Storytelling

[spaceman4572]

Hey guys I just joined the site and I've looked around extensively and I'm not really sure where to post this, so I'll post it here. Authors are story tellers and I've wanted to be a writer since I fell in love with reading in the third grade. I've attempted writing here and there and then I would give up because I felt my work was .... crap. Now I know that no one starts out writing the best stuff in the world and that your first million words are considered crap and mostly unpublishable. I realize it will take time and practice and many many hours looking at the crap that I spit out before I get the hang of it. Why have I decided to do this? Because I want to go into the writing world. I want to be a writer but I'd also love to be in publishing. Okay now I'll get back to the point. Writers are story tellers, I've never been a good story teller. When I tell stories I just launch into it without thinking about the point of the story and I never seem to be able to correctly communicate the point of the story. Once I'm done everyone looks at me in wonderment and I feel this terrible feeling of what I can only describe as shame. I was wondering what I could do to become a better storyteller? I know that I need to work on my grammar because its horrid.

[tehuti88]

You say you tend to just launch into stories without thinking about "the point," thus people end up kind of confused? Have you considered mulling over a story idea for a while before actually writing it? I. e., letting it develop for a while? I tend to think over my stories a good long while before putting them in words, and that really helps figure out what "the point" of the story might be. Whereas the few times I just launched into a story without thinking, it never really went anywhere because I of course had no idea where I was going.

ETA: The best storytellers are so good because they've been telling their stories, and developing them, for ages.

Just a thought. *shrug* Welcome to the board BTW.

[spaceman4572]

Thanks Tehuti88 from what I've seen you've always given great advice. Yeah it makes sense that letting a story develop would help because writing is very different than telling an andecdote to a friend.

[Bufty]

Welcome, Spaceman.

Only advice I can give you is to study how others tell stories that you like reading.

There's usually a pattern. For instance, a character in a predicament and struggling to overcome that predicament, whether it be to get himself out of a worsening series of mishaps or to achieve some specific and hard-to-attain goal.

Another good suggestion for you would be to work your way through the Learn Writing With Uncle Jim thread in the Writing Novels Forum (This Forum).

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6710

It's a long thread, but well worth the journey through its posts. There's also a helpful Index to that thread, but be patient when reading the main thread.

[job]

.... I've never been a good story teller. When I tell stories I just launch into it without thinking about the point of the story and I never seem to be able to correctly communicate the point of the story.

Hmmm .... try writing very very short stories.
One line stories. 50-word stories.

-- Tom loves Mary. Mary loves Gregory. Tom secretly kills Gregory. Mary still doesn't love Tom. Tom kills Mary.

-- Redford is clumsy and ugly. He goes to the top of the mountain and fights the dragon and kills him. He's still clumsy and ugly, but everyone in the village now loves him. Now he knows clumsy and ugly don't matter. His true victory is over his own doubts.

-- Jenny has a baby out of wedlock and gives him up. Twenty years later she goes looking for the boy. He's fine. She made the right decision. Now she is free to continue her life.


Write a bunch of bite-sized stories like that.
Then start thinking about Tom, Mary, Gregory, Redford and Jenny.

The story isn't this happens and then that happens. The story is Jenny's past pain. Jenny's present doubt. Jenny's search. Jenny's discovery. Jenny's moment of realization.
Talk about that and you are telling the story.

[mscelina]

That was really good advice, Job. I would have posted it twice too. ;)

[alyssalynne]

You might want to read "Story" by Robert McKee. It's about screenwriting but the book is essentially about how to create a story. Work on the story telling first and grammar later. Grammar is easy to fix, a poorly constructed story is not.

[spaceman4572]

thanks Bufty I've started the Uncle jim thread and im about 30 pages in and have some 100+ to go hehe. thank you guys for your great advice I feel much more confident and Job that was great advice i'll try doing that.

[lvcabbie]

First of all, I didn't see any major grammar errors in your post. To me, what people say in their posts and how they say it is a sure sign of whast their works will be like.
So, from that start, I have a hunch you do a decent job of writing.
I agree completely about us being Storytellers. If you can't tell a story well, nobody will want to hear (or read) it.

So, tell your story! Then, go back and see if it comes out as if someone else will want to read it. (If YOU find it boring or bad, then it's likely that others will agree with you) At that point, go back and see what you need to do to make it interesting.

I've written and rewritten five novels endlessly and I am STILL unhappy with them. Not the grammar or dialogue or character development. I am not yet sure what is mission or wrong BUT I'M GOING TO FIND IT! ;)

[maestrowork]

For me, storytelling is all about putting your audience in a "trance" and keep them there. Exactly how you do it -- it's different from writer to writer. Some have great narrative and descriptive capabilities, and some are great in characterizations and dialogue and action, and some have incredible plot just sucks you in. And some have everything, and they're hailed as the masters of storytelling. But the bottom line is the same: can you put your audience in a fictive dream and keep them there until they flip to the last page, and then sigh with satisfaction and yearn for more?

[dempsey]

From that post your grammar seems fine. Perhaps it could use more work, but it's by far not the worst I've seen.

As far as your trouble in telling a story, I would recommend that you try outlining a story first. That way, you have all the elements down in easy-to-rearrange pieces, and are able to create a coherent story from point A to point B.

And as you tell the story, bear in mind that the reader knows nothing of what you wish to share and your duty is to guide them through a tale with only exactly as much information as they need, no more, no less.

[spaceman4572]

From that post your grammar seems fine. Perhaps it could use more work, but it's by far not the worst I've seen.

As far as your trouble in telling a story, I would recommend that you try outlining a story first. That way, you have all the elements down in easy-to-rearrange pieces, and are able to create a coherent story from point A to point B.

And as you tell the story, bear in mind that the reader knows nothing of what you wish to share and your duty is to guide them through a tale with only exactly as much information as they need, no more, no less.

Thanks that's a great idea. the main reason why I feel like I'm a horrid storyteller is because when I tell a story it feels like I either vomit all the facts and details at once or I space on everything. If I manage to get a nice medium between those I emphasize details that are not important. I just need to practice so I know whats important and whats not. So I shall start. Again thanks everyone for your advice I think its all invaluable.

[Chasing the Horizon]

Definitely try writing an outline before starting the story. There are a lot of outlining methods out there (and quite a few threads here on AW that talk about them). An easy method for outlining a novel is to write a few sentence summary of each chapter. I personally use more detailed outlines, but a chapter outline will give you a decent overview of the story without too much effort. Then you can see your direction very clearly. Outlines also make it easy to change things that you can see won't work well before wasting time writing them.

I've completed three novels and written well over a million words on all my different projects, and I would still be completely lost and directionless without an outline.

I also want to add that you don't have to write a million words to become a good writer. Everyone learns at a different pace. Certainly your first work is going to be crap, but some of us learn to write well significantly before we reach the million word mark. And even when you're first starting out some of what you write might end up being pretty good. Just the other day I was copying parts of one of the first scenes I ever wrote into one of my current WIPs. There were whole paragraphs I used verbatim.

[katiemac]

You say that when you tell a story, you rush into it and people end up confused. Well, the great thing about writing is that nobody reads it right away. You have the opportunity and go back and analyze it, fix things, add to it or delete.

Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and thought, "That doesn't make sense? The guy should have done A or B instead." That's one way to look at storytelling. Some people need the base of the story first, and are better at playing around after. It's rough if you don't know what you want to write, but you stick with it. Get a story down and then fix it later.