The Basics of Good Storytelling

NaNo update:  Edited DEMON synopsis.  Edited 46 pages of DEMON, deleting five because I didn't want to sort through the mess.  I wrote 1025 new words.  The 'real' writing begins today

When I checked my yearly goals list recently I noticed I was lacking in my goal to reach 50 books by the end of the year.  I have 15 books to read in the two busiest months of the year.  Luckily, my daughter is getting a few MG books from Scholastic Book orders that I can read for 'research'. :-) 

So I looked at my TBR pile and, out of seven books on my desk, three of them had been partially read.  I stopped reading them for one reason or another.  The currently published books weren't giving me the satisfaction that I needed.  I took my pile upstairs and looked in my TBR box and my 'keeper' box.  I finally found what I wanted to read.

The first book, I read in a little over a day.  Julie Garwood's THE SECRET.  I'm currently reading THE BRIDE, and then THE WEDDING will be next. These books were published in 1992, 1989, and 1996, respectively.  I love, love, love her historicals, but won't read any of her contemporary stuff.  I tried it, but it doesn't appeal to me.

So what do these books have that current books don't?

I don't really know.  I can't pinpoint it.  I'm drawn in by the characters, but the story keeps me reading. 

She head hops like a fiend, but it works for the story and she does it well.  It doesn't jolt me out of the story, rather it enhances my reading. Clue #1 for head hopping.  There is tons of narrative, but again it works for the story. 

Maybe that's what's missing from so many current books . . . the basic ability to tell a good story.

As writers, especially new writers, we get wrapped up in the 'rules'.  THERE ARE NO RULES, PEOPLE!  Yes, you need to know what head hopping is, what a POV character is, and all the other junk that belongs to the craft of writing, but deep down, the writer needs only one thing in her arsenal.

THE ABILITY TO TELL A GOOD STORY.   Learn how to craft a story.  Learn how to structure it.  Learn to pace it appropriately for the genre.  And then,

Screw the other stuff.  Follow your gut and write it down. 

Back to NaNoing.  Write on!