This is a series of posts I’ve written over the past week on the QUORA space, Writing Fiction. I tend to write at least one a day, and often more. The thing about these 3 is that, not only are they are all related, but they all deal with specific aspects to my approach to writing fiction.
How exactly DO you write a story?
I think there are a lot of misconceptions about writing a story. For a start, writing fiction has very little in common with writing non-fiction. Journalism probably comes closest - Ernest Hemingway and George Johnston were both journalists before becoming authors – but even journalism is not the same, for reasons that should become clear.
I contend that acting and making music have more in common with writing fiction than writing non-fiction does (I’m neither an actor nor a musician, btw).
The secret sauce, if there is one, is that you need to be able to inhabit a character who is not you – they might even be a different gender and different age – and you have to do it multiple times, even in the same story. I compare writing dialogue to playing jazz because they both require spontaneity. When I start a scene I almost never know how it’s going to turn out – I like to be surprised.
Whether you outline or not, and to what detail, is a personal choice. I like to have a plot point to aim at, and what lies beyond that plot point is probably just as much a mystery to me as it is to the reader.
Being a writer, what is the most important thing to make it stand out in a book you’re making?
Long before I became a writer, I realised there was a certain type of story that appealed to me above others, though at first, I couldn’t put my finger on it. When I analysed it, I realised that the story went through phases, where it took me somewhere unexpected, not only physically but also emotionally. It was like there was more than one story, though they were all connected.
Later, I learned there was a word for this: episodic. What’s more, they could happen in parallel as well as in series – Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is probably the best known exemplar.
I try to emulate this in my own fiction, though not to the same scope or scale. Every story I’ve written thus far, including my short stories, go off in an unexpected direction. They take the reader somewhere they weren’t anticipating.
Which element of a story is most effective at keeping a reader engaged when you switch between vastly different genres?
This is actually quite obvious – just look at all your favourite TV shows. Virtually every story, irrespective of genre, involves some sort of relationship. Note how all crime shows involve partnerships, and that trope goes back a long way. But it’s the same with every genre these days. Ask yourself if The Mandalorian would have been so popular without Grogu; despite the fact that he has no dialogue to speak of (pun intended).
Curiously, I only realised this after I started writing, because they just happen - and at so many different levels - even between protagonists and antagonists, and protagonists and AI (if you’re into sci-fi).
And they set off so many other dynamics, like loyalty and betrayal, guilt and redemption. But there also has to be an external driver, which is what brings them together or forces them apart, or forces them to co-operate or forces them into conflict.
