Tuesday's Inspiration - A Story Is... #MFRWauthor

"A story is the triumph of ego over fear of failure."  Exactly what does this mean to you? How many stories would never have been published without the author's confidence in what they've written. Even the stories we feel are poorly written that are published are because someone's ego pushes then to create the story and to see it hit the world in some kind of fashion.

There are many ways for a story to be seen and read by others. It does take guts to put the words one has written out for the public to see. And sometimes a writer's ego is bigger than the story they publish. These days, anyone can publish a book and say they are an author. But the proof is in what happens after the story is out there for people to buy.

I rather look on the other side. There are people who don't fear failure but fear success. They imagine their life falling apart if what they write is a success. Then worry about what other people will think of them and judge them by what their imagination had produced. They may even find a publisher to purchase their story, but they do nothing to help them along. And on the other side of the equation is the writer whose ego is so big they know the book they publish is wonderful and they push their story at everyone.

What the quote means to me is that the story needs a writer who knows the markets, listens to critiques of others and who learns and grows as they take the journey to become a published author.

Tuesday's Inspiration - A Story Is... #MFRWauthor

Continuing with the quotes from Dwight V. Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer. "A story is people given life on paper."

Without characters the story wouldn't be more than words on paper. I once wrote a story with a park bench as the main character. This was for a class I was taking. The reaction was an interesting one from others. For the park bench could tell the story but what interested the teacher and others was the people who visited the bench and what was happening in their lives. Needless to say, this story never went further for it was more a series of sketches since the park bench couldn't observe the people in the story for more than a few moments.

To have a story, the reader needs to see these characters as real at least momentarily. The characters need to have lives with goals and problems. They need interactions with other characters. If you have a strong hero, you need a strong heroine and a strong villain. To have unequal characters competing with the reader for attention, the strong one will always be remembered, The weak ones will make the reader yawn.

Give your characters a past but don't get so involved in showing the past to the readers that you forget the character is living in their present. Little hints about the past will give the reader bits to think about. Show the reader what is happening to the character that will lead to an ending that can be happy or sad but must be one to satisfy the reader. So work to bring your character to life. Without life the story will fall flat.

Tuesday's Inspiration - A story Is... #MFRWauthor

"A story is movement through the eternal now, from past to future." This quote from Techniques Of The Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain, made me stop and think. Just exactly what does it mean.

Often a story engages us so deeply that we forget that's it's not happening in the moment where we are. This also made me think about the progression of a story from the beginning through the middle to reach the end.

When we write each story, we should be entering the character's lives and follow them what the triggering incident in their lives sets them on a journey of exploration.

The beginning is the moment of change that urges a character to look at their life and face the impact of the incident. This incident doesn't have to be something major. This could be the possibility of a new job, or the loss of an old one. The moment is when the character needs to make a decision. Once the decision is made the movement begins. For the character the movement is from the eternal now. Why? Unlike our lives when we make decisions constantly, the character in a story makes the decision once. While during the journey the decision may change slightly the character won't need to keep making decisions for they do reach the end.

The past is what makes the character's decision in the now possible. The past may or may not be seen, but the writer has to have a grasp on this moment. Without the past, the character cannot have the future the writer has designed for this person. The future may be hinted at. The future may be happy or unhappy. The future of the character has to be deemed satisfactory by the reader and bring that moment of closure. This is when the reader think "I like the story. Let me find another by that author."

Tuesday's Inspiration - A Story Is... #MFRWauthor

Once again, thanks to Dwight V. Swain for this quote. "A story is movement through the eternal now from past to future.

Sounds mystical and is sort of. Each story written is happening in the character's present and shows movement from a single incident to reach a goal. The past is that moment when the incident occurs that is the trigger for the character's desires and actions to gain that desire. Though one writes in past tense for the story most of the time, the story is a journey.

I've seen stories written in the present tense and must admit they make me uncomfortable. A number of them are written in first person but for me this isn't what a story is about. That's just me. What about you?

So each story has a beginning and the journey takes the characters on a journey heading toward the end. To reach the end the story has to pass certain points where the character or characters must make decisions. Do I continue on this journey? Is the goal what I really want? Have I changed? Have any of the other characters changed, making my decisions different?  The middle of the story is where things happen and drive the character to reach the end.

Where the character ends is the future for that character. And this future is based on the decisions made throughout the story. One thing about the ending. This point must be a satisfactory ending for these characters. We all like happy endings but sometimes they aren't the satisfactory ending for a particular character.

Tuesday's Inspiration - A story is... #MFRWauthor

Once again I'm looking at just what a story is and am using small quotes from Dwight V. Swain's Techniques of a Selling Writer. "A story is a chain of scenes and sequences."

Every scene in a story has a beginning, a middle and an end. The scene builds the conflict between the characters who all have desires they want to fulfill. The scene is lived by the characters and will involve the reader. There are a number of types of scenes, probably as many as the writer can dream up. A scene is something the character must experience with another character and both have desires. Usually only one of these characters can have their desire fulfilled. It is possible the character in the scene may not be another person. Nature can be a character the focus person is battling against. Society can also be the character in a sense. The scene always ends in defeat for one of the participants. The scene leads to the sequel.

The sequel represents the down time, the time for considering other options on the way to reaching the goal. The sequel also changes the tempo of the story giving the character and the reader time to breathe and to think. I've read many stories where the scene is so intense that I find it hard to breathe. Something needs to change. Time is needed to take a breath and to consider what comes next. There have been times while writing a scene that my pen flies over the paper so rapidly I'm not sure what I'm writing. A time comes when I find I can't go on and thus must end the scene and allow myself and the character to think about what has happened. This is the sequel.

So to find the trick one must balance scene and sequel. A story with all scenes never gives the reader or the character time to reflect. A story that is mostly sequel will become boring.

Tuesday's Inspiration - A story is... #MFRWauthor

"A story is experience translated into literary process." Dwight V. Swain.

Exactly what does this mean to a writer. To me, it means developing characters who are experiencing an event that's going to change their life. It also means finding the right words to translate this experience and make the story show what happens in a character's life. There are many kinds of stories, some are literary, some are genre specific. Some stories are long and some are short. I've done both.

When I began writing years ago, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to write long or short but I began writing short stories. I wrote a number of them and one of my favorites is about a nurse, an older woman who worked the night shift. She wasn't the kind of woman who was outgoing and her nature was for the solitary. A patient changed her life. This wasn't a happy ending story, or was it?

The patient was a dying man who for some reason was drawn to her. He asked her a question. "Why don't you smile?" Actually the seeds of this story were based on an incident in my life. As a young nurse I was scared when working with patients and experienced one of those days when nothing went right. After a series of accidents including spilling water from the pitcher used to fill wash basins for the patients all over my foot and the floor. A patient who had just lost his foot because of diabetics looked up and said, "Smile, just a small one."

So stories are born from small seeds and what I did when I wrote "Just A Small Smile" sprang from this incident but I made her an older woman who had never found love and how a dying man taught her about giving of herself to ease someone else's pain. I've tried to do this with all my stories, show how experience is translated into a story by choosing words and form, characters and setting, and all the other things that make a story sing.