How To Write A Story?

There are probably as many opinions about how to write a story as there are writers.

It seems any kind of writing advice, even grammatical, has shades of truth and falsity…

Being a writing-maverick, I have fairly well developed advice-radar—I can seemingly spot self-serving drivel from miles away.

There have been posts here where I boldly state some advice is “good”, yet I’ve certainly written cautionary posts, too.

Here are three (and, they’re not all about writing stories…):

Too Much Advice Can Be Dangerous

Help! I’m Being Swamped By Writing Advice!!

Writing Resources & Advice ~ Tread Carefully…

Advice about punctuation or marketing or publishing can be tested more easily than advice about the Quality of Writing.

Sure, the writer is first a reader (and, most often, a well-rounded reader) and many editors have highly developed literary taste.

Still, the test of Time and Many Readers Opinions is what lets us know a given story is Great.

And, even at that, “Great” for whom?

So, let me bring John Steinbeck into the post, via an article by Shaun Usher from Letters of Note—It has never got easier.

The article reproduces a letter Steinbeck sent his creative writing instructor, Edith Mirrielees; sent 40 years after he received her instruction.

An author who writes wonderful stories sent me the link and, preparing as I am to write 19 short stories, I found much wisdom in John’s letter.

I’d love to hear your ideas about some of what he says in the comments :-)

“A story to be effective had to convey something from writer to reader and the power of its offering was the measure of its excellence. Outside of that, you said, there were no rules. A story could be about anything and could use any means and technique at all—so long as it was effective.”

“As a subhead to this rule, you maintained that it seemed to be necessary for the writer to know what he wanted to say, in short, what he was talking about.”

“I could read a fine story and could even know how it was done, thanks to your training. Why could I not do it myself? Well, I couldn’t, and maybe it’s because no two stories dare be alike.”

“The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes but by no means always find the way to do it.”

Do go read the whole letter—especially if you’ve been tormenting yourself trying to follow some other writer’s Rules for Writing A Great Story :-)
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