On Writing Fiction and Good Storytelling

Inspiration for stories can come at unexpected moments. J.K. Rowling was on a train from Manchester to London King’s Cross when the words, “Boy doesn’t know he’s a wizard. Boy goes to wizard school” entered her mind. From there, she began filling in the details about why the wizard doesn’t know, how he learns about the school, and what his purpose will be. Stephen King and his wife were staying at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado when a nightmare of King’s son being chased through the hotel’s hallways inspired The Shining. From there, he rented a room and wrote for a period of four to six weeks, about 5,000 words per day. 

A story is easily conceived through a thought or feeling, but it requires hard work to solidify. It takes time crafting characters, developing plot, and building a realm where readers will be welcomed. As William Shrunk Jr. writes in The Elements of Style, “Writing is, for most, laborious and slow. The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning how to take wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by.” 

This page will equip the gunner, or writer, with the skills and discipline of story-telling. 

Zooming-Out: Plot, Character, and Conflict

Two of the most important parts of a story are the beginning and end. “Development should be as lifelike as possible, and a weak, trickling conclusion should be assiduously avoided,” writes H.P. Lovecraft. “The end of a story must be stronger rather than weaker than the beginning; since it is the end which contains the denouement or culmination, and which will leave the strongest impression upon the reader.” 

The beginning of a story establishes the tone of the piece, immerses the readers in the fictional world, and introduces the characters and situation. But then what happens? Sometimes, the writer isn’t clear on what the ending will look like, which leads to uncertainty and discouragement. Stephen King is one of the many fiction writers who doesn’t plot his stories upon typical conflict-crisis-resolution structures, writing, 

“When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest […] It seems to me that every book—at least every one worth reading—is about something. Your job during or just after the first draft is to decide what something or somethings yours is about. Your job in the second draft—one of them anyway—is to make that something more clear.”

King’s writing process is unique because he “watches” his characters, unearthing the story like an observer. His stories all have a focus, a direction, but he doesn’t try to figure out the purpose before it is meant to be found and relies on heavy editing to refine the story. The novelist Robert Stone once said the following about uncertainty in writing: “It’s like driving a car at night. You can only see as far ahead as your headlights, but you can make the entire journey that way.” 

Perhaps your story will instead follow the “earthquake model,” as coined by Alice LaPlante, who explains that many stories ebb and flow, build tension then subside, or show flashbacks and side characters before reaching a turning point and resolution. There isn’t one good or bad plot structure to follow, only a consistent forward momentum toward a memorable ending.  

To develop plot, it is important to create believable characters that readers can relate to. When the character wants something (even something as simple as something to eat) but there is an obstacle in the way, conflict is formed and the plot moves forward. According to LaPlante, there are many ways to write believable characters. You can describe physical traits, manner of speech, behavioral quirks, occupational or social statuses, interactions with other people, or thoughts and feelings. 

Many writing teachers rely on the saying “show, don’t tell,” because good “telling” is rare. In reality, showing and telling complement each other like reading and writing. Note that too much telling, or too much showing, can make the text monotonous. It is important that your writing continues moving between narration and action, abstract and concrete, specific and general. In the next section, we will zoom in to sentence-level tips to help develop style. 

Key Ideas: 

• Don’t worry about following traditional plot structures when writing, but remember to have a clear focus and a strong ending. 
• Character and conflict is essential to drive the plot forward. To create a believable character, consider all the physical and behavioral details that make your character unique. 
• Show and tell 

Zooming-In: Sentence-level Strategies for Good Story-Telling 

In chapter two of Style: The Art of Writing Well by F.L. Lucas, there is a quote that emcompasses the essence of the authorial voice and the importance of a writer’s character rather than their technical expertise:

Style is a means by which a human being gains contact with others; it is personality clothed in words, character embodied in speech. The fundamental thing, therefore, is not, technique, useful though that may be. Soul is more than syntax. If you wish your writing to be good, your character must be good. Authors may sell their books: but they give themselves away. 

Lucas writes that it is important to write with clarity and brevity, to place oneself in the background, but to also have good humour, sincerity, and vitality. An egotistical personality focused on impressing the reader with big words and complex thoughts will only repel the reader from surrendering to the story. As Alice LaPlante writes in The Making of a Story, “As writers, we’re not looking to provide a lesson, or a moral; we’re not therapists looking to cure our characters of pain or neurosis. Our job, as writers, is simply to render what is using precise, concrete detail.” 

When writing in detail, it’s important to have details interact with each other rather than remain stagnant. Consider this passage from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which shows the shore, dark waters, and a moon rising above houses that leads to the narrator’s realization that he is looking at “the new world.” 

Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world. 

The writer has shown us a wide angle scene. The narrator tells us what they see, and the details fade into one another in a stream of consciousness rather than a random list of facts. When details flow and interact with one another, the camera moves across the scene in a natural, true-to-life experience. As H.P. Lovecraft writes, “In fictional narration, verisimilitude is absolutely essential. A story must be consistent and must contain no event glaringly removed from the usual order of things, unless that event is the main incident, and is approached with the most careful preparation.” Verisimilitude, or the realness of a narrative, can be developed by including specific details that engage the five senses. 

Punctuation is used to set the pace and evoke the desired emotion. For example, “The writer shouted and the coffee mug tipped off the table” reads at a faster pace than “The writer shouted. The coffee mug tipped off the table.” In the second sentence, suspense builds after the word “shouted” because the reader is forced to stop for a breath before the next sentence. Roy Peter Clark describes periods as stop signs, commas as speed bumps, semicolons as a “rolling stop,” and the dash as a “tree branch in the road.” Consider how you feel when reading your work out loud, and play around with different punctuation marks to get the desired sound. As Joan Didion once wrote, “Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year the rules were mentioned.” 

There are so many more tips for persuasive story-telling. We hope the selected reads below will prove helpful in your writing journey. 

Key Ideas:

• Write clearly and simply. Do not aim to impress the reader; instead, build a relationship with the reader by inviting them into the story with concrete details. 
• Let details interact with each other so the story keeps moving. Consider details that spark the five senses.  
• Use punctuation to set the pace and evoke the desired feelings. 

More Resources 

• The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice LaPlante
• Style: The Art of Writing Well by F. L. Lucas 
• The Art of X-Ray Reading by Roy Peter Clark 
• On Writing by Stephen King 
• Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark

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