Secrets Of Great Authors: Write Like A Pro
Great authors have at their disposal the same words used by everyone else, and yet, their words can cast a more powerful magic in real life than all the storied conjuring found in a famous author’s magical universe. What are the secrets that allow great authors to enchant the minds of their devoted readers? Great authors understand and learn how to do well three things.
First, they learn how to apply structure to a story, and they understand that structure holds a story together. Structure is the relationship between big things and small things and how the forces between them work.This/tag helps explain it more. The infinite universe exists because of quarks, elementary particles of matter, so small that they can’t be seen. If the nature of the quark were changed, then the nature of the universe would change. Similarly, carelessly changing the small details in your story can impact the story at its highest level.
Second, they understand how to outline a story and they understand the importance of following the outline. They don’t use alphanumerically labeled hierarchical outlines; they use a loose sketch that holds the arrangement and sequence of a story using the five threads of a story: time, place, subject, character, and mood. Any unwarranted change in any of the threads jars the reader out of the story. The outline is developed prior to writing.
Third, they know how to polish a story under their own style. Polish refers to word choice, grammatical rules, and image creation. Style refers to the application of polish based on the author’s personality, experiences, viewpoints, deepest beliefs, and imagination. Style is what separates authors. Style is what allows different authors to retell the same story and create different universes. Nathaniel Hawthorne said, ” style is, of course, to make words absolutely disappear into the thought.”