Story Engineering

I’ve had an urge to create stories for the better part of my conscious life. During my adolescent years I wrote, penned and inked comics with a small degree of success. During the later years I’ve turned to writing prose instead. I now have two novel drafts in my drawer, painstakingly written on evenings and weekends, on small fragments of free time between life’s meny responsibilities.

Both drafts suck.

It’s not that my words or sentences are that bad, but the drafts both lack that un-nameable thing that make them work as actual stories. It’s been very frustrating knowing this, but having no way of fixing it. The experience has been a lot like when our car wouldn’t start and I popped the hood open. Being a male I figured that was what I was supposed to do. I remember standing there, watching tubes, bolts and metallic thingies, absolutely clue-less. I’ve been looking as my draft much the same way. Why the hell didn’t they work.

While I’m too lazy to sign up to a writing course, I have read a lot of books on writing. None of them has helped. Not until this very moment. I just finished Larry Brook’s Story Engineering and for the first time I feel like there is hope. In a very concrete way he shows the elements a fully functioning story needs and where you should put them. He also shows you why, with a variety of examples from real life fiction.

For the first time I understand why my stories seem to slack in the middle, like a poorly tightened rope. For the first time I also understand why my characters seem one-dimensional and life-less. It’s not about some artsy attempt at mimicking life. The point is creating an effective illusion of life. Drama is nothing like real life, and real life is nothing like drama. We only think it is.

As an interesting side effect this book also changes the way you read novels, or watch movies. It brings a cool sense of being in the know when you shout “first plot point”, and “here comes the midpoint” during “Avatar”. I imagine my wife isn’t as amused, though. It’s uncanny how well commercial stories seem to adhere to the skeleton Brook describes in his book.

I have a new story cooking in the back of my head. I can’t wait to get it on paper.