Storytelling Trumps Writing

[Steerpike]

Using a comment I made in another thread as a springboard:

Premise: Storytelling trumps writing every time. As between the two, you are far better off being good at the former than the latter. Readers will forgive mediocre writing (within reason; if the story is illegible, then you have a problem) if the story is interests them and is told in an engaging manner. Readers will not forgive the inability to tell a story, no matter how stellar the writing is.

Discuss

 

[BWFoster78]

To an extent. Let's examine the possibilities:

1. You're horrible at both writing and storytelling.

No one will ever read you.

2. You're horrible at writing but great at storytelling.

No one will get past the writing to see the storytelling.

3. You're great at writing but horrible at storytelling.

People will probably make it through your tale (I'm assuming that good writing ability encompasses the power to use tension to create engaging scenes) but will leave unsatisfied, perhaps even disgusted.

4. You're mediocre at writing and at storytelling.

People may or may not make it through your tale and will find themselves less than fully satisfied if they make it to the end.

5. You're great at writing but mediocre at storytelling.

People will read your work but find themselves kinda iffy on whether they'll recommend it.

6. You're mediocre at writing but great at storytelling.

People will read your work and recommend it to others.

7. You're great at writing and at storytelling.

You'll be acclaimed as a literary hero and given piles of cash.

Great topic. Thanks!

 

[Mindfire]

To an extent. Let's examine the possibilities:

1. You're horrible at both writing and storytelling.

No one will ever read you.​

2. You're horrible at writing but great at storytelling.

No one will get past the writing to see the storytelling.​

3. You're great at writing but horrible at storytelling.

People will probably make it through your tale (I'm assuming that good writing ability encompasses the power to use tension to create engaging scenes) but will leave unsatisfied, perhaps even disgusted.​

4. You're mediocre at writing and at storytelling.

People may or may not make it through your tale and will find themselves less than fully satisfied if they make it to the end.​

5. You're great at writing but mediocre at storytelling.

People will read your work but find themselves kinda iffy on whether they'll recommend it.​

6. You're mediocre at writing but great at storytelling.

People will read your work and recommend it to others.​

7. You're great at writing and at storytelling.

You'll be acclaimed as a literary hero and given piles of cash.​

I think this pretty much sums it up. +1

The real question is, where do I fall on this scale?

 

[Steerpike]

Thanks, BWFoster.

With respect to #3, if you're great at writing but horrible at storytelling, I think you'll lose a lot of people who put the book down out of sheer indifference and move on to something else. So I'm not as optimistic people will make it through your tale.

In any given writer, their abilities in terms of storytelling and writing are going to fall somewhere along a continuum, with natural strengths in one as opposed to another. One function of writing communities such as this one is to enhance the development of the writer. This leads to another question - why does it seem that writer's communities tend to focus more heavily on technical writing and less on storytelling? I think the answer is that it is easier. The technical aspects of writing are easy to identify, criticize, and talk about. "Storytelling" is more subjective and encompasses the artistic end of the craft. It is somewhat ironic, though, because in terms of ultimate success as a writer, storytelling is going to be the more important factor. Each of us can learn, fairly readily, to be competent writers. The majority of people here already are at least that. Storytelling is where the grail is, and I wonder if writing communities should be more actively looking for it.

 

[Mindfire]

Thanks, BWFoster.

With respect to #3, if you're great at writing but horrible at storytelling, I think you'll lose a lot of people who put the book down out of sheer indifference and move on to something else. So I'm not as optimistic people will make it through your tale.

In any given writer, their abilities in terms of storytelling and writing are going to fall somewhere along a continuum, with natural strengths in one as opposed to another. One function of writing communities such as this one is to enhance the development of the writer. This leads to another question - why does it seem that writer's communities tend to focus more heavily on technical writing and less on storytelling? I think the answer is that it is easier. The technical aspects of writing are easy to identify, criticize, and talk about. "Storytelling" is more subjective and encompasses the artistic end of the craft. It is somewhat ironic, though, because in terms of ultimate success as a writer, storytelling is going to be the more important factor. Each of us can learn, fairly readily, to be competent writers. The majority of people here already are at least that. Storytelling is where the grail is, and I wonder if writing communities should be more actively looking for it.

Yes, but how do you look for it? Nobody really knows. As far as I can tell, you either stumble onto it after a while, or you don't. Nobody really "learns" storytelling, do they?

 

[BWFoster78]

With respect to #3, if you're great at writing but horrible at storytelling, I think you'll lose a lot of people who put the book down out of sheer indifference and move on to something else. So I'm not as optimistic people will make it through your tale.

I can understand that viewpoint, but my thinking was that you can become engaged in a book even if the content isn't great. If there's conflict and tension, you'll find yourself getting into scenes only to discover at the end that there was no "there" there. I guess it depends on the individual, though. If you continually evaluate the story as to content, you'll be less likely to make it through. If you tend to let the story carry you and only examine it at the end, you will read the whole thing.

leads to another question - why does it seem that writer's communities tend to focus more heavily on technical writing and less on storytelling? I think the answer is that it is easier. The technical aspects of writing are easy to identify, criticize, and talk about.

Exactly. I agree that this is one reason.

I'd also say, however, that another factor comes into play. Most writers start writing because they like to read. Since they've read all their lives, they feel that they understand how to tell a story. When they put pen to paper, however, they realize that they've severely underestimated their grasp of technique. "How do I get started? How do I get this great story that's unfolding in my head down on paper so that people can read it?"

This leads them to spend a lot of time trying to master the techniques of writing.

I'll raise my hand as to being an example of this phenomenon.

Storytelling is where the grail is, and I wonder if writing communities should be more actively looking for it.

My eventual goal is to work on "rules" that quantify and dissect storytelling. You're going to love it!

 

[Sheilawisz]

That's why I consider myself proudly a Storyteller first, and a Writer second =)

 

[Feo Takahari]

So just to be clear, would horrible writing with great storytelling be something like The Core, or something like Gurren Lagann?

 

[Philip Overby]

I've read lots of stuff (even recently) where the writing was superb, but the storytelling was just kind of flat. To me it's the equivalent of the Star Wars prequels: technically pretty impressive with lots of cool special effects, but kind of flat on storytelling.

 

[The Din]

Depends what you mean by 'writing'. I don't consider that being a technically perfect writer necessarily makes you a good writer. I want to read 'real' writing that gets inside the character's head and uses the english (or other) language to explore the depths of the story. Take Joe Abercrombie for example. Sure, he tells an engrossing story, but it's the way he tells it that makes him stand out; the way he emphasizes writerly techniques to differentiate POVs, the way he manipulates his readers with carefully broken 'rules'.

I look for more than a compelling story told through 'invisible' prose when I pick up a book. Else I'd watch a movie. A good story is a good story, it's how you tell it that makes it (and thus you) stick out.

 

[Zero Angel]

I definitely think that storytelling is > writing.

But at the same time, being a good writer doesn't mean that you're "technically" good, but rather that your writing accomplishes your goals. So if you are good at telling your story, then your writing doesn't get in the way.

 

[ChristielleKeenan]

This is the best thread on this subject I have ever had the pleasure of reading! I am new here, please pardon me for butting in, but I just wanted to inject my own opinion here, which is, that I agree that storytelling is so much more important than technical perfection. Most want to feel a story. They are not going to sit there and say to themselves, oh, this writer's prose are technically perfect, unless perhaps they are a Professor of Lit. If the story is gripping and it leads them to the next page, and then on to the next, they will become 'part' of the story and their technical inadequacies, as long as the story flows interestingly enough, will fall away and not become an insurmountable issue.

Or at least, that is what I am hoping

Thank you, and I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Storytelling is the harder of the two, no argument there. I took a screenwriting class several years ago; the instructor was a veteran TV writer who said that he had started off writing one-page noh-style plays, every day for months. Then he slowly worked up into longer-form fiction, until he was good enough to actually get hired as a staff writer on a TV show.

Part of me knows that I should more intensely study the basic craft of constructing a narrative: start with a character, give them a goal, put obstacles in the way of that goal, have them struggle to overcome the obstacles and achieve that goal, while undergong some kind of change. To me, that's the basis of any good story. It's so easy to overcomplicate things, to try to do something different just for the sake of being different. I have a hard time writing a story and then just throwing it away because it's not great.