How to Craft a Great Story

Teach Yourself Creating Perfect Plot and Structure

Chris Sykes

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781473688452
• eBook ISBN:
  9781473688469
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Creative Writing
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

LEARN HOW TO PLOT AND STRUCTURE YOUR CREATIVE WRITING. How to Craft a Great Story takes you step by step through the process of creating a compelling and coherent plot and structure. It covers such basics as the traditional story arcs, and such advanced information as finding balance and marrying structure and form. Each chapter contains a diagnostic test, case studies, practical exercises and Aide Memoire boxes. Each chapter concludes with a reminder of the key points of the chapter (Focus Points) and a round-up of what to expect in the next (Next Step) will whet your appetite for what's coming and how it relates to what you've just read. Covering some of the most commonly raised questions in creative writing courses, it is perfect for anyone who needs the next step on from the basic 'how to write a novel'. ABOUT THE SERIES
The Teach Yourself Creative Writing series helps aspiring authors tell their story. Covering a range of genres from science fiction and romantic novels, to illustrated children's books and comedy, this series is packed with advice, exercises and tips for unlocking creativity and improving your writing. And because we know how daunting the blank page can be, we set up the Just Write online community at tyjustwrite, for budding authors and successful writers to connect and share.

1

The basics of a story

In this chapter you will learn:

• what you need to get started

• what defines a ‘story’

• specific elements which are important to stories

• how to write a story in 50 words

• the importance of revision.

If you want to write you should have a notebook that you carry with you everywhere, in your pocket, bag or handbag. You should get used to writing things down; snatches of overheard conversations, story ideas or descriptions. No doubt you will already have paper and writing implements, but if you have not got one already, get yourself a small notebook specifically for your writing. Use this text book in conjunction with that notebook because you will be asked to do exercises in thinking and writing as we go along. Also be prepared to record what you see or overhear, or to jot down ideas as they occur to you. Who knows what small thoughts and observations may lead to – a notebook and a pen or pencil to write with should be with you every day.

What is a story?

Edgar Allen Poe said that a short story was something that can be read in one sitting. This attests to the shortness of the story but says nothing about its nature or the quality; after all, the back of a cornflake packet can be read over breakfast. Another common definition of a story, one with an ancient tradition having been laid down by Aristotle in his Poetics (c. 335 BCE), is that a story is a piece of writing, ‘a whole with a beginning, middle and end’. This says something of the shape of a story, but an essay or even a football match can have a beginning, middle and end and there are big differences between a football match and a story.

In addition, stories are not confined to creative writing. A lawyer tells a story in court; a suspect tells a story to the police; a wife or husband, late home from work again, might tell a story to explain where they have been. In the field of creative writing, stories are not confined to fiction. Far from it. A story is central to plays and screenplays. Many poems and songs tell stories.

Stories have been around as long as human beings and predate by millennia all our current written and visual forms. Cave drawings tell stories of our ancestors’ lives in pictures; humans told stories to each other long before we were able to write them down. It is important for us to acknowledge our debt and our connectedness to the past in order to recognize how important stories have been to us and to understand how varied the forms and structures of those ancient stories are as well as any similarities with the stories we tell today. As we seek to understand what stories mean for us today and how to write great stories that engage and last, it is crucial to understand from where we have come.

As for a definition of ‘a story’, in the several entries for story in the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary there are these:

a A written or spoken description of an event or series of events which can be real or imaginary

b A lie.

The idea that a story is a lie is immediately uninhibiting for creative writers.

Key idea

The truth that a story is a lie means that we have permission to make things up, to imagine and invent.

In writing or telling a story we deal with an event or series of events which can be real or imaginary; if real we can lie about them. What other discipline encourages such anti-social behaviour?

Let us start with this dictionary definition of a story and see if we can expand on it and isolate certain components that all stories have.

‘For Sale’

One extremely short story, often attributed to Ernest Hemingway but possibly apocryphal, is: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn.’

It is astonishing, but this is only six words long. If it can be called a story, let’s examine what makes it a story. Read it over again: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn.’

Write

Before you read any further, take out your notebook and write those six words at the top of a page. When you have done that ask yourself the following:

• Is ‘For Sale’ a story? If not, why not?

• If you think it is a story, why? What makes it a story?

• What kind of story does it suggest to you?

• Are there any characters suggested?

• Who are they? List them.

• What do you think the story is about?

Write down a few ideas that the words suggest; whatever comes to mind. There is no right or wrong approach to this. Just write whatever comes; words, feelings, random notes. You do not have to write proper sentences. The notes are just for you. When you have done that, resume reading this book. But for the moment, shut the book and consider ‘For Sale’.

What did you write? To repeat, there is no right or wrong but only what you come up with.

You may have written notes like the following:

• Limited word length, six words. Written in groups of two.

• Sadness. Tragedy. Dead baby.

• Is it a story? Yes. Why? Because of the two words ‘never worn’.

• What story? Loss of a child – death or adoption planned but falls through at last minute.

• Sparseness of language = contained grief?

• Characters? A mother, parents, a baby?

• Attempt to move on? Choice not to pursue another pregnancy/adoption?

• Who is selling the shoes? Were they found in a house clearance? Why ‘never worn?’

In terms of notes, that would be more than enough. You will have come up with your own but you may have jottings, ideas or observations that overlap with the above.

Let us use our notes to examine this small six word story in terms of:

• Story and hook.

• Characters – conflict and viewpoint.

• Language, style, meaning and theme.

• Tone and genre.

Story

Is it true that the two words ‘never worn’ define this as a story? They are certainly the words that give the piece impact, but are they what make it a story? Let’s test it: what if it did not say ‘never worn’ but instead had a different en...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Contents 
• About the author
• Introduction
• 1 The basics of a story
• 2 Finding and making plots
• 3 Constructing a plot with pace and movement
• 4 The plot ladder
• 5 Conflict
• 6 What is structure?
• 7 Story and plot: the principles of connectedness and causality
• 8 Plot holes and problems with plot
• 9 The ‘gold’ and the ‘MacGuffin’: plot-drivers, confrontation and disaster
• 10 The four stages of a story
• 11 Understanding form and structure
• 12 Finding perfect story shape: proportion
• 13 Screenwriting theory: using the three-act structure
• 14 Using mythic structure
• 15 Other story models
• Afterword
• Glossary
• Taking it further
• Copyright