To find your voice, you have to take on the voices of others.
For example, here’s a brief history lesson on copying.
Steven Pressfield, when he was first starting out, typed out pages and pages of Hemingway just to get a sense of his pacing, his storytelling, and his voice. He copied him to get into his head and understand how he constructed sentences, and how each sentence related to the ones around it.
“A human being is a deciding being,” said Victor Frankl.
My dad and I have been talking about his novel. It’s a fantasy novel that takes place in a mythical, magical realm. The story involves love, intrigue, and war. I actually believe it has a lot of potential.
The problem is, it’s 650 typed, double-spaced pages. That’s a long novel!
From San Antonio to Houston we talked through the plot, and it wasn’t until we were almost there that I realized the problem.
His hero didn’t make any decisions.
Pixar tells perfect stories. Teams of writers spend years writing them, rewriting them, and rewriting them again. They are perfectionists of story.
That’s why I was so excited when my friend Brandon Clements sent me this amazing list of storytelling rules from the writers at Pixar. I picked out this one that provides a simple, interesting story structure:
#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
Sounds like a good place to start!
Of the twenty best short stories in the 2011 Best American Short Stories, half of them involved a character dying.
Think about your favorites novels or films? How many of them involve a death?
Of the thirteen books nominated to the 2011 Booker Prize longlist, every single one involved the theme of death.
“In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice,” said Victor Frankl.
Every story requires pain and suffering. If the protagonist doesn’t experience pain, he won’t change. “Pain develops character. If you have a story where someone learns through joy, the audience won’t buy it,” said Donald Miller at his Storyline conference.
Joy is great. Your story should incorporate some joy. But the Great Teacher is pain.
