You know, when you come down to it, most of us tell stories in one way or another. Some of us do it verbally, while others like to write them down. Telling stories comes naturally to most of us. But not all of us are equally skilled at how we tell them.
This is where the whole notion of practice comes into play. The idea that you need to put in your time actually telling stories in a way that people want to read. The proverbial 10,000 hours or however many hours it takes to improve to the point where your stories are interesting enough to hold a reader’s attention.
The principle applies not only to fictional storytelling, but to nonfiction, as well. In fact, the ability to tell stories applies not only to writing books, but to marketing, sales, legal writing, dissertations, letter writing (does anyone write letters, anymore? 🙂 ) and other ways to communicate thought.
This is why good storytelling is a very useful and marketable skill. If you can sequence your thoughts in a manner that engages your reader, makes sense, and conveys needed information, you have a skill that’s worth something to someone.
Which is why I’ve set up a contest: a 30-Day Novel Writing Challenge for anyone who signs up for my Udemy course on writing mystery fiction.
Frankly, a great deal of the advice I give in that course applies to storytelling, in general.
Does the above image suggest a story of any sort? What about the one below? Feel free to share your thoughts.
Mysterious lighting of cigarette? Or something else? 🙂
Of course, when it comes to writing screenplays, certain things apply across the board and others don’t. Screenplays provide the story for a visual medium.
And speaking of screenplays, I’m thrilled to announce that my TV pilot for The Fixers made the semi-finals in the WeScreenplay Diverse Voices contest! 🙂 That’s my name and my pilot way down at the bottom of this list! Yay! 🙂
PS: Right now, you can get The Planck Factor for 99 cents! Limited time offer only!
PPS: Here’s a video about a typical day in this writer’s life! 🙂
