On turning the corner from your writing instinct to an informed writing instinct. The difference is what will get you published… and what will attract readers and solid reviews.
Day 5
Not all writers understand the nuances of that truth.
The nuanced truth is, within any genre there are certain expectations in play: Genre-specific tropes that you omit or violate at your peril. When a writer isn’t aware of those tropes, or worse, when they aren’t aware of the criteria that drive toward the universal principles of effective storytelling, the only approach that’s left is to guess. They apply their instincts to conjure and vet their choices.
Which is fine if their instinct is up to the task, which is rare among newer writers. They seek to imitate the genre novels they enjoy reading, but without the learning curve that guides authors of those books. Or—this being the subtext of those who deny structure or diminish the value of story planning—newer writers are seduced by advice that applies more aptly to literary novels, and thus may prove toxic to their genre-centric premise and vision for the story.
They just write. Because that’s what they’ve read and heard. That’s what a successful writer advised from behind a microphone. Just write. You’ll be just fine.
Maybe.
When an experienced professional just writes, that, too, is instinct being put into play. But their instinct is almost always at a higher level than that of the new or untrained writer. Novice writers will find an abundance of advice out there suggesting they should go with their gut and just write. It won’t be called guessing in that moment, but that’s exactly what it is when writers go at it without the omnipresent context of knowledge.
The pursuit of craft–principles and criteria–is advice you should carefully parse and vet. It is a process you should understand completely before diving in to that end of the pool. Because when it works, it is because of an informed instinct, not an untested one.
The exact same principles and criteria apply to any process. Because the bar resides at the same height—its way up there—for either preference.
It is always better to know.
These excerpts are taken from my new craft book, “Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves.” Feel free to share with your writer friends, directly or via social media.
One Response
Informed definition:
adj. Possessing, displaying, or based on reliable information.
adj. Knowledgeable; educated. Formed; animated; actuated.
Consider the last few new Star Wars movies. Never have I seen such a backlash against the dumpster of film they created. The alleged writers and directors took the original movies and changed things up. In today’s film-TV business, there are several new things that really don’t work as a target to focus upon:
1 – “the big reveal” (an incredible plot twist that you didn’t see coming and an entire movie-series will be weakened to accomplish this).
2 – “fool the audience” (a character behaves utterly different to what they have previously presented or that any normally functioning human would perform–all for a “surprise”).
The above distinct points matter because that’s the mentality of today’s writers: copy and paste, then change a few things. Cram it into the narrative and call it done. Sprinkle some Identity Politics or whatever political message you want to slather on top and hope that fits in.
Nope.
It doesn’t fit in because that’s not how the psyche of a human mind works, and people interacting is resting upon the bedrock of the psyche. That’s psychology, that topic that nobody wants to know about because…you just might become heroic.
And there are no places for heroes in real life (only people who follow orders…).
Do you want to read a story about people who follow orders and that’s it? No? Me neither.
So if people BREAK from their orders, then there are reasons for that, natural reasons, and natural behaviors ensue. Plus, natural consequences. Now we’re getting into what a Story is, and it’s a portrayal of how a human dealt with a roadblock life put in his path and rose to get around it and defeat it. Beginning, Middle, End. All NATURAL.
But writing a story isn’t natural because you’re making it all up. It’s hard! You have to analyze natural human behavior and break it down into parts, sequences, timing, like you’re executing chemical reactions or constructing a bridge across a canyon. You can’t skip steps in real life nor mess up the order, or your bridge won’t span and survive the canyon!
If you’re building a house, you learn the skills–you get the knowledge–on how to make the house.
Story relies on human behavior. You must know enough psychology to put a story together. Or it will fall apart, and people will NOT like it (or read it).
Like the Last Jedi (gag). Realize that was millions of dollars (LOST) and time, energy, put into something that stunk–because it didn’t add up, it didn’t make sense.
Credentials don’t mean anything to a story! Your understanding of authentic psychology will make or break you in this business.