How To Craft a Story

Published: 2016-03-25

 

 

 

 

 

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Paperback copies are available through all of these stores, but the shipping rates at each store may vary. The contents of the book is the same through each store, but not the book’s physical size.

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IndyPlanet: American standard manga size (127 mm x 191 mm, 5.0″ x 7.5″)

 

—– Preview: How To Craft a Story —–

How To Craft a Story. Copyright © 2016 Smartryk Foster. Produced and published in Canada. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced nor transmitted in any form nor by any means, except for brief quotations in reviews or articles, without prior written permission from the author.

Read ‘License’ in the chapter ‘Showing a Story’ in this book for further licensing information written by the author.

Cover Art by J. Foster
http://www.jefostermedia.com/

Table of Contents

A Word From The Author

Acknowledgments

Section 1: Story Structure

   Introduction

   Chapter 1: Pattern
     Emotion + Story = Art
     Story = Story Structure + Storytelling
     "How do I know when my story is ready?"
     Story Structure = Plot + Character

   Chapter 2: What are the basics of a plot?
     Denial of Access / Loss of Access
     Authority
     Emotional Tightening = Tension
     Plot Pacing
     Formula
     Bored
     Relationship and Formula

   Chapter 3: Character Needs: Love and Fulfillment
     Law of Equal Treatment
     Assets = Equity + Liabilities + Accounts Receivable
     Measurement: Units and Degrees
     Love = Justice + Mercy + Grace
     Worth and Value
     Mental Pacing and Emotional Pacing
     Shock
     Emotional Connections
     Imagination
     Social Currency

   Chapter 4: Emotion and Power
     Journalism

   Chapter 5: How Formulas Work

   Chapter 6: Character Traits
     Bad Traits
     Good Traits

Section 2: Constructing a Story

   Chapter 7: Marketing
     Teasers, Trailers and Advertising

   Chapter 8: Shock and Sex Appeal
     Sex Sells?
     Relationships
     Communication
     Respect
     Relationship Depth

   Chapter 9: Theme
     How do you choose a theme?
     Ideas

   Chapter 10: Beginning
     Criticism
     Act Structure

   Chapter 11: Middle
     Character Development

   Chapter 12: The End
     Satisfying Ending
     Story Tone
     Sequel

Section 3: Story Telling

   Chapter 13: Show and Tell
     Emotionally Choppy
     Mentally Choppy

   Chapter 14: Showing a Story
     Dialogue and Emphasis
     License

   Chapter 15: Advice
     Acting
     Voice Acting
     Music
     Dance
     Photography
     Cinematography
     Video Games
     Screenwriting
     Teleplay Writing

   Closing Thoughts

Interview with Ashley Stokes

 

A Word From The Author

If you appreciate the information in this book, don’t thank me, thank God. God told me to write this book and God gave me information to put into this book. I’m Christian and I’m giving all the praise to God.

If you want this book to be translated into other languages, you can contact me through the Contact page on my website. Your message does not have to be in English. If you write the following information in the message, it can most likely be translated:

Title of the book (or the ISBN of the book).

Language, or languages, which you want the book to be translated into (if you want a multi-lingual book, which has two languages in the same book, please tell me. You can simply write the names of the two languages separated by a slash).

Country that you want the book to be made available in (or ‘everywhere’ or ‘world-wide’ or ‘global’, etc.).

Whether you want the book to be an ebook, a printed book, or both (you can simply say ‘printed book’ or ‘electronic book’).

I am not offering ‘audio books’ yet, but I may offer them in the future. If you want the book to be an audio book, please tell me.

If you include only those pieces of information in your message, even if your message is not in English, I should be able to translate your message.

You can visit my website at:
http://smartrykfoster.com/

 

Acknowledgments

While I was writing this book, I asked Ashley Stokes, Head of the Unthank School of Writing, to send me a list of problems which writing students commonly have when learning how to write and problems which teachers commonly have when trying to teach students how to write. He graciously replied and sent a list of problems to me. Some of those problems are caused by a lack of knowledge but one of the biggest causes is an attitude problem. As Ashley Stokes said, “…they want to be writers more than they want to write.”

You can find out more about Ashley Stokes on his personal website and more about the Unthank School of Writing on their website.

http://www.ashleystokes.net/
http://www.unthankschool.com/

Special Thanks to Chandler Bolt of the Self-Publishing School for his ebook Book Launch.

http://www.self-publishingschool.com/

The Open Sans font is used to display the contents of this book.

 

Section 1:
Story Structure

 

Introduction

You may be wondering what makes this book different from all the other books about writing and storytelling.

The difference is that none of the writing advice that I have read has been able to explain the basic elements of ‘stories’ and how those elements work. Many people give advice about story structure, formulas, plots, and other things that build upon the foundation of what a story is …but I have not heard anyone explain to me what that foundation is nor why stories are constructed in those ways. If you want to create good stories, you must master the basics. Whether you are training to become a competitive athlete, studying for a professor’s degree or learning how to behave in a work environment, mastery of the basics is important. The basics that take you from the bottom to the top, if you apply them, can keep you at the top. But if you don’t know the basics, there is a limit to how high you can go.

After years of watching cartoons, television and movies, and reading comic books, short novels, and school text books, I have noticed that some stories have the same problems in common: Many people know how to write a story, but there are also many people who don’t know how a story works or don’t know it well enough to be able to explain it to someone else. The difference between ‘being an artist’ and ‘being able to explain how to create art’ is that an artist can create art without understanding the basic construction of the art. An artist can discover or learn that something works without understanding why it works.

Many of the problems that I’ve seen in stories are in the basic construction of those stories. In this book, I want to explain the basic elements of story construction, how those elements work, why and how those elements work together, and tell you how to fix problems which some professional authors encounter.

‘Story Construction’ is not only about writing. Actors, directors, marketers, musicians, dancers, etc. all create stories. A ‘story’ is one of the most basic forms of communication. The basics of story construction can be applied to art, business, and other areas of life and work. ‘Story’ is a basic form of communication.

In ‘Section 1,’ I will explain what some of these basic elements are and why you need to know how to apply them. In ‘Section 2,’ I will tell you how to apply the knowledge that is found in ‘Section 1’ and show you, with examples, how to apply it.

Let us begin with an explanation of how people learn.

 

Chapter 1
Pattern

We learn by identifying patterns. We take two pieces of information and try to find a connection between then. The more information that we find (puzzle pieces) and the more connections we find between that information (putting the puzzle pieces together) the more clearly we see, and can understand, the information as a whole. Even if we put some puzzle pieces in the wrong places, it’s easier for us to see those mistakes and to try to correct them when we look at the picture as a whole. Before we can solve the puzzle, we need puzzle pieces… and a surface to put them on.

The surface, the foundational knowledge that is needed, is this: Emotion and Structured Communication.

Emotion + Story = Art

Emotion is the most basic form of communication between living creatures. Every creature produces emotional communication. We see that communication through a creature’s behaviour. Sometimes we can feel the emotions that another creature is experiencing. Every creature that can feel empathy has the ability to recognize the emotional communication that another living creature is producing. Emotions are a ‘state of being’ communication. It is possible to recognize that a creature is experiencing emotions, and perhaps what those emotions are, but it is not possible to know why the creature is experiencing them. We cannot know why a person is experiencing an emotion unless someone explains it to us. We can guess the reasons why if we look at the information that was surrounding that person at the time when that person began to feel that emotion, but we cannot know without doubt unless it’s explained to us.

Structured communication is a way of trying to communicate emotions and thoughts. Thoughts are our way of structuring information in our minds. Spoken words are spoken thoughts. Almost everything in life that is around us evokes emotion within us. It’s easier to remember something if we attach an emotion to it.

‘Thinking’ is our way of trying to arrange emotional communication into a logical order. We do that to try to understand the reason behind the communication. We try to identify a pattern. Most of the time, we think in terms of language. We use words such as ‘nouns’ and ‘verbs’ that identify things which we attach emotional information to. We also use other words when we arrange nouns and verbs into a structured pattern.

Spoken language is our way of trying to convey information that is in our structured thoughts. Spoken language is often accompanied by body language (which is one way of conveying emotional communication). Also, the way in which we speak is often infused with emotional communication. Our tone of voice, the pace of our speech, the words which we use to structure our sentences, and the emphasis that we place on individual words all convey emotional information. If we want other people to understand our thoughts, we must present our thoughts to them in a structured way. Our communication should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

People learn by identifying patterns. People more easily arrange information in their minds when that information fits into a pattern. The reason why communication should have a ‘beginning’ is because the ‘beginning’ tells a person what the communication will be about. The ‘beginning’ introduces the information. Communication should be separated into digestible portions. One way of separating information is by ‘topic.’ The ‘beginning’ of communication introduces a topic and the ‘body,’ or the ‘middle,’ of the communication should give more detail about that topic. The ‘beginning’ introduces the topic so that a person can structure the information that is in the ‘middle’ based on a pattern that was introduced through the ‘beginning.’ Another way of looking at it is that the ‘beginning’ is a small picture and the ‘middle’ contains the puzzle pieces which a person needs to use to be able to see a more detailed version of the small picture. The ‘end’ contains the final puzzle pieces and sometimes an overview explanation of how the puzzle pieces fit together.

Many forms of communication use the basic pattern of having ‘a beginning,’ ‘a middle’ and ‘an end.’ Some of the differences between those types of communication are the type of information that they convey and the amount of emotion that is attached to the information. Essays can have some amount of emotional information attached to them. Technical instruction manuals are often devoid of emotional information. Art, in comparison, is a form of communication that can be infused with emotion. Whether it is through a casual conversation or a great artistic work, the art of storytelling is one of the best ways to convey emotional information.

Story = Story Structure + Storytelling

A ‘story’ is made of two things: Story Structure and Storytelling. ‘Story Structure’ is the information of a story and ‘Story Telling’ is how you present the information to an audience. Story structure and storytelling mix together on a detailed level but, from a story construction viewpoint, they are two different things. A story can be presented through many different mediums such as a novel, poem, movie, video game, song, radio play, musical production, sand art, dance, etc. The structure of each of those mediums is different and requires a different method of storytelling. A story can also be told from different viewpoints and perspectives depending on what you want to focus on and what meaning you want to convey to the audience.

I want to address this question before we go any further:

“How do I know when my story is ready?”

The answer is: “Ready for what?”

Before you can make yourself ready, you need to know what you’re getting ready for and you need to know what you require to be able to be ‘ready.’ You need to know what the goal is and what things are necessary, quantifiably, to be able to achieve that goal. The key word is ‘quantifiably.’

Maybe you think that a person cannot quantify the elements that are in a story because a story is art and the interpretation of art is subjective. There is some truth to that. Each person processes information in their own way. There is no guarantee that a person will accurately interpret the meaning that an author is trying to convey, but that is true of any communication. An author should try to convey the intended meaning accurately by using communication that is common to both the author and the intended audience. That is why we have language.

The letters and characters in a language are symbols which we attach meaning to. The arrangements of those letters and characters, and the arrangements of sounds in a language, are what we use to try to convey meaning. The point behind ‘language’ is that different people attach the same meaning to a specific arrangement of symbols and sounds so that those symbols and sounds can be used as a common method by which to accurately communicate meaning. How can you accurately convey the meaning that you intend to convey unless you use language accurately?

“You can’t write emotions.” That is true. But you can write in ways that evoke emotional responses in people through your use of language. ‘Emotion’ is the most basic form of communication between creatures. People attach emotions to life experiences similarly to the way in which people attach meanings to symbols and sounds in a language. When you describe an experience, a person who has gone through a similar experience may feel the same emotions that they felt at the time when they were going through that experience. When you describe an experience, you are using another form of symbolism which people have attached meaning to. You can use ‘description’ in language as a way of conveying emotional information.

“How can you quantify emotional information?” Emotional information can be quantified on a scale of strength. There are many different emotions which have strengths which vary between ‘weak’ and ‘strong.’ Languages have many words which indicate the strength of specific emotions. Dictionary definitions of those words are often accompanied by descriptions of situations in which a person might experience those emotions. People who have empathy can receive emotional information by watching or listening to someone else go through an experience which evokes an emotion in that person. A person who has empathy can imagine and feel the emotions that another person might be feeling. Have you ever felt pain when you looked at someone else’s wound? That feeling is caused by a combination of empathy and your imagination. Your body responds physically to your thoughts and emotions.

Some experiences evoke more than one emotion in a person at the same time. Sometimes the best way to convey emotional information is to describe an experience and let the audience imagine what it would have been like to go through that experience. You can convey more emotional information if you use more detail when you describe an experience. People attach emotions to their own life experiences, but the key to evoking emotion is in knowing what to describe, how to describe it, and how much detail to use in the description. The description should be done in such a manner that it remind the audience of their own experiences and the emotions which they felt during those experiences. Description can regulate the strength of the emotions that are being evoked in the audience. ‘What,’ ‘how,’ and ‘how much’ are the keys to storytelling technique. The question is: What information are you trying to convey?

Why are you telling the story? Who are you telling the story to? Those are two basic questions which must be answered. The question of ‘Why’ is asking what your goals are. Are you telling the story to make money? If you are, you should think about whom your audience will be and what your audience wants. Are you telling the story because you’re trying to convey a specific meaning or are trying to educate someone? Then you should think about what you want to say and the best way in which to say it so that your intended audience will be able to receive the information. Are you telling the story because you think that it’s fun? That brings us to the next question:

Who are you telling the story to?

There are four basic answers to that question:

You’re writing the story for yourself;
You’re writing the story for someone else;
You’re writing the story for both yourself and someone else;
or You’re writing the story for no person.

If you’re writing the story for yourself then you can write whatever you want. You are the intended audience.

If you’re writing the story for someone else, then you should think about what you want to say and the best way to say it. Remember, ‘storytelling’ is the art of presenting information. If you know your intended audience well enough, you can try to present the information to your audience in the best way in which they can receive it and digest it.

If you’re writing the story for someone else as a job, you should ask for as much information as possible so that you can know what to put into the story. It may be a good idea to ask the person whom you’re working for to give you as much information as possible about ‘what’ to put into the story and ‘why’ it needs to be there. It can be easier for you to create a story for the intended audience if you know what to put into the story and why those things need to be in the story.

If you’re writing the story for both yourself and someone else, you should think about a few things:

Why do you want to tell the story?
What story do you want to tell?
What story does your boss, collaborator, or audience want?

If you’re writing the story for someone else as a job but you also enjoy working on the story, you need to think more about what your boss wants than about what you want.

If you’re writing the story for yourself but you want to present the story to other people, you should stay true to your creative vision and the meaning that you want to convey through the story. You should also think about how to present the story to your intended audience in a manner that is acceptable to that audience.

Let’s go back to the original question:

How do you know when your story is ‘ready’?

How do you know when your story, or a specific part of your story, has reached ‘the goals’ that you, or your boss, have set?

How do you know when the story is good enough that you can stop making changes to your story?

To answer those questions, you should know how a story is structured and what tools are available to you to use. The answer is that your story is ready when it accomplishes all the goals. How do you accomplish those goals?

Let us look at the structure of a story.

Story Structure = Plot + Character

A story’s structure basically consists of two elements: Plot and Characters.

Some people think of a plot and create characters that fit into that plot. Some people create characters and then think of stories based around those characters. There are also other methods, such as creating a story based on the emotional impressions that you feel by listening to a musical score. The common thing between ‘plot’ and ‘characterization’ is that both of them need to make sense.

It has been said that the human mind cannot distinguish between what is ‘real’ and what is ‘not real.’ It’s been said that the human mind processes information that it receives and, in the absence of other information, assumes that the information that it is receiving is from ‘the real world.’ That is why people can be immersed in a story by reading words that are on a page even if that story is in an unrealistic setting compared to the ‘real world.’ Even so, when people read a story, they want the story to make sense.

People usually want the elements that are in a story to fit a logical pattern. They want the rules of the story world to be internally consistent and they want the characterization of the characters to fit a logical pattern. One exception to the rule of ‘fitting into a logical pattern’ is when something is so much fun that people want to believe that it is possible. The more fun that the audience thinks something is, the more the audience is willing to accept it. How do you know when an illogical thing is also fun enough to be accepted by the audience? Usually, you don’t. Not unless your audience tells you or your audience tells another author who has already presented your ‘illogical, but fun’ idea to your audience. There are many things in published stories which do not fit into logical patterns. The more important thing is to make sure that your story fits the vision that you, or your boss, has for the story.

 

Chapter 2
What are the basics of a plot?

Some people say that the basic pattern of a plot is a ‘formula.’ The definition of ‘formula’ is ‘a form of doing things or arranging things.’

What things?

Why do they have to be arranged according to the pattern of a formula?

A better question is: Why do formulas exist?

A formula is a pattern of the flow of things within a plot. The ‘things’ that flow within a plot are the characters, who are trying to accomplish goals, and the other forces within the plot. A character’s main goals are the motivation that drives a character to act. ‘Other forces’ within a plot can be forces of nature, forces within a structured system, or forces that are put into action by the actions of other characters.

People empathize with characters. People can also empathize with dead objects if those objects are portrayed in a manner that evokes emotion. The key point is that people pay attention to stories that are emotional. One of the best ways in which an author can convey an emotional story is by using characters that the audience can empathize with. Stories need to be logical. The story frames the context of why a character is feeling emotions and what those emotions are. A story is about solving a problem. A character has a ‘want’ or a ‘need’ and the character sets a goal to fulfill that ‘want’ or ‘need.’ The ‘want’ or ‘need’ that a character has should be reasonable to the audience within the context of the story. The ‘want’ or ‘need’ should be something that the audience can sympathize with. Why? Because the ‘want’ or ‘need’ should be rooted in emotion. The character should care about that ‘want’ or ‘need’ because the audience should care about the character, the character’s goal, and the character’s actions.

If the audience does not care about the characters, it means that either the audience will not care about the story or the audience may be frustrated by the characters while the audience is trying to enjoy other parts of the story.

A story is about solving problems. If a problem can be solved easily and quickly then there isn’t a strong emotional hook. If a character can solve a problem easily and quickly then there is not much need for the character to make an emotional investment into solving the problem. If the character does not invest emotions into solving the problem, why should the audience invest their emotions into the character?

The best way to create a situation in which a character can be emotionally invested is to make opposition.

‘Opposition’ is something that ‘opposes’ the character. ‘Opposition’ is something that is ‘opposite’ to what the character needs to be able to accomplish the goal. When a character acts against opposition, something must be at risk. There must either be risk that the character will lose something or there should be a cost that the character must pay when the character acts against an opposition. If a character does not risk losing anything when it acts against an opposition then it should be easy for the character to overcome the opposition, unless the opposition is impossible to overcome.

A character should not waste time trying to overcome an impossible opposition and should instead look for another way to accomplish the goal. The audience could feel cheated if there is no way to accomplish the goal because all the oppositions are impossible to overcome. If the character spends too much time looking for ways to accomplish the goal, and each way ends in failure, the audience might feel that the character is hopeless and that it is impossible for the character to accomplish the goal. In either of those situations, the audience may leave before the story ends.

A story is about solving problems. The audience should at least learn something because of the problems even if the story does not solve each problem. The audience may feel unfulfilled if they feel that the story was a waste of their time and emotional investment, especially if potential in the story was wasted.

A formula is one way in which to keep the story focused on accomplishing the character’s goals. Can a story be told without a formula? Yes. If you understand why and how a formula is made, you can apply those principles directly when you create a story. Later in this chapter, I explain what formulas are made of. I explain how formulas work in one of the last chapters in Section 1.

First, let us look at what a character must risk.

Denial of Access / Loss of Access

Some people say that a character must risk some kind of ‘death,’ whether it be physical death, emotional death, career death, or some other type of ‘death.’ I don’t look at it as ‘risking death.’ I think of it as ‘Loss of Access’ and ‘Denial of Access.’

Access to what? Authority.

‘Loss of Access’ is access that a person had and then lost.

‘Denial of Access’ is access that a person does not have but, unsuccessfully, tried to gain.

When a person is dead, that person has lost access to everything that that person could interact with while that person was alive. If a person is in a coma or in a disabled body, that person is being denied access to the full functionality of their body and to things that they would be able to do with their body.

Authority

‘Authority’ is the legal right to do something. A person can have authority over an object, over a specific action, over the power to make a decision, and over another person.

Who gives authority? Who decides what authority a person should have? The answer to that is in the law of equity (‘equity’ as defined as ‘treating equally’).

Let’s ask another question: How is authority recognized?

Will people recognize your authority if they do not agree that you have authority? If they do not agree, they will have to respect your authority if you have the power to enforce it. In the same way, a person who does not respect your authority may try to take your authority away if that person has the power to take it.

‘Authority’ and ‘Power’ are a person’s shield and sword. ‘Authority’ is the legal right to do something. ‘Power’ is the ability to exercise that right.

A person may be able to delegate authority to someone else. Authority that is delegated is called ‘authorization.’ The person to whom authority is delegated is ‘accessing’ authority that does not belong to them. Another way of saying it is: the person is borrowing someone else’s authority.

If you have a job in a business then you have authority that is delegated to you by the business owner (or the shareholders if the business is a corporation). The authority originates from the business owner even if the authority had not been delegated to you directly from the business owner. The business owner may have delegated authority to someone else who may have delegated some of that authority to another person, etc., until someone delegated part of the authority to you. Even if your job is the lowest position in a large corporation, the authority and power of your job position is delegated to you from the authority and power that belongs to the shareholders. You are acting as a direct representative of the people whose authority was delegated to you.

If you make a mistake while you are acting in authority that was delegated to you, it is the same as the owner of the authority making that mistake. You are a direct representative of the owner of the authority. If you abuse the authority that was delegated to you, your actions represent the owner of that authority. If you use delegated authority to incur a debt, it is the authority owner’s responsibility to repay that debt. You are responsible to the owner of the authority. When you act in delegated authority, you are acting as a representative of the person who owns the authority. Everything that you do, good and bad, while you are acting in delegated authority are things that the owner of the authority can hold you accountable for. If you abuse the authority that was delegated to you, or you wrongfully incur a debt, you owe that debt to the owner of the authority.

The owner of the authority must repay the debt that you incurred because the debt was incurred while you were representing the owner of the authority. But you would owe the full amount of that debt to the owner of the authority because you would have stolen from the owner of the authority when you abused the authority that was delegated to you.

This can be explained better if we look at an example.

Let’s say that the owner of the authority is a king. You are a servant of the king. The king gives you money and tells you to buy food. When you talk to the merchant, you tell the merchant that the king…

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If you would like to read more, please buy a copy of this book.

 

eBooks

Amazon (.mobi) Buy now
ISBN: 978-0-9939463-1-8

Kobo (epub) Buy now
ISBN: 978-0-9939463-4-9

 

Printed books

Paperback copies are available through all of these stores, but the shipping rates at each store may vary. The contents of the book is the same through each store, but not the book’s physical size.

Amazon (paperback) Buy now (International)
ISBN: 978-0-9939463-2-5

IndyPlanet (paperback) Buy now (U.S.A.)
ISBN: 978-0-9939463-2-5

 

Paperback book dimensions:

Amazon: roughly A5 book size (147 mm x 208 mm, 5.83″ x 8.27″)

IndyPlanet: American standard manga size (127 mm x 191 mm, 5.0″ x 7.5″)

 

Thank you for your interest!

~ Smartryk Foster