The Recipe of Storytelling
Fiction writing, in reality, is just storytelling. It sounds simple, but there are many components that make it a bumpy road, but a necessary one. This, being my first ever blog, will be a broad article, simply breaking down storytelling and how you do it.
The first thing you need to know is why authors write. Being a novelist and poet myself, I know why I do it. I write because there is a story inside of me that nobody has ever heard and it’s my job to tell it.
A story is often referred to as a recipe. You put in a cup of narration, a scoop of dialogue, a splash of description. You add some diced characters and spice it up with some suspense. Notice that I never said anything about plot. Plot is not part of the recipe. Plot is what happens when you put your story in the oven. Your story is still raw. Plot makes it edible.
In your recipe, each ingredient serves a purpose. The difference between a baking recipe and a story recipe is that in a story, you have to make your own list of ingredients. You have to decide how much of each part you will throw in, when to do so, and how you put it in. In order to know these things, you have to know your ingredients’ purposes.
