Tag: storytelling

How Storytelling Applies to Other Types of Writing

Quan

If you have been reading my blog regularly, you know that my main focus has been on improving as a storyteller. But also if you’ve read my author interviews, you would see that many of the authors I have interviewed wrote nonfiction books. There is much more to writing than just writing fiction. There are nonfiction writers, marketing writers, journalists, technical writers, essayists, and a plethora of other forms of writing that people engage in.

But I maintain that storytelling can be, and often is, a crucial aspect in all forms of writing, above and beyond just fiction.

Storytelling makes any writing more engaging

Anyone that has read a textbook for class or research knows that a lot of writing can be dry and uninteresting. It is a reason why a lot of people dread reading. A good story takes the reader on a journey where they follow how everything progresses over time. The way you write your piece can take your readers on that journey. The reader in now invested in the narrative you are presenting, and wondering how, or even if, the subject you are presenting can solve the problem you have created. Now your reader wants to know more about the subject you are writing about. They want to know the details because each detail you present could be part of the solution to the problem, or even present more problems that need to be resolved. It’s human nature: if you witness something begin that catches your attention, you will naturally want to see it through to its completion. You can use that to your advantage.

Benefits of adding a storytelling element to your writing

Making your writing piece into a story helps make your point more digestible. Your writing is no longer just a stream of facts statistics and ideas. There is a definitive, driving point to what you have written, and all of your supporting information now has a clear direction it is pointing in. If you are marketing, or writing to sell something, telling a story help the reader envision themselves in the situation where your product or service would be beneficial. That way they can better visualize the benefit your service or product will bring to them.

Creating a narrative.

The classic 3-act structure can be used in any setting. Simply, put, act one presents a problem, act two is the process of trying to solve the problem, and act there is the resolution of the problem. So now the question becomes how to compile your writings to fit this structure. Here is a simple, three-step way to do hat.

1. Find The Problem

Whatever you are writing about, whether it be advice you are giving, a product or service you are trying to promote, a theory you are trying to explain, or an explanation of how something works, it is in response to something that created a need for what you are writing about. Start by pinpointing where exactly that need was generated. This is the beginning of your story.

2. Find The Solution

Whatever conclusion you were going o write about, whether it actually solves your problem or not, is your solution in this context. It is the end of your story and the resolution for what you are setting up.

3. Find The Process

Now you have to figure out how to get from the genesis of your problem to its resolution. This is where all of your data, or historical references, or your selling points come into play. You actually have some creative liberty here with how you present the details, you can show how each of your points responds to different aspects of the problem. You could show how your solution initially responds to the problem, how the problem reacts (or present counter-arguments to your solutions), and how the solution responds to those responses, or a number of other ways of presenting the information. The most important thing is to show a progression where the problem you have pinpointed is resolved over time. This is the journey that you are taking you reader on.

If you can mold your non-creative writing project into a story narrative, you will make your writing more engaging and appealing to the reader, and they will be much more comfortable with reading what you wrote completely from beginning to end. Give it a try and see what you come up with.

Writing Believable Dialogue

Quan

One of the key elements of a good story is the dialogue between characters. Any story that has people interacting will show their conversations, and that is an important aspect in conveying an engaging, believable story. People can reveal a lot about themselves and their world through their dialogue. With good dialogue you can establish everything from character traits to plot elements to setting. You can tell the reader the what, why, how and where using just dialogue, and you can also use it to point out key details in the plot that you want readers to know. It is a versatile tool you have at your disposal that can convey a lot about your story when used well.

Writing good dialogue can be tricky. You want the conversation to flow naturally and sound authentic. You don’t want “talking heads” where it’s just two disembodied voices talking back and forth with nothing else happening (or do you? I’ve read some compelling stories that were nothing but two talking heads. I think this is the exception and not the rule, though). You want your people to sound like actual people with real personalities and quirks. So how can you do this?

I’ve been told that writing dialogue is one of my strengths. These are some of the techniques I use to handle it.

REAL LIFE INFLUENCE

Always listen to how people talk and converse. You will be surprised at how much you learn about how people talk just by listening to how people talk. Follow the ebb and flow of their conversation. Every dialogue has a rhythm and a poetry to it, regardless of who is talking or how they talk. Pay attention to that. You might also hear some cool antec dotes you can use in future stories. Some of the coolest dialogue from supporting characters in my book The Hand You’re Dealt came directly from people I was standing near while waiting to sell my blood plasma (Yes, that aspect of the story is quite autobiographical.)

BODY LANGUAGE

Body language and facial expression is also an important part of writing believable dialogue. People are twitchy, and nobody is just sitting perfectly still while talking. Take time to mention what their bodies and faces are doing while they are talking. You can convey a lot about what a character is thinking or feeling as they talk this way. Oftentimes, I will describe a character’s small action before they say something instead of using “he said.” Because it does a dual job of indicating who is talking while also giving some of that movement to the character. This also applies to giving a brief description of what is going through the POV character’s mind as they speak.

GRAMMAR

People don’t use proper grammar when they talk, not even English teachers. People talk in fragments, have unfinished thoughts, stumble over words, use incorrect phraseology, use filler words like um and uh, cut each other off and try to finish each other’s sentences. When writing dialogue, you want to utilize those quirks to make the conversation, and the characters, more believable. Save the soliloquies for Shakespeare.

SLANG

Pay attention to slang and local colloquialisms. If you’re writing a character from New York, that person is going to sound and talk quite differently than a person from Atlanta. Slang words and different pronunciations can be a great teller of where they are from and what their culture is, and in that instance you can be forgiven for intentional misspellings. I got into quite a few arguments with my Beta readers and editors over a New Yorker I put in The Hand You’re Dealt. They thought I misspelled one of his colloquialisms, and I had to repeatedly explain that he comes from a culture where People call each other “sun” (as in shining like the sun) instead of “son.” I got so tired of the fight I just switched to a different slang word.

Incorporating other languages can also be a key element in establishing a character. If a character comes from a unique culture, including a word or two from their native language will drive that point home. Just don’t overdo it: sprinkling in too many foreign words will make it blatant to the reader that you’re trying to make the character seem more ethnic.

THE WORD ‘SAID’

When writing dialogue, you tread a fine line when using the word “said.” You don’t want to overuse it, but at the same time, it can become quite obvious to readers when you are trying too hard to not use it. If you find yourself trying to come up with a new verb for talking every time you have somebody speak, then you are doing it too much, and you need to use “said” to give the reader a break. “Said” is usually an invisible word: the reader will read that and know what it means intrinsically without it interrupting the flow of the story. The key is to not use it ALL of the time lest you appear unimaginative. You also want to keep a lid on the flowery adjectives (which usually come right after you use the word “said”). Whatever you’re using that adjective to describe in what that character said should be self evident in whatever that character said and the actions and details around it. If you do that well, then the adjective becomes redundant.

TESTING IT OUT

Once you’ve written your dialogue, the next thing is to test it out. Don’t be afraid to read your dialogue out loud to see if everything sounds smooth and believable. Sometimes words and phrases that look good on paper (or your screen) won’t sound right when actually spoken, and that can be problematic if you want you dialogue to sound authentic.

These are some of the techniques I use when writing conversations. Give them a try and hopefully it will make your dialogue more memorable.

D’ya know who else excels at writing dialogue? Chuck Palahniuk! Check out this book from the creator of Fight Club and see for yourself.

Writing Your Batman Story

Quan

I’ve been told that every halfway decent writer has at least one good Batman story in them. I agree. Batman is a beloved character, and can be placed effectively in almost any type of story.

For instance: I wrote an alternate universe treatment with the bat family as counterterrorist agents instead of superheroes. Also, I want to write a trippy, futuristic Batman story, starring a grown-up Damien Wayne (Batman’s biological son and the current Robin) wearing the cape and cowl,  based entirely on Prince’s Batman soundtrack. Have you read his lyrics? Wow. It would be Damien going up against the Sadistic, hedonistic PARTYMAN to stop him from flooding Gotham with the deadly psychadelic drug “Lemon Crush.” I probably won’t ever actually write it, but it would be pretty darned cool.

I have a few more doozies in the vault. I would divulge what my treatments are, but I’m saving them in case DC ever comes calling.

Now, I wonder what YOUR Batman story would look like…

You might wonder just exactly how you can make a Batman story if you don’t normally write superheroes. This is where Batman’s versatility comes into play. So, beyond the usual superhero fare, Batman is also the World’s Greatest Detective and a master specialist in hand-to-hand combat. So if your writing forte leans toward Crime, Detective stories or procedurals, and even thrillers, Batman is a perfect character to build a story around, even without the superhero baggage.

Is steamy romance your thing?  Batman has gone through numerous relationships. He has been romantically involved with Vicki Vale, he has a love child by his arch-enemy Talia Al Ghul (instant baby mama drama!) and was recently left at the altar when he tried to marry Catwoman. There are even stories that have him hooking up with Wonder Woman, and one particularly creepy (for all the wrong reasons) tryst with Batgirl. You can play into the conflict between Batman’s mission and his need for intimacy.

Are you a Sci-Fi or fantasy writer? Batman’s gadgets and futuretech should be right up your alley, and Bats has even thrived in fantasy settings. He has literally fought Demons, Vampires, Zombies, and Sorcerers, and has been portrayed as a literal “Dark Knight” on multiple occasions.

Wanna do Horror? What can be more terrifying for a criminal than a being stalked by a man-sized bat in the darkness? You can also play into the mental illnesses of the bad guys (Hannibal Lecter has NOTHING on Batman’s rogues gallery) or how scary it can be for victims of the bad guys. One of the Bat villains LITERALLY specializes in inducing fear, in fact.

If family drama is your thing, you can’t get more dramatic than the Batman family. He is an orphan himself, and has raised no less than four young men who all have quirky personalities and issues with each other. Everyone connected to Batman has dealt with personal and even familial trauma, from Commissioner Gordon with his vigilante daughter and sociopathic son, to Harley Quinn’s abusive relationship with The Joker, to the complicated family tree of Ras Al Ghul, Talia and Damien Wayne.

Batman is also a master of disguise and an expert intel gatherer/saboteur, so espionage and political thrillers would also be a good fit for him. You can also cover political drama and conspiracy theories via The Court of Owls, or personal stories of trauma and recovery like when Batman’s protegee Dick Grayson (Nightwing) got shot in the head and went through a total personality change in his recovery from that. And Batman’s dry wit and gallows humor could lend themselves well to comedy writing. He was even put into a Japanese Samurai story to great effect. You can put Batman into literally any story scenario and have a basis for a compelling story.

A good Batman story is no different than a good Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple story. It’s just a good detective/crime/superhero/horror/thriller story, starring Bruce Wayne. Even if you don’t ever intend on approaching DC with your Batman story, you can still make one. Just replace Batman with an original character that has similar traits, or grab one in the public domain, and voila! Instant original story you don’t have to worry about getting sued over.

A simple way to get started is to take a story or trope within a genre you enjoy writing about, and simply ask yourself what would happen if it were Batman starring in the story instead of your usual protagonist. What would be different? What can and would Batman do differently than your usual protagonist in handling the situation? How would the circumstances of the situation react to him? Would any of is allies and enemies be involved? And then you just build from there.

Just to illustrate my point, here is a story where an evil, twisted version of Batman shows the real Bats different versions of himself in other lives, where his story plays out quite differently.