The first step in the process of making any great book is a good idea. From there, your story is born. It’s hard to teach good storytelling, and it’s something that many authors have honed from years worth of experience of reading and writing. What isn’t hard to teach, though, is the craft of writing.
Writing craft is what you learn in a creative writing class, all the juicy technical aspects of writing that make your story live and breathe on the page. Plenty of writers know they have a great, compelling idea for a story, and they just don’t know how to bring it to life. That’s where craft comes in.
Understanding these key elements of how writing functions can make it easier to get your great idea acquired by a publisher, and gives your editor something really substantial to work with. For editors, understanding the craft of writing is essential to working on a manuscript and bringing the author’s vision into readers hands. Consider this post your brief crash course on the craft of writing, taking a look at three major craft elements, useful for authors and editors alike.
Character
Characters populate a novel regardless of its themes, genre, or content. They might come second to the idea or the plot for some writers, but they are integral in making the story function regardless, so it’s important to make them strong and well-rounded. In the words of Flannery O’Connor, “In most good stories it is the character’s personality that creates the action of the story.”
For your protagonist and other main characters whose perspective the reader gets to experience, you can easily demonstrate who these fictional people are through their thoughts and actions. Dialogue is another element of craft that can further assist your characterization—how your characters speak, their word choices, and their interactions with each other tell the reader a lot about who they are.
Point of View
Once you have your main perspective character—or characters, plural—you need to figure out what point of view (or POV) you want to tell the story from.
First person POV is a common way to feel close to your character, to let the reader really see the ins and outs of their head and their perception of the world around them, but some readers can associate this with a more juvenile feeling.
If you decide on third person POV, then you need to pick which kind. In third person omniscient, the narrator is outside of the characters and the story, knowing everything about everyone and what is going on. It’s not as common as third person limited, a more honed in POV that sticks to what one character knows and experiences. If you choose a limited POV, then you have to choose how close to your character you want to be—is your narration coming from inside their head, or is it more like watching them from afar, only guessing as to what they’re thinking? It’s up to you to decide.
There are other, more rare POV styles, such as second person or first person plural, but the gist is: how does the POV you choose impact your story and what you’re trying to say?
Plot
This is the meat of it: what actually happens in your book. From beginning to end, novels follow a plot, the chain of connected events that bring you to the dénouement—aka, the final part of a narrative where all the plot strands come together in resolution. But even if you have an idea of where you want your story to end up, how do you get from the dreaded beginning to the glorious end?
Many writers use various methods of plotting to plan out their books. Story structure is made a lot easier with the use of plot and structure guides. There are classics like the Three Act Structure or the Hero’s Journey, and there are ones that might be new to you, like the Save the Cat Beats or Dan Harmon’s Story Circle. There is no wrong answer here—whatever works for you and your story is what you should use.
And don’t feel bad if you find that no plotting methods work out for you. You can find whole communities of writers who identify as “pantsers”—these authors’ stories are born without a plan, and they simply write in whatever direction the story takes them as they go. As long as you build a strong and cohesive plot from it, you can’t go wrong.
Get to Writing!
It’s easy to spend an eternity doubting your writing abilities or getting caught up in the craft choices. Remember: you already have your great idea! The craft is just there to help make it shine.
The best way to practice your craft is to actually write. Keep these tips in mind and give everything a good double check, but have faith in yourself—you’ll find that you have a lot more craft knowledge ingrained in your work than you might have thought.
Happy writing!
Back Matter
Source:
https://rachellegardner.com/craft-vs-story-in-fiction
https://www.craftliterary.com/2022/06/03/the-glossary
https://kindlepreneur.com/story-structure/ https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-master-narrative-pacing