What is the Art of Writing made of?

In the simplest way I can put it, it is made out of the relationship between The Author, the Story, and the Reader. What do I mean? While the Author may want to carve a particular story, when doing so, they have to be mindful of both how they craft the story and of those who are going to read it.

On one side, there is the Author, which can be you or me. You want to tell a story. It may be a particular one, deeply personal or meaningful, or you might even have an important message to deliver to whoever wishes to listen. That’s all fine. What’s not fine is doing a poor job of it. As I wrote in a previous article, speaking, writing, and thinking are the same process. You don’t need me to tell you that your head is a jumble mess of racing thoughts at all times. I don’t mean you’re crazy; I mean it hardly has structure. Take me, for instance. At any given time, I have a background song and like two or three thought threads coming and going simultaneously. Mind reading isn’t portrayed realistically in fiction, but I digress. The point is, you can’t just pour your heart out on the page and expect people to pay attention. You need structure, and you need to be organized. As the Author, you need to keep in mind the other two players in this game: your Audience and the Story.

Let’s start with the Audience, the simplest part of the equation and also the most unpredictable one. Unpredictable because you don’t know what they might get out of your story or what they might do with it (see, for example, the game Undertale). The part that you can control, however, is what you do. You are writing for them. What’s that? Your agent? That person is nothing but a middleman who might or might not know what they’re doing. Besides, are they writing for you? No? Well then, when you write, the audience should be foremost in your mind at all times. Questions like, “Is this clear enough? Is this character correctly developed? Are all elements accounted for? Is the story progressing right?” A thousand and one questions that you must keep in mind at all times. What? What is that? That it’s overwhelming? Yes, at first, but with enough repetition, anything is possible. Just remember you’re writing for your audience. They come first, no matter what. They’re not inside your head; they don’t know what you intended with your story, novel, short tale, scribble in the back of a public toilet. So, you have to be a good communicator and tell them in a clear and organized fashion. One last point to consider, which is something we will discuss at a later date more thoroughly: your audience trusts you, and you should reward that trust in spades. Once they cross the threshold into the magic circle, they have to know they can trust you to deliver. You do not trust yourself? Whether or not you have the confidence of a demigod in your own special and unique self is irrelevant here, develop confidence in what you can do, which leads to.

The second element is the story, which is more complex but also more predictable. It’s predictable because you’re the one with the pen or keyboard (if you’re like me, you need both). You should be the one who knows the ins and outs of the story, the first one who should understand it. The thing is, my dear neophyte (or veteran, but I’ll assume you’re new to this), that there are at least a hundred variables to consider when you write, and you have to be knowledgeable about most of them. Let’s quickly go through several of them in no particular order:

• Character
• Pacing
• Emotion
• Conflict
• Scene
• Setting
• Worldbuilding
• Point of view
• Narrator

These are just some of the variables that you should keep in mind. You might be thinking, “Aren’t many of those just related?” Just because they are related doesn’t mean they are the same thing. On top of that, they have to be properly applied at the same time to create a good story. Being good at world-building is not the same as properly setting a story. What is that? Are you scared? No, my dear neophyte, you shouldn’t be afraid. They are concepts; they are not real, and they can’t bite you. What you should be is mindful of them. They are the elements through which you will weave your story. With them, you will craft a story that will make people interested, entertained, weep with sorrow, or leap for joy. They are your conceptual tools, much like you need hammers, nails, and saws to give shape to wood; you need them to shape a story.

In time, we will deal with each element with the respect they deserve, but for now, I’ll leave you with a taste of two of the most important ones—the central axis of any story: Conflict and Change.

In any tale, there are always two types of conflicts: internal and external. The latter ones are usually what propel the story forward. They can be larger, background conflicts that are outside your character’s control, or they can be actions that other characters bring about for their own motives. Then you have the more interesting internal conflicts. Don’t confuse them with motivation, my dear neophyte. Internal conflicts inform character actions. Sure, they can be the same as motivation, but more often than not, they are intertwined with it. Motivation will be explained later. Internal conflicts inform how your character will interact with the world. We all wish to be Mr. Good Goodington, but they don’t make interesting stories. They are your character’s insecurities, not just flaws, but their inner demons, ghosts, things they think they know, and things they ignore. They might be simple, they might be complex, but they have to be. Anyone can write a cardboard cutout in the shape of a person and call it a character, but it takes either a genius or a lot of practice to write truly compelling inner conflicts.

Regardless of your level of skill, always remember that conflicts are what push the story forward, and what pushes the other element which is Change.

The beginning should, in a way, be different from the end. So should the beginnings and ends of chapters, and so should the beginnings and endings of scenes. The reader should, at all times, have the sensation that the story is progressing, as frustration is one of your enemies. You bring about change with conflict, no matter if it’s a minor disagreement between two friends in a larger war tale, for example.

Upward change, downward change, cyclical change—these depend on the story you are writing and the characters you have in it. Even if by the end of all the troubles and tribulations your characters end up the same as they were at the beginning, it won’t matter as long as the reader feels a difference (we will delve deeper into this later).

So, what is the art of writing made of? Your skill as an Author, the Reader’s interest and trust, and the Story you wish to tell.