Three Reasons you Are Failing With Your Stories And Solutions!

Many creatives struggle to reach the heights they dream of attaining in their career. For example, they may fail to become professional novelists or screenwriters or A-list producers and directors. Many become stuck at a career level they want to rise from.

This newsletter will briefly address three possible solutions for creatives still hungry to attain their creative dream.

Many factors in your career and life are not in your control but the most important thing for storytellers is. The quality of the story YOU create! All creatives can have problems such as struggling to find quality time to create a story, or even to get it finished, and so forth. But over time we are all in control of how good our story can be.

Why do I press this control issue?

Because in my current work as a story consultant and former work as a script analyst in Hollywood, I see in brutal clarity that most stories out there can be significantly better. Their creators didn’t find and apply the best key ideas to increase the quality of their stories. Most stories today (produced and unproduced) are just not very good. Or to be more blunt: 99 percent of stories just don’t work as well as they could. So, let’s focus on this issue of story quality. The single most productive push (and help!) I can give any creative is: Make your story better!

Here are three key ways to do that:

Concept

That is, the premise, situation, central conflict, log line, the guts, or whatever you want to call the core of your story. It’s no secret in Hollywood, for example, that most stories fail because their concepts were weak. They were too often one-layered, cliched, boring, too niche, etc, etc. And that’s not just the action situation of the premise but also its characters. In your story premise you must be intriguing, even shocking, and have an element of originality in both your main action situation and in your characters.

When developing your story always ask yourself: What is the Hook? What about my premise is original and a real grabber? That is, what is new in my characters and situation?

If as a creative you are not struggling for months and months to create an original action situation and characters, you are letting yourself down in the worst way. The odds are that you will remain stuck on that narrow and rocky trail of being ignored, forgotten, or unnoticed. A truly original and layered premise can help move you forward down a wide paved road. I strongly urge you to get your premise vetted and tested (before you write your story!) to make it the best it can and should be. Which brings me to my next crucial suggestion.

Objectivity

I hope you really understand that professional writers get EDITED. Very few if any screenwriters or authors today write a story that is an almost perfect first draft and after a light polish is produced or published (by a professional publishing company). Those novels, films and television shows that you are enjoying are edited and edited and edited. Being edited is just part of the landscape for a professional writer. But not so for many amateurs.

Yes, I can feel your (and my) hesitation…

Being edited can be painful! It is rare for the editing of a first draft of a story not to leave buckets of writer blood on the floor. That hurts! And I speak from personal experience. Even though I’ve been in the story business for many years, my feet are still too often bathed in sweat and blood during an editing session. But then a few days later I’ve thought through the notes and see the way forward. And I always keep the following in mind as a true and valuable point during editing purgatory: This editing is improving my story!

Most writers cannot be fully objective about their stories. They can’t see its omissions, weaknesses, mistakes, and especially its opportunities. Writers need story developers and fixers. That is, editors.

I strongly encourage all creatives to get edited by an outside objective story expert and early! I encourage my clients to get their 30-word premise statement edited right at the front of the story creating process. It is easier, more productive, and cheaper to get 30 words edited than 20-80,000!

Ideas, Values, and Stakes

This is a big and complex topic, but I’ll just state for now that good stories have universal ideas and big, important, and personal values at stake. These values must be life and death (physically and/or psychologically) and applicable to all people. If you are too niche or naturalistic in your ideas and themes, especially those related to character arcs and stakes, most audiences will not empathize with your characters and so will not be interested in their conflicts and actions. Seductive stories are about people and ideas we care about! How many times have you watched a film or television show and sighed, “Who cares?” or exclaimed “So what?!” Don’t encourage that reaction to your story. Sometimes there are no second chances. Make the characters and conflicts in your story be about universal value-laden ideas. If you don’t know how to do that, perhaps it’s time for professional help.

That’s all, folks!

Please do think carefully about what you’ve read above. The road to success is paved with the most dramatic and strongest ideas developed by an edited creative. The basic ideas that underpin your premise, characters, events and storytelling skills can make a great difference re the quality of your story and your career opportunities. And YOUR IDEAS are the fundamental thing in life that you are in control of. If you choose to be!

Stories are ideas in action!

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