{"id":8091,"date":"2020-04-21T18:51:34","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T22:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=8091"},"modified":"2023-05-22T16:44:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T20:44:40","slug":"how-to-write-a-good-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/how-to-write-a-good-story\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write a Good Story: You\u2019ll Love This Simple Method"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not a secret: there’s a limited number of plots in the world. Some say <\/span>seven<\/span><\/a>, some say <\/span>20<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

But there are certainly more than seven or 20 <\/span>original storie<\/em>s circulating about. And as a writer, it’s your job to tell them.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what’s the key to telling a great tale? How do you learn how to write a story?<\/p>\n

How to write a story<\/h2>\n

In this post, we’ll cover the difference between plot and story, boil down plots, and then use plot mutation to come up with a good story.<\/p>\n

Here’s how come up with an interesting plot and write a story.<\/p>\n

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The Write Life has teamed up with Self-Publishing School to create this presentation, “How to Write & Publish Your Book in 90 Days.” In it, you’ll learn how to finish your book in just 30 minutes per day. To sign up for this free training, click here. <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

1. Know the difference between plot and story<\/strong><\/h3>\n

E.M. Forster defined \u201cstory\u201d<\/span><\/a> as the <\/span>chronological<\/span><\/i> sequence of events, and \u201cplot\u201d as the <\/span>causal<\/span><\/i> sequence of events. <\/span><\/p>\n

As he puts it, \u201cThe king died and then the queen died\u201d is a story. \u201cThe king died and then the queen died of grief\u201d is a plot.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then, \u201cThe king died and then the queen died because she ate the same poisoned soup\u201d is also a plot. So is, \u201cThe king died and then the queen died because she felt remorse at having killed him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Same story. Three completely different plots.<\/span><\/p>\n

This gap between story and plot is the key to successfully mutating plots into a wealth of original ideas.<\/b><\/p>\n

2. Boil your novel down to a sentence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You may have heard of the <\/span>\u201celevator pitch\u201d<\/span><\/a> of a novel, where you have to convince someone to read your novel within 30 seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n

This exercise is different.<\/span><\/p>\n

An elevator pitch celebrates everything unique and exciting about your book. Here, we\u2019re trying to get to the bottom of a given plot, to its common, unadorned story.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an example, let’s have a look at the first book of the <\/a><\/span>Harry Potter<\/span><\/i> series.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wikipedia<\/span><\/a> sums up the plot in 1,943 words.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazon<\/span><\/a> goes for a much less detailed version, recapping the book (without spoiling the end) at 103 words.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can further boil down the novel into a single sentence. For example: “Boy reclaims his birthright.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, that’s a bit too concise for our purpose here, so we’ll dial it back and add some details: “In a quiet English town, a boy grows up unaware of his heritage until something opens his eyes to it, and then he reclaims his birthright.”<\/span><\/p>\n

So far so good?<\/span><\/p>\n

But hang on, isn’t that the plot of <\/span>King Arthur<\/span><\/i>? Or David Edding\u2019s series, <\/span>The Belgariad<\/span><\/i><\/a>? Or a countless number of other novels?<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, it is. <\/span><\/p>\n

And herein begins the magic of creating plot from plot.<\/b><\/p>\n

3. Win at plot mutation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A successful plot mutation is completed in four steps:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Choose a novel you love.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Boil it down to a single paragraph.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Make a simple but profound change.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Follow through.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let\u2019s go over these steps in detail.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Choose a novel you love<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    We\u2019ll stick with the first book of <\/span>Harry Potter<\/span><\/i> for this example.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Boil it down to a single paragraph<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    Make sure you cut out all names and actual places until you’re left with a generic summary. Do include a phrase about the settings (e.g. “In a fantasy world,” “In the Wild West,” “In Victorian England,” and so on).<\/span><\/p>\n

    How do you know if it’s boiled down just right?<\/b> Well, it should allow you to easily recognize the novel you’ve started out with (enough details), but it should also remind you of some other novels (enough free play).<\/span><\/p>\n

    Make a simple but profound change<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    Start with underlining the elements that can be swapped. These will usually be the settings, the protagonist, the object of the protagonist’s desire, and the main obstacle in his or her path. In our Harry Potter example, we have “quiet English town,” “boy,” and “heritage\/birthright.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    Now begins the fun. Try taking an underlined element and changing it. Instead of “quiet English town,” for example, let’s make it “ancient Japan.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    This alone is enough to completely transform the story, but you can go on changing other elements. Instead of “heritage\/birthright,” we can have “a treasure,” or “a special power.” Instead of “boy,” we can choose “hardened assassin.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    Because we’re working with a big-picture summary, every minor variation creates a whole new story.<\/b> Now all that\u2019s left is to…<\/span><\/p>\n

    Follow through<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    If you skip this important stage, you\u2019ll end up with a cheap Japanese Harry Potter knock-off.<\/span><\/p>\n

    What you really want is to dig deep into how every change you\u2019ve made affects the story. <\/span>Don\u2019t stop at the superficial level.<\/b><\/p>\n

    If you\u2019ve changed the settings, spell out how a new settings affect your protagonist. <\/span><\/p>\n

    What new cultural elements do you have to work with? What impact do they have on your protagonist\u2019s desire? What in this new environment would stand in your protagonist\u2019s way?<\/span><\/p>\n

    If you\u2019ve changed the protagonist\u2019s desire, follow through on what a different person it makes your protagonist, what it says about the settings, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

    It\u2019s in these little details that true originality comes to play. Revel in the details. Let them lead you to new worlds and stories. And most of all, have fun.<\/span><\/p>\n

    4. Use plot mutation for your own story<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Choose a novel, boil it down, change a key factor, and follow through. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Master these four steps of plot mutation, and you\u2019re well on your way to an endless source of original story ideas. And that puts you on the right track for how to write a story.<\/span><\/p>\n

    This is an updated version of a story that was previously published. We update our posts as often as possible to ensure they\u2019re useful for our readers.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Photo via fizkes \/ Shutterstock<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What’s the key to telling a great tale? How do you learn how to write a good story? We start by explaining the difference between plot and story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":39119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}