Story telling is one of the most powerful influence skills that you can have. Stories are the lifeblood of human culture and life, stories are the foundational way that we learn, that we grow, and that we receive new information. There is a reason that storytellers have been just as revered through the years as great warriors, inventors, or statesmen.
Far from being a superfluous skill storytelling is essential to leadership, influence, and just living a good life in general. Whether that’s working to go higher in your work, convince people to your way of thinking, or even guiding your children in the wisdom that you have gleaned from a life long lived, story telling will be an essential skill that you need to develop.
Most story telling knowledge that I have consumed relates to screen plays and novels. But the basics are the same regardless of whether you’re telling a funny story of something that happened to you, trying to write a best selling novel or screenplay, or giving a presentation at work or for a class. The basics are all the same.
Long form story can be broken down in different parts, parts that all need to work together in order to have the most powerful story possible. The parts are as follows scene writing, plotting, character, and theme. Others break them down a little more or they’ll add things like voice and writing style. But for the most part, when looking at the basics, these four areas are the key areas that you need to get write to produce the best long form story possible.
And getting these right will also enable you to write or say great short form stories as well.
So let’s dive in and break them down.
Scene Writing Master – Jack Bickham (And One More)
A scene is a piece of a larger story that generally takes place in the same geographical location and space of time, has one point of view, and follows one track of action. Scene writing is the building blocks of good story. It is where everything that you have built using the plot, characters, and theme come together and really shine. I put scene writing first but ultimately scene writing is the last thing that you will do. You should work to flesh out your plot, character, and theme as much as possible before sitting down to write scenes.
But when you ultimately do you’ll want Jack Bickham to guide you. Jack Bickham has a few books out, all that are worth reading. For scene writing in particular you should pick up Scene & Structure part of the Elements Of Writing Fiction collection. In it Jack breaks and elaborates on another great scene writer, Dwight Swain, who’s book Techniques Of The Selling Writer is also a must read.
Read Swain first and then the elaboration in Bickham. They break down the three parts of scene writing. They break down scene and sequels as well as the three parts of each. How to have equal action and reaction to balance a book. And how to balance action with emotional content. Again read Swain first and then Bickham.
The Plot Guru – Larry Brooks
I never understood plotting on such a deep level until I read Larry Brook’s Story Engineering. I have read many books on plot since them including Syd Field, John Truby, Christopher Vogler, Robert Mckee, Snyder, and the like and Brook’s, at least for me, still comes out on top for clarity and understanding. He works off of the work of Syd Field but elaborates on it and expands it. Unlike with Dwight and Swain, you don’t have to read Field to understand Brooks. I read Brooks first and then went to Fields thinking it’d be even better but it wasn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, Syd Field’s work is still great but Brooks was what helped me understand plot on a deep level more than anyone else. He has four books out in the story engineering series and I’ve read three of them and have the fourth. The first three are all worth a read and help elaborate on the concepts. He also has classes on Vimeo called The Story Fix Virtual Classroom. There are 5 classes there and they are all worth taking. After reading Brooks you’ll come away with a deep, and I mean deep, understanding of what plot is and why it’s so critical to story.
Characters, Characters, Characters – Lisa Cron
I’ve read a lot of books on character. Many of them good. Works by David Corbett, KM Weiland, Orson Scott Card, Matt Bird, Robert McKee, Linda Seger, James Scott Bell, and more have been extremely helpful. But when it comes to getting into the nitty-gritty details of character then no one beats Lisa Cron. And the funny thing is she doesn’t bill herself as a character guru, rather she talks about the neuroscience behind story. However what she ends up doing is giving the deepest dive into character that you can possible have.
She has many great books. Wired For Story & even more so, Story Genius are absolute must reads, especially Story Genius. In it she dives into the truth about inner conflict and therefore the key to writing great characters. Where many of the books above fell flat, Cron’s books soar. I always felt that the traditional way of creating characters such as making a list of their likes and dislikes, writing random scenes from their POV, doing copious research of stuff that may or may not make it into the story, was a very round about way of developing character.
Lisa gets straight to the heart of it. As great as her books are the absolute best resource that she has is her classes on Creative Live, specifically Wired For Story: How To Become A Story Genius that class is worth is weight in gold, if pixels had weight that is. All her classes on Creative Live are worth taking but that one is the best. You’ll come away from it knowing exactly how to write engaging characters with engaging internal conflict that make the plot come alive.
Her and Larry come at things from opposite angles so they make a very good synthesis.
The Underpinning Of It All, Theme – Stanley D. Williams
You cannot write a great book or a halfway decent character arc without knowing your theme. Theme is something that gets short shrift in most story telling tomes. Theme is seen as an afterthought, an “Oh yeah that guy is also here somewhere…but who really cares”. Theme is either scene as a “nice to have” not a need to have or something that will take care of itself. However the truth is theme is the underpinning of the entire story. Without theme you cannot write a coherent story that will give you the biggest bang for your buck.
No one has covered theme better, with more respect, or more in depth than Stanley D. Williams does in his book The Moral Premise. I read this book as a sort of afterthought after reading all the above books and it pointed out clear as day what was missing in many things that I have written. Stanley talks about theme is the underpinning of everything else and how great stories emerge from theme. He explains the nuances of theme and how its far more than “What’s the point” of the story. He also has online classes that I highly recommend you take after reading through his book. His Storycraft training is worth every penny.
An Outlining Method To Rule Them All – Jennie Nash
There are many great books and gurus that I have not mentioned here, plenty of books that aren’t going to get mentioned here that are well worth your time reading. But I did want to leave you with one more ‘guru’ and her name is Jennie Nash. And the most powerful thing I have learned from Jennie Nash is here “Inside Outline” tool. It takes the principle that South Park creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone talk about in this video, and take it to a whole new level.
Jennie’s Inside Outline is the best method I know for making sure that your novel/script/story “gels” or “flows”. Where it has a logical progression and everything goes from one thing to the next logically. That may sound like a simple thing but it’s really hard to do well. Though when it is done well it usually goes below notice. The Inside Outline is designed to fuse together the plot (outside) with the character (inside) into one seamless whole.
To get the inside scoop on the Inside Outline check out her book Blueprint For A Book, that should give you everything that you need to know to begin your own inside outline. But if you want to take it further then I recommend also taking her Creative Live course Write Your Book: Start Strong & Get It Done, not the most engaging title but nevertheless a great course.
Years Worth Of Work
To master story telling and writing it takes time. It takes time to read what others have written, read about how to write better and then constantly writing and editing yourself so you improve over time. I’ve given you plenty here to keep you busy for at least a year, but what a year that would be for your story telling skills. If you want to take this stuff to the next level here is the way to do it. Thanks for reading.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
