into very nuanced “showing” as the story moves to its climax. So I have made my decisions about telling and showing. We’ll see if I got it right.

I do encourage you to read these two books – Stein on Writing and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. They cover far more topics than just showing, telling and proportion. Even when they do cover the same topics, it is always constructive to get different views. If you are a writing a book, I’m sure you’ll find them engaging and helpful.

And if you would like to see a very sophisticated and long discussion on this topic, check out this blog.

 Please use the buttons below and to the side to share with another reader. Thanks! Allen

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