Practical Advice to Improve Your Storytelling
I studied literature as a college undergraduate and went on to earn a M.A. in Creative Writing. The program was a good one, and when I graduated I had no complaints. But over the intervening years I gained more experience and got better at critiquing my work, and I finally realized some lessons about storytelling that I wish my instructors had stated more explicitly. I’ve listed them here so others might benefit from them.
A quick caveat: Below I use some absolute terms like always and never. I understand storytelling is more nuanced, but for those looking to improve their craft, I think it’s better to offer concrete direction that anyone can follow.
1) Use a formula or model to develop your ideas and plan your story.
What is a formula if not a proven method? What is a model if not a form to emulate? If there is a proven and successful method to storytelling, why not use it? Whether you use Joseph Campbell’s academic model or Dan Harmon’s practical model, don’t shy away from using a structured approach to develop and understand your ideas. These things are tools, not crutches.
Don’t confuse formula with formulaic. Using a formula ensures your story has all the elements to function. Formulaic storytelling occurs when you present those elements in an unimaginitive or predictable way.
2) Write in third person.
As a practice I highly recommend storytellers use third-person narration, especially if you’re new to the craft. Why? Because third-person makes it easier to adopt a showing rather than a telling mindset.
Which brings us to storytelling’s most repeated axiom.
3) Show, don’t tell.
If you’ve done any reading on how to write fiction, you’ve heard this before. While the phrase seems simple, it can be misunderstood. I know, because I misunderstood it for years.
I’ve always had a talent for writing, so when instructors told me to show more, I interpreted it as, “Keep doing what you’re doing but with more imagery.” Follow-on critiques were just repetitions of the same. “More showing, less telling.” So I added more description and thought I was correcting the problem, when really I was only addressing half of it. I fixated on showing more, and never understood — nor was I told — what it means to tell less.
How does one tell less? It’s deceptively simple.
4) Stay out of characters’ minds.
Any time you narrate a character’s thoughts or feelings, rather than revealing them through dialogue or action, you’ve fallen into the trap of telling.
It’s a slippery slope, especially with characters we like or identify with. We want readers to understand them as well as we do, so it’s common to make the mistake of giving readers direct access to character thoughts. This is a natural mistake that can turn into a bad habit that weakens your writing. Better to avoid it altogether by developing a showing mindset.
How do you develop a showing mindset? In two simple ways.
First, stop thinking of your story as prose on a page, and start thinking of it as a visual experience. Imagine your story as a movie, your writing as the screenplay. If you were writing a screenplay, you wouldn’t state that a character thought or felt something, because that information is worthless to a director. The director needs some dialogue or action in the scene — something spoken or visual — to convey what characters are thinking and feeling. The more you think of your story as something that must be seen — not just as words people will read — the easier it is to adopt a mindset of showing, and to catch yourself before falling into the trap of telling.
Second, check yourself along the way. Each time you complete a paragraph of narration, pause to review it, looking for instances where you revealed character thought or feeling. If the revelation isn’t the result of some action, change or remove it. By applying this self-check along the way, you will eventually train your brain to avoid mistakes of telling.
Telling is also referred to as exposition. Exposition should be used sparingly, but it does have its place.
5) Keep exposition in the mouths of characters.
Sometimes exposition is necessary. A prime example is in short fiction, where word limits may not allow storytellers to develop scenes to deliver all the information necessary to the plot. In such cases, use dialogue—not narration — to deliver the information.
In longer works, storytellers have leeway to show more by developing additional scenes. In those cases, the choice of employing scene or exposition comes down to artistic choice. Still, keep in mind that in all forms of storytelling, scene is considered superior to exposition.
That’s it. These tips may not make you a great writer, but if applied, they will improve your storytelling. I hope you find them useful and helpful.
Need a storytelling example that employs the lessons above? Take a moment to read some of The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.
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J. Clark Hallvin’s novel, The Order of the Albatross, is available at Amazon.
