I’d like to move on from my two definitions of a story, but do keep your marked up story-start because we’ll be going back to it. I have tried very hard to find another way to talk about this next bit that avoids the phrase ‘Story-Time’. It has associations – not bad associations – of […]
For a long while, Patience was going to have an epigraph – on the first page of the novel; before ‘1979’ and ‘Please be patient with me’. But I cut it. It was this Franz Kafka aphorism: There are two cardinal human sins from which all others derive: impatience and indolence. Because of impatience they […]
Lawrence is one of the easiest writers to dismiss, and one of the hardest to get away from. He seems – from a rational point of view – so often and so obviously nuts. And there’s a way of reading him that brackets the ‘obviously nuts’ parts, and enjoys him as if he […]
I am now going to give you a second definition of a story that, I hope, will from now on, forever after, make it easier for you to write stories that don’t just start but that go on through exciting, intensifying middles and reach satisfying, unpredictable ends. The second definition doesn’t undermine or contradict the […]
You may have heard that I’ve written a novel called Patience, and that I started it over twelve and a half years ago – you may know this because, recently, I’ve been doing my social media dance to alert as many readers as possible to the fact it exists. Today, it exists. I realise that […]
A story is about a person or a thing that is in the wrong place. Personally, because this story definition of mine is so basic, I can’t come up with any exceptions to it. (Maybe you can. If so, let me know.) However, I find it quite easy to think how it applies to both […]
Welcome back. You have now – from inside you somewhere – dug out the three elements of a story. It should be one that you wouldn’t have considered writing, before starting this guide. Why? Because with each exercise, in each case, I have nudged you toward doing more than one thing at once. NEVER DO […]
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