What is a Story?
The best definition of story I’ve ever heard, and how to use it to help your writing.
Whenever I start a new novel I like to go back to basics, which usually means picking up a few of my favorite writing books. Even now, eighteen novels in, I still find myself wondering what the heck I’m doing. Not so much why do I write — I’m pretty clear in my own head why I do what I do. No, I actually find it quite beneficial to revisit a different question — what is a story?
In her book Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel, Lisa Cron says:
“A story is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result.”
Cron further breaks this down, describing ‘the things that happen’ as the plot, ‘someone’ as your protagonist, and the ‘difficult goal’ as the story problem. Finally, she says the ‘internal change’ of the protagonist is what the story is actually about.
Genius. I know, it’s in the title of the book, but honestly, this is the clearest and best definition of a story I’ve ever come across. It can help you write your novel, short story, memoir, essay, or whatever you’re working on. Let’s take a look.
