It happens all the time, often from the mouths of otherwise credible sources.
There is irony to it, as well, since the quickly dashed label of “formula” becomes, by definition, formulaic in its own right. It is too often the default go-to from someone who doesn’t understand the principles involved.
The following is a short excerpt on this topic from my new book, Great Stories Don’t Tell Themselves: Criteria-Driven Strategies for More Effective Fiction, that begins to unpack this commonly heard morsel of naivete. (I’ve broken this down into shorter blog-worthy paragraphs, because that, too, is the formula within blogs versus books… because best practices show us that this is what works best here.)
The short answer is that, within the genres, formula, by any other name, actually works. And if you don’t know the recipe for your genre, you may be in for a long haul process of getting to it.
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(From the Introduction)
Consider the best dish you’ve ever eaten. Somewhere there’s a recipe for it, even when you or your favorite chef can whip it up straight out of your head.
When that recipe varies, the dish nonetheless turns out wonderfully because you know where it needs to end up. But if it varies too much, will it still be that dish? Maybe not; it may be inedible. If not for you, then for some.
So is a proven, delicious recipe a formula? And if you believe that it is, or even if you don’t, does that word even matter? The dish works because there is an accepted identification of requisite ingredients, proportions, and preparation that lead to a successful outcome. All of it somewhat flexible, because “season to taste” remains an open invitation. But there are also standards and expectations that tell us not to pour a pound of cayenne pepper into a wedding cake.
Formula is a word for cynics and the uninitiated, often applied to an uninformed perspective on story structure. It is an overly simplistic view in an avocation that is anything but simple. Craft is the better word to apply.
Craft is the practice of putting knowledge to work within an artful nuance of creativity and within a framework of expectation, standards, and best practices. At the professional level, when your intention is to publish, craft becomes essential.
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Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves will be published on October 8, from Writers Digest Books (now a division of Penguin Random House). It is available for preorder on Amazon and BN.com.
