Too Much Information!
It's easy to get swamped by writing tips. But storytelling all boils down to one thing.
Ten Shun!
As I graze languidly through the endless plethora of creative writing courses, degrees, post-grad degrees, evening classes, writing agencies, fiction websites etc (everyone has to have a hobby) I can’t help but think…or rather scream…
TOO MUCH INFORMATION!
Mimeses, excegesis, voice, dialogue, style, backstory, subplot, foreshadowing, beginnings, endings, middles, plot points, reversals, turning points, resolutions and…
AAARGH!
When I am trying to learn tennis, the phrase you can rely on me to shout across the net at my diligent coach is ‘Tell Me Less’.
Because I can only keep one, at most two things, in my poor little head at one time.
Otherwise I get overloaded. And I freeze.
The same applies to writing.
My philosophy as a writing teacher is also, ‘tell them less’.
So what is the One Thing you need to think about when writing fiction - that overshadows all the other endless categories of technique?
I call it the Magic Helix - because although it is ‘one thing’ like DNA, it comprises two strands.
The two strands are Character and Plot.
They are one thing because if you change one you change the other.
Plot is what happens.
Character is who it happens to. And what they make happen as a result. And how it changes them. Or asks them to change.
Sounds simple?
It is.
And it isn’t.
Just as the DNA strand looks simple but is very complex, so is the double helix of storytelling.
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