How to tell a Story

A good story can have a turn, or an unusual character, or a strong human theme.

But.

What really matters s the env ronment. Not the place of the story, the place you are wr t ng n. Everyth ng around you when you are wr t ng, take an nterest ng aspect of the room and place t nto the story. Put a m rror n front of you wh le you’re wr t ng, wr te n an att c, use an old broken typewr ter, do all three.

f the s tuat on s unusual t w ll wr te tself. t w ll even bu ld ts own theme, character, story, everyth ng. Don’t bu ld a story, f nd one and work w th t. All the good words have been sa d already, you just have to get t out to that reader. ’m just copy ng the story about the prev ous owner of th s typewr ter. He would s t up n th s same dusty room, stare at a m rror, and wr te about h mself, wr t ng about h mself. The problem that occurred to h m was that talk ng about yourself gets repet t ve; you tend to start us ng only certa n keys, espec ally the letter “eye.”

You can grasp a lot about the guy just from that. Maybe he had a w fe, a k d, he had to have a l fe somet me. He had to have lost t all though, thrown h mself ent rely nto h s wr t ng. Stayed up here typ ng the same story over and over. At one po nt, he must have cracked, sat h mself down and just h t the same key over and over. Me me me me me me me me e, unt l t broke.