8 Ways to Take Your Writing From Good to Great
Crucial storytelling tips from a talk I gave recently
Hi everyone! Lots to talk about with memoir, and one of the most important topics is how to tell a great story. It might feel strange to think of your memoir as a story, but it is! Your memoir is something you are creating from the events of your life. It’s a new story that has never been fully told before, and learning how to tell a great story will make your book irresistible to those who pick it up to read it.
To take your writing from good to great requires rising above the way you currently write. This is a challenge for most of us who come out of school being told we are good writers. But I want you to be more than just good; I want you to be great. Here are 8 practical, actionable areas to take your writing to the next level.
Disclaimer—these notes are my teaching notes and a little messy. Please ask clarification questions if needed in the comments below!
8 Ways to Take Your Writing From Good to Great
This is a celebration and a crash course in storytelling. No matter what you write, you are telling a story, and you want that story to be GREAT.
Jesus used very brief stories called PARABLES. The sower, the pearl of great price, the prodigal son, and so on. Dozens of them. SO MEMORABLE. SO STICKY. SO GREAT!
I’m going to use a short story to help illustrate the 8 ways to Take Your Writing from Good To Great.
GOD AS A WRITING TEACHER
Esther is my favorite book in the Bible and I’d like to use it here as a great example of storytelling. I used to teach it as a short story when I taught High School English. True story, but masterful writing and plotting.
It’s amazing—the story is 2,500 years old but still powerful and reaches across generations, oceans, continents, and cultures to share a story that can still stir emotions and spirits.
Esther is an unusual book in the Old Testament. It’s anonymous, and never mentions the name of God. Written in Hebrew about 475 BC during the reign of Xerxes (Ahasuerus) in Persia (modern day Iran). At that time, King Xerxes was THE most powerful man in world.
Summary of story of Esther.
The Book of Esther is a biblical story about a young Jewish woman named Esther who saves the Jewish people from destruction.
In the story, Esther is the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). When the king's chief minister, Haman, convinces him to order the annihilation of all Jews in the empire, Esther and her cousin Mordecai convince him to change his mind.
Esther goes to the king to invite him to a banquet so she can reveal Haman's plot. The book features many "coincidences" and "happenstance" that save the Jewish people.
Let’s get into these 8 ways to take your writing from good to great.
1. Jump right into your book, article or blog post (fiction, prescriptive nonfiction, or memoir) with a scene.
EXAMPLE: The story of Esther starts with an intense scene in the first few sentences—a weeklong party. Setting: one of a kind gold chalices (goblets).
Inciting incident: On the 7th day of the party, King and his queen Vashti face off. She refuses to come down and be the entertainment. He gets angry and bans her.
Enter a beautiful young woman named Esther….and the story kicks off.
What you need to know about Scenes: a scene is a little story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has its own small dramatic arc. (Remember the plot map with the mountain? A scene is a little journey with its own destination.)
A scene can be something happening in the present, in the past (flashback), or in the future (imagination).
Three things to remember to create a powerful scene:
1. The question is not, “what happened?” but “what NEEDS to happen?” If you created an outline or plot map, take a look at it and see what needs to happen in this scene to move your story forward.
KEY: A scene is a _LINK_ in a chain of scenes that tell your story. Each one needs to advance your story in some way (and not always with action—sometimes it’s an important detail about a person, preparation for an upcoming situation, or explanation of something that has happened).
2. Ask yourself, what is the most SURPRISING thing that could happen in this scene?
KEY: A good story needs some twists and turns. (Not every scene, but make sure sometimes there are surprises.)
3. Play your scene on the SCREEN in your head.
You know how there’s a cliché of writers staring out the window while working? It’s true!
TIP: Play the scene, then play it again until it becomes clearer and more details. Replay the dialogue and begin to take down some rough notes.
2. SET HOOKS
· You’ve jumped into the story. Now you have to set the hooks. The hook or hooks are elements that grab the reader’s attention and hold them—making them want to know more.
· Multiple Hooks: something new, provocative, memorable, gut grabbing, intriguing, lifechanging. This can change, depending on what’s happening in the culture. (eg, 9/11, or #metoo and sexual harassment, or immigration issues)
· One way to figure out hooks is through the “What If” question:
EXAMPLE - What if…. A young woman is chosen by the king to be his queen. He’s never met her. She’s never met him. And he has no idea she is Jewish—a minority people who were captured out of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and ended up in Persia. He also has no idea she is closely related to one of his top government officials—a man named Mordecai.
These are promises and questions for the reader. They can sense the stakes here. They can tell this is a story setting up. And they want to know what is going to happen to this young woman!
3. Craft CLIFFHANGERS.
You’ve started with a strong scene and jumped in to your story, you’ve hooked the reader, now it’s time to pose a problem—for your characters or for your reader (if writing prescriptive nf).
To create a cliffhanger and keep the reader interested, you need to put your characters/people in difficult situations and the make the reader crazy to know what will happen next. Create some tension and draw it out, through cliffhangers.
EXAMPLE: Through a series of circumstances and political intrigue, a death decree is handed down—all the Jews are going to be killed, exterminated. Genocide. Except, what about the Queen? Will she be killed? Can she help? Mordecai puts it like this: “Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
4. Do your research to make your stories seem ever MORE REAL, TANGIBLE, and SINGULAR.
Use real, tangible, singular details, drawing from real life past experiences (yours), from research, or from re-enacting situations to the best of your ability.
Time for some research. It’s crucial to do your research and make sure that you have details to create a believable framework for your story, otherwise the reader will be distracted when he finds errors, or even worse, won’t trust you.
I start with the Internet, then go to my local library and see what they have on the subject (9-11, Holocaust, etc.). Bookstores. Amazon.
Primary sources are best---
Read firsthand accounts—even ancient ones.
Interview people who have specialized knowledge or experiences. List of questions. You may not use all of the information, but it will help with background.
Visit locations and soak up atmosphere.
Become familiar with whatever you are writing about. More than familiar, make yourself an expert
Esther: Details include: party decorations inside. How to appeal to the king. Records read to the king. Execution, Persian style.
5. Harness IMAGERY that appeals to the five senses.
Sight is the one we think of first in writing—we are primarily visual creatures and so we use that.
Esther: EXAMPLE: Visuals of palace back at that weeklong party. What detail! Party in garden courtyard of the king’s summer house. Courtyard exaborately decorated with white and blue cotton curtains tied with linen and purple cords to silver rings on marble columns. Describes the silver and gold couches, mosaic pavement with thetype of stones, drinks in the gold chalices, etc….
Elsewhere in Esther, imagery appealing to sound, smell taste, touch.
Wailing from Mordecai,
Perfumes/ointments for Esther,
Wine at Esther’s banquet,
Haman falling on Esther’s couch when he’s begging for his life.
This is one of the tactics that separates good writers from great writers.
6. Avoid PREACHINESS.
This is pretty specific to people of faith. When we are passionate about our faith and what God has done, we want to PREACH IT! BUT Use Voice—your writers voice-- instead.
Voice is passionate and powerful. Part of the power comes from:
The unique qualities of your writing voice,
From imagery, and
From clarity on your part (your wisdom and spiritual maturity).
Does you know what is unique about the book of Esther?
Never mentions God. Yet the message is loud and clear—God works in seemingly minor details. Idea of Providence.
Shown, NOT told explicitly.
There is NO preaching. But who can forget the story after hearing it????
Esther EXAMPLE: Remember, God is not mentioned, so there is NO preaching whatsoever. But the story makes it clear that God is at work in the details, which can seem random, but turn out not to be random at all. Chp 6: “One night the king couldn’t sleep. He ordered the record book, the day-by-day journal of events for his court to be brough and read to him. They came across an unusual story (that the king wasn’t aware of) that told him about how Mordecai, that cousin of Esther, SAVED the king’s life. MAJOR TURNING POINT IN THE STORY, and YOU DIDN”T SEE IT COMING. God is at work behind the scenes!! (Providence)
7. Do not REVEAL everything up front, but write with FORWARD MOTION
Tease. Pull the reader through the story. Pull the reader along with unanswered questions.
You want your book or article to feel like a train with a destination, NOT a car circling an endless roundabout. The reader wants to feel like they’re going somewhere!
Esther: This book would be a completely different love story if it started like this: “This is the story of a young woman who saved her people from destruction.” SPOILER ALERT!
Instead, jump in, hook, let the story unfold. Build to the climax. STORY ARC.
DON’T GIVE IT ALL AWAY UP FRONT!
Leave questions and mysteries dangling there for the reader to grab onto and hang onto for the full duration of your article, post, story or book.
8. FALLING IN LOVE: We want the reader to fall in LOVE with the lead character (that’s you, in a memoir)
Crisis & emotional bonding with your reader. Pay attention to this!
Admit and write about your own failure – readers love an underdog. Pay attention to this!
Esther is an orphan, adopted by Mordecia. She is portrayed as beautiful, sweet, loving, humble. She is also strong and brave and courageous. She risks her life to save her people.
James Scott Bell says great leads have “GRIT, WIT, AND IT.” They have courage, wit, spunk, brains, and humor. Also called “X Factor.” Pay attention to this!
BUT people also fail, and if a person picks themselves up and tries again, WE LOVE THEM. They become the underdog! Remember how Esther falters. (HUMAN SIDE.) But ultimately pushes through her fear and triumphs. Pay attention to this!
Reveal your weaknesses and shortcomings (prescriptive nf) and the reader will love you even more. Pay attention to this!
By the way, do you remember how Esther ends? No spoilers from me. It’s a fantastic story from start to finish—go read it with fresh eyes…and see how it embodies these principles!
Writing is hard work and it takes some ferocity and a good deal of stubbornness (some call this persistence, but I think it’s more intense than that. It requires STUBBORNNESS.
Annie Dillard compares writing to being a lion tamer—your manuscript is a wild animal and you are trying to keep it under control like a lion tamer with a chair—using it to keep the lion at bay. Sounds scary, but that’s what you want—writing full of life and passion. My hope is that these 8 ways will give you a start!
Sorry for the messiness but hope something here sparks some fresh inspiration for you and your memoir.
Many blessings on you and your story,
Susy Flory
www.susyflory.com
Wonderful suggestions to craft a scene. I'm printing this out and putting it in my working notebook.
So helpful, Susy! I'm so glad to receive this!