The Storyline: Part 2----Tell a Good Story

First, Check out the writing contest in the right hand column about half way down. Good! Now continue on....

Look at this guy and imagine what kind of story he might be telling. Who is is audience? What about his story holds their interest? Where has he been in that crazy get-up?

I see him leaning forward, hand on knee, regaling a bunch of illiterate and partially drunken sailors about his stay at a famous roadside inn. He hasn't gotten to the good part and is just warming up to the crowd.

I think Joe storyteller here gives us a clue to good fiction writing. It's all about the story. You might have beautifully crafted and complex characters, but if they're not embroiled in a good story they are wasted effort.

Multiple-best selling author, James Patterson had a few things to say about making his material interesting as he talked with Diana Page Jordan in a recent Writer's Digest interview.

"I'm big on having a blistering pace. That's one of the hallmarks of what I do, and that's not easy. I never blow up cars and things like that, so it's something else that keeps the suspense flowing. I try not to write a chapter that isn't going to turn on the movie projector in my head."

Patterson has found the key to great fiction. IT MOVES. The story never stops. Introspection takes place within the pace. The characters are developed around the storyline, not the other way around. The pace adds plausibility as well. Ultimately, Patterson is more concerned with action and suspense than he is with technical precision, which ruins many a good story.

"A lot of writers fall in love with their sentences or their construction of sentences, and sometimes that's great, but not everybody is Gabriel Garcia Marquez or James Joyce. A lot of people like to pretend that they are, and they wind up not giving people a good read or enlightening them."

In other words, tell a good story. Make it one that leaves people leaning to the edge of their seats. Leave them begging for more. That's what makes a story memorable to the reader. This is precisely what I attempted to do in writing Distant Thunder. Not having the technical skills when I began, I found that just blistering the keyboard with a good story made the thing work. The good work of an editor cleaned it up, and by the process I amassed enough technical skill to make the story even better. Write a good story and it will be read.

Happy Writing,

Jimmy Root Jr

Distant Thunder A Prophetic Fiction Thriller

lightningchronicles.com

Watch for my Virtual Book Tour coming in August. Details to follow.

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