Notes to Myself: Craft of a Story

Every writer has a bunch of notes to him/herself for ready reference on the craft of story writing that suits that particular writer’s style of writing. For me, it has evolved over the past few years of writing. As I started with blogging to writing articles, and then jumped to humor and slice of life pieces, eventually settling on character-driven short stories, these notes have also evolved and settled now to a fairly steady definition of what I want my body of work to look like.

Every Story, for me, starts with a character, a situation that is a problem or conflict for the character, the character’s fight with the situation or another character, and then how the character either overcomes it or gets defeated or lives with it. There has to be a main hero or heroine, his or her conflict with someone, something or some situation, and how he or she tries to get over it, and eventually either wins or loses. I start with such interesting characters and their conflicts, and once I have that well-defined in my head, the plot and setting evolves.

Hence, in most of my stories, I start with character. I define what he or she wants first in terms of emotion or desire. anger, greed, anxiety, grief, envy, jealousy, betrayal, revenge, achievement, progress, love, belonging or any such emotion. Then I think of setting and plot and conflict. After that I start writing first draft. That way it works best. I try to define the scenes before the first draft but often the actual story turns out to be different. Later I get skill or craft into the picture during editing.

Also, important to me is to use story telling to bring about change in the reader – not in a preachy manner, but as a result of realization that happens to the reader as a result of his engagement in the story. Hence, the character and his motivations are important. And it has to be genuine in my case. I have come around to the realization that I don’t have the craft of simply using words to sort of trance, or even fool the reader into something unbelievable. In my style of writing, I find it more comfortable to articulate the character and conflict so that the reader identifies with it rather than gets transported to another world.

So I try not to be too smart lest that realization doesn’t happen and the reader feels cheated. I try to keep the plot believable and the actions in tune with character. My attempt is simply that the reader must like the story and the character, and identify with the conflict and its resolution in a realistic manner. The reader shouldn’t get away feeling that the writer is smart.

Elements of my Body of Work that I have settled on:
– Short Fiction
– Character driven
– Theme of Conflicts due Love or Relations or Emotions or Situations
– Underdog nature of main character
– Surprise or Twist angle
– Realistic or Mundane or Real Life or Slice of Everyday
– Spiritual or Meaningful or Thought Provoking

So, I try to write sensitive stories about people and emotions that move readers by providing meaning in the mundane. My attempt is to: Entertain, Educate, Inspire using the craft of storytelling.

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