When you write stories, you have to be content to start exactly there – showing how some specific folks WILL do, WILL do in spite of everything.
~ Flannery O’Connor, “Writing Short Stories” in Mystery and Manners
I love this quote. I came across it recently again on The Happiness Project, and that inspired me to go back and take a look at it, at writing in general, and at my writing in particular.
I might have mentioned that I’m a writer. Lots of people say they’re writers, and I feel really silly right now saying I’m a writer because in the past few years, my writing has been limited to writing thesis papers, professional journal articles, class notes, and this blog. Once upon a time, though, I professionally published two novellas {under a pen name that I may use again, so I’m not sharing them}. The writing, in my oh so humble opinion, is exceptionally bad. But the story is good.
A good story comes alive when it’s made up of “how some folks would do” and it’s believable. For that, you’ve got to go back to basics. Tell the story in its barest bones. Don’t editorialize or elaborate – that’s how you get purple prose, confusing plot twists, and contrived scenes. Don’t write about what you would do – that’s a straight ticket to creating a Mary Sue character. You’ve got a story to tell, so tell us what happened, and what your characters did about it.
After that, then you have the artistic right to go back and make it interesting.
The same is true for any creative process, I think, where you want a lasting result. An architect will tell you a building is useless if it doesn’t have good bones, a mathematician will tell you a formula can be as elegant as it wants but is useless when it solves the wrong problem. Sketch the basics. Get the form on paper. Then embellish.
KCS
