The Nine Essentials of Story Design Every Storyteller Must Master

After 30 years of writing, I thought I was pretty good. Still, I took a class (from CoreyMandell.net) because I thought it would accelerate a manuscript sale. Instead, I realized I knew almost nothing about the craft of storytelling.

The good news was that I finally understood why I had not built a career as a professional writer those previous 25 years — I was ineffective at story design.

In those decades, I wrote a series of mediocre stories that were pleasant but not compelling. They didn’t offend enough to complain, and didn’t impress enough for people to share them, either.

My stories were the unflavored gelatin of novels and screenplays.

But your goal must be to create a story that rivets readers and compels them to call their friends and say, “You have to read this story.”

You achieve that by learning and mastering the nine essentials of story design.

Unconscious Incompetence Might Work For You

When I started, I told stories by making it up as I went along. I learned to type lots of words and got through the rough draft, but it wasn’t good enough.