Storytelling is a real art and it is something that requires a great deal of practice in order to master that art and create a compelling and interesting story for people to read. Jonathan Levin Philadelphia-based journalist knows all about this and despite training to be an attorney, it was his love for stories and storytelling that were the reasons as to why he took a different path. Jonathan is a serial writer and we were lucky enough to catch up with him in order to find out what he believes the keys are to creating a great story.
Management
The first step is to make sure that you have enough time to write each day, now most people don’t have the funds to be able to quit their job and write for a living, so it is important that you break this down into bite sized chunks. Even if you are just writing for one hour per day, that will be enough to keep your rhythm and to ensure that you are constantly driving forward your story.
Framework
The frameworkof your story is vitally important and you must have a loose structure in mind for how you will put the story together. Try to think about the main events which will happen in the story and then build around them. You don’t have to know what the ending of your story will be but it makes sense that you at least have a couple of options on how to end it. The structure will be what guides you through writing the story so make sure that you give it lots of time and attention.
Characters
Once you have the main framework of the storyline, it will be the characters who drive it and not the other way around. With this in mind then it is important that you work on developing the characters before you even begin to write the story. Think about the depth of your characters, are they one of the misfits or are they a winner? Are they confident, shy, self-righteous, talkative? Try to build the person’s character and traits, and then look to create a small backstory for them. The more that you work on the characters the more that this will help when it comes to actually writing the story.
Style
Your writing style is also something which you need to think about ahead of putting your story together. This is a difficult balance to make as you should look to incorporate your own unique style, with a style that is fitting for the story itself. Do you want the story to be written in the narrative? Is it better to be in a reported speech style? These are the questions that you need to ask yourself before you begin writing because if you mix them, it won’t have a very positive effect.
For practice make sure that you expose yourself to as much literature as you can, in order to learn about different styles and ways of writing. Once you have prepared these aspects, it is time to get writing.
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