The 1 Thing All Great Stories Have in Common (This will change your writing!)
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- čas přidán 25. 09. 2023
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📚 What Makes a Book Stand the Test of Time? 📚
Ever wondered why classics like "Lord of the Rings," "Pride and Prejudice," or "1984" continue to captivate readers? It's not just luck or beautiful prose. There's a deeper reason, and it's something you can apply to your own writing.
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WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
🤔 The one thing that makes books timeless
📝 How George Orwell and J.R.R. Tolkien approached their masterpieces
🌍 The importance of a world-changing message in your story
🛠 Practical questions to help you find your story's "non-negotiable"
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
📖 Every timeless book has a deep, underlying message, something the author truly cares about.
🌟 It's not just about entertaining; it's about changing the way readers see themselves and the world.
📝 Even if you aim to write a "fun" story, you'll find more fulfillment and less frustration by embedding a meaningful message.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
• What causes the most pain in the world?
• What do you wish everyone would understand?
• What or who would you die for?
• What change do you want to make in the reader?
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🙋♀️ Have a question or topic for a future episode? storygrid.com/youtube-questions - Jak na to + styl
This concept was summed up nicely by Ray Bradbury. In the essay collection "Zen in the Art of Writing", Bradbury talks about writing with gusto. To be more specific, writing about that thing the so infuriates or impassions you that it just flows out.
Yes! Zen was one of my favorite Bradbury books. He was awesome!
Bradbury's "Run fast, stand still" principle is actually similar to what master animator Shamus Culhane teaches, too, of separating the right, creative side of your brain from the left, analytical, side by allowing the right side unimpeded, passionate, energetic creativity and THEN afterward following up with the careful left side.
That's the part I struggle with, if I go too right side and base parts of the plot on, say, how long a horse would take to travel from a to b, and then during the edit I realise I'm way off, then the story is banjoed. And thats just a simple example but there's tonnes of decisions like this
omg! I too remembered Ray Bradbury when this video started! Now I am gonna read it again!
Book's name is Zen in the art of Writing.
I’m honestly surprised this wasn’t a clickbait title with a half-baked message. For once, a video with this title actually meant it. Well said!!!
That's what I thought too. I was certain it was going to be another "setup, conflict, conclusion" type of advice
It happens so rarely that it really is awestriking when a title that promises everything a clickbait title does ACTUALLY delivers everything it promised haha
don't you just hate those "click bait" titles.....such a waste of my precious time and puts a bad taste in my mouth for the narriator.
yeah I had the same feeling
Your tips take fiction and make it feel both entertaining and authentic
Ok buddy. Now I have to binge ALL of your vids. This one hit hard man. Thank you.
Stephen King in ‘ On Writing’ discusses theme and advise not to pay attention to it in the early drafts. Let it emerge and, if you want, fine tune it later. He is a pantser after all but it’s a good way of avoiding appearing contrived or forced.
Stephen King is a story-teller who just happens to use a written medium. In earlier times he would have been an orator, where story is paramount and wouldn't show much concern about any theme, or even whether or not the story was preserved. His writing skills only have to be adequate enough to serve the story. His writing skills and thematic skills haven't improved since he was like 13, despite constantly writing. Themes emerge because we are human, but I don't think he gives a lock of care about them in the first telling.
People want to be given new perspectives
People want things that enlighten them to new paths
People want something that answers unsolved questions on the inside of them
that covers it, huh!
I disagree. seems to me people just want their beliefs affirmed.
any challenge to their beliefs will be a threat.
and so most books and most authors end up preaching to the choir.
I guess it's useful for shaping the opinion of those who have no pre existing opinion. which ends up meaning children - for the most part.
@@jinchoung well, I watch super hero movies because avengers don't exist in my life
the chronicles of narnia are not real but I loved the stories
science fiction and fantasy are one of the biggest genres because they show people what they can't see in regular life
there's a difference between preaching and great storytelling...
i agree with you, people don't like preachers
the best actors and fictional characters don't preach
@@jinchoung shaping belief is what philosophers do
storytellers deliver great entertainment
many people don't share the values of and beliefs of Hollywood in their own lives
@@jinchoung Well, they do WANT it, now whether they can actually handle it is a completely different manner as we have readily seen in the final season of Game of Thrones or How I Met Your Mother.
Wow this is so true! Always start from the poignant, cautionary, passionate ending, then work backwards to the best starting point, envision the hero entering the story, and structure from there along that indispensable spine of your message to the world.
This explains why I've spent the last two years writing a dialogue-free book where the main characters are dinosaurs.
lol if it makes you happy
I expected a cheap tip spread across 9 mins of talking.
I'm happy I watched. This will definitely change my writing.
Honestly. This really made me think about how all the stories that I found to be truly memorable have a message the author was really trying to say.
I'm a writer who's been watching videos by writers and for writers for years now. Usually what happens, one video helps me a bit with a certain topic and then ALL of the rest just keep repeating the same things like broken down parrots. I'm not saying there aren't some amazing writing channels out there, because there are, some writers are really good at explaining their craft but none of them was able to help me personally. Anyway, this video was a true, actual help in the time when I struggled to continue on my manuscript. Because my manuscript was about class-struggle and now I feel like, you know, war and war crimes overshadow that insomuch that my manuscript is irrelevant. Story Grid helped me gather and organize all of my thoughts and streamline my message so that my class -struggle would still be the center of the story, but I could also incorporate some important elements about war which are enabled by the class-struggle. Anyhow, you guys have saved my manuscript and you were the only channel to be able to do so. Thank you very very much.
Very helpful video!!
Just as an alternative viewpoint for interest's sake: It's also worth noting that other masters like C.S. Lewis approached writing in a very different way (at least when it came to writing fairy stories). He actually advises against trying to implant a moral lesson into your work. Instead, he suggests letting the moral work its way in through the story on its own. A moral existing in a work was fine for him, but he believed that contriving a moral lesson would likely result in something superficial that was "skimmed from the surface of your consciousness".
For example, many believe that the Christian messaging in the Narnia series was deliberately crafted to be so, and while he acknowledges the themes ended up in the final story, he also says "This is all pure moonshine" in reference to the idea that he set out in any way to make a Christian story. In fact, the stories actually started as images in his mind: "a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood." He says that this particular image was in his mind since he was sixteen. Then, in his forties, decided to try an make a story about it and a few other mental pictures he had in his head. Messaging, speaking an impassioned truth, or even the semblance of what the characters would go through were completely absent when he started writing. Very interesting!!
At the same time he also agreed with the idea that the writer must deeply care about what they are writing for it to stand any chance of grabbing a reader: "[. . .] I think we can be sure that what does not concern us deeply will not deeply interest our readers, whatever their age."
If anyone is interested in hearing more about his approach to writing, you can read a fantastic collection of essays/speeches from him called "On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature". Especially, the essay "On Three Ways of Writing For Children" ends up discussing his view on morals/messaging in stories the most.
Thanks for this!
@@nikkireigns No problem! It's always interesting to see how even among the hugely successful creatives in the world, the creative process can look so different from one another and still achieve masterful results.
The Christian subtext is what a lot of people, myself included, find off-putting about Narnia. I find the ending especially problematic-- the Pevensies die, but it's okay, because they got to go to the "real Narnia", i.e. Heaven. That hard anti-materialism/pro-spirituality stance is Christianity at its most toxic and dangerous, and such ideas have no business being in a book meant for small children. I've heard of parents leaving Christian churches once their kids started saying they wanted to die so they could go to Heaven. Now, I'm quite certain C. S. Lewis did not mean to downplay the tragedy of death or encourage his young readers to commit suicide. But that's precisely why it's so important to reflect on yourself, understand your message/purpose for writing clearly, and not allow your writing to just flow from the subconscious. Otherwise, your book might turn out as a misogynistic, Islamophobic, evangelical Christian screed.
Lest I come off as a mindless hater, I was a big fan of Narnia as a child. Coming to understand the author and his works are actually kind of horrible has been one of the biggest disappointments of my adulthood. But he's not alone. Most of the fairy tales and fantasy books I enjoyed as a child turned out to be deeply problematic once I learned how to interpret subtext. Literature from the Anglosphere published in the 19th or early 20th century is almost always going to be some combination of sexist, pro-imperialist, and/or white supremacist. I write because I'm tired of old and unwholesome books being kept in circulation by ignorant parents when they should've been left on the shelf decades ago. Just because it doesn't have any curse words in it doesn't mean it's good for kids.
"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." Yes, but not THESE fairy tales.
@@2012jordie I almost entirely disagree. haha! But it's an interesting perspective, and thanks for sharing. :)
If he thinks it's moonshine, I'm afraid he is in quite a bit of denial, because the Christian themes in Narnia are painfully obvious and aggressively shoehorned in just about every situation. Aslan's sacrifice is obvious for what it stands, so are the foolish 'a-Aslanists' in the Silver Chair. The final book is an obvious metaphor to joining 'Aslan' in the afterlife.
Wow I never thought about that, when you’re writing a book,
Beautiful expansion upon the generic “find your why.” Thanks!
Love to hear someone say you SHOULD try to write a world-changing story. Most people poo poo on that. I want to write a book that changes how people see the world and who they want to be, but I try to humble myself as well =)
My book is a fantasy book but addresses many human conditions, the first book focusing on class hierarchy and how it's maintained using propaganda, education, force, and more.
Great video, thanks!
Wow, this channel is one of the best ever on writing.
This video accomplished what a great book is supposed to acomplish.
It has changed my perspective on writing and stories, which will enable me to write better and help even more people, thank you!
A totally anti-post-modern message: life has a purpose, and art has a purpose. This is in contrast to the attitude of the modern fine art world, where the only message is that there is no message (except money and fame).
"There is no message" is a message! (and I agree, not one I particularly want to see perpetuated out in the world.)
@@audreyknox2341 It's actually quite a nice paradox on the lines of the liar paradox ('This statement is false'). But thanks for the moral agreement.
YES. Nihilism is boring and uninspiring.
@@erikwaag6438 Except when it's done by the Velvet Underground. Psychocandy is an interesting album, too.
My nonnegotiable: the virtue of altruism. It took me six years but I'm finally at the copy edit stage. I've stuck with it because I believe in it.
This was a good and very useful video! One of the best about writing I've found! I got one book published and it was a 900-page opus about injustices I've suffered, and it was successful, and my next fictional book was met with a shrug by most people. Now I know why. My second one actually does have deeper themes that mean a lot to me, and you gave me some tips to draw them out in the light so others can see them.
Excellent video. You should do one that helps writers avoid *enslaving* a narrative to theme--i.e., making the theme so dominant or on-the-nose that characters and plot are bent impossibly to fit it--this can be seen in the divisive movie The Last Jedi, for example. Lord of the Rings, by contrast, has a very powerful and deeply orchestrating theme, but it never sacrifices character or plot consistency to accomplish it. In my opinion, anyway.
As a kid, my high school art teacher always said that I viewed the world differently as I painted and drew. My natural imagination made people like my work and get to know me. So when I write, I use all the influences in my life, my parents, all the comics and anime I grew up watching, and, of course, them of finding the joy in the extraordinary and making your own happiness.
I've been trying to say this in various ways to classmates and other people when I was getting my writing degree, and I have been trying to say it more recently to my students I tutor. But I don't think I've ever said it as succinctly as this because, in my head, I can always tell that the problem with their writing is that it does not matter and no one but the author will care to read it no matter how good the grammar and such are. But I could never say those exact words to them because, even though true, they are so harsh. It's brutal to tell a classmate or student that the main problem with what they've written is that no one will ever be invested in it because it isn't saying anything that matters (especially when the reason for that is that the person is too naive or undeveloped to actually contribute worthwhile thoughts to the world). This video gives me a better way to approach it. I can instead tell them that they need to find something worth saying and make that the theme everything revolves around. So I can basically say what I was thinking before, but in a way that is much kinder and more helpful. This whole thing is really just saying why stories must have themes, and not just any ole themes but themes with unique takes that perhaps only that writer could have.
Wow I just finished this video and I have to subscribe. The quality was great and the content was excellent. I’m always up in arms about something and want to be able to write a story with a message that really helps people the way so many books have for myself. Those questions you provided will help me organize my what matters the most to me.
Tim! This is the first story grid video I have seen, which is surprising to me because I've been browsing booktube for about six months. your description of the writers motivation inspired me to extend my main character's motivation. For about a year now, I've been concerned that my main characters goal was too trivial, but I imagined asking her the questions that you posed to us writers, especially the part that is non-negotiable, and I was hit by an epiphany for her to up the stakes and the consequences of her actions. I can't thank you enough. This now falls together like a Tetris puzzle and completes my story arc!
Great video. It reminded me of Emerson's idea that to be great at anything, one must come to it from a higher ground.
Absolutely LOVE this video!!! Amazing content.
Awesome! Thank you so much for your video and questions. Definitely some food for thought!
I certainly have a non-negotiable in my series, but after hearing it explained so well in this video, I'm going to strengthen the theme in the first book. Thanks for uploading this. I subscribed.
Love this video so much. Resonates deeply. Thank you so much for putting it all in words like that.
Just found you and LOVING your content. You've really helped me with this video -- thanks
First time on this channel, popped up in recommendations, great content! Subbed
Thanks for this video, you made it easy to come up with my non-negotiable.
I've watched so many videos on writing, and this is instantly in the top 3, tho minute for minute it might be the best. Thank you so much for this.
You continue to inspire. Thank you!
Great advice, Tim. What an eye opener - so many ideas based on current world situations making my muse buzz, now.
They have themes, an argument to make. Deep themes make a story good.
True. I'm a bookworm who's looking to get into writing my own works. I read stories to ultimately understand myself and the world better by seeing things from different lenses, and I often find myself relating my experiences to stories and vice versa. Luckily I have my own personal ideas already on what I want to tell through my story
Thanks so much for this
Great video!
Wow, this is super helpful and I figured out what the main message of my book is, which is really my life goal! Be fearless and creative! Follow your bliss. A gift from you to yourself and for humanity!
Thank you! Very Informative! You helped me a great deal!
Thank you. It is a great video. In my experience, my best work has always been that which combined an artistic desire with a very important theme to which I had given a lot of thought. It’s more difficult with longer stories, I hadn’t yet succeeded in writing them. Maybe it is because the longer the story, the more elements you need to arrange correctly. At the same time, with short stories it’s easier; one problem that won’t let you sleep at night + an artistic paradox = one good story.
Thank you!
though i agree with his general points, i do slightly disapprove of his approach to... trying to present one's thesis in one's fictional creation. i think a lot of it is by accident. the drive to explore something that is painful to us is done through increments and leaps that we do not understand. it is literally therapy for one's own mind. a forest of overlooked weeds and poisonous temptations. having these list of questions kind of assumes that a person's mind is going to be well kept and well lit.
spoiler. it's not. it's a labyrinth fun house that is on a spinning tea cup ride in your brain.
it's a nice idea to try to present an idea... but i've found that it feels forced. and my mind can't feel free to explore what it wants.
sometimes... the long way is the right way.
Awesome video very thought provoking for sure.
I really liked this video. Thanks and congrats.
I can now see why Fight Club is such a classic: it is indeed clear what the author is trying to make us see - and change.
Cheers,
V
Wow...thank you! I finally realize a big part of why i've been on writer's block!
Masterclass video, thanks a lot !
A very helpful video. I am so glad I came across this.
Best writing advice ever!
Best one yet!
Bought the Story Grid book, subscribed to the YT channel, followed the advice...and just got offered a publishing contract this morning. Story Grid is THE best writing advice I have ever come across. Another fantastic video, keep it coming!
Can you email me? tim@storygrid.com - Tim
I love this video. Because I watch a youtuber that at the beginning of her videos says "Why does your story matter?"
My stories are m/m romances that take place between 1998 and 2000. The story follows husky men who don't fit the gay stereotypes of attractive. They're chubby, hairy, and over 30. The stories are taking the m/m romance genre and saying "Hey, chubby guys need love too. And it can be with oher chubby guys." All those who identify as bears are not muscular. We don't need a thin or athletic guy to tell us we're attractive. We're not all trying to lose weight. We're not all attracted to thin/athletic men. Sometimes we like other big guys. I'm fighitng against the stereoptype of bears that has evolved into the world that if you are chubby you are chub, fat, etc. And bears are regluated to muscular hairy gay men. No thank you.
That's actually something I never heard before from a mainstream author. I wish you best of luck!
@@MBeyeline, thank you 😊
Super great presentation
i already write for this 😅 so that’s great
Great advice
These are some really good questions.
Your video has a really good message , because I don’t know if necessarily I want to be a writer but I do want to write. I do want to put effort and give it a fair shot and to see if I have potential so I’ve been trying to watch a lot of videos and content and I want to read books about writing so I can see if it’s fit for me or not, so I want to try to put in a fair amount of effort, and I really enjoyed your video because you said some really good points that I have not thought about, and you have such a good way of delivering your thoughts.
Thank you 😊
Great video 👌🏻
Love your brilliant mind and of sharing the values and God bless you 🙏 of more abundance in everything ❤️ 🙏 life has to offer.
Love you brother ❤️ I connect well my loving Thoughts ❤️ and Energies ♥️ ❤️ to you.. we are all one in this
Love watching those subscription numbers go up. Lotta Frankurt-style B.S. in book tube. Story Grid can do good work for folks who wanna do the art/craft and aren't finding materials in Booktube.
Great content!
When you started asking, I knew the answer already to most of the questions.
Do this, but don't preech.
The minute you do that, you lose your reader.
Try to bake it into the story so that the reader can reach their own conclusions. Subtext is sometimes more powerful than on the nose.
VERY NICE
this makes me look at the 8 books I've written so far. I never thought about theme but all my books have one I realize now and its usually generally same. Ordinary people facing impossible situations which are driven by forces beyond the protag's control. Ordinary people rise to the challenge. The system, the government, the establishment, are the nebules negative forces screwing with our lives. My books tend to work the way The Hobbit works but many with tongue in cheek. I tend to show that antagonistic forces are, deep down, ridiculous. I didn't know that until I saw this video.
Are you kidding George Orwell! I’m having a blast writing. Are there hard parts? Sure, some editing needs a sledge hammer. But 99% of it is the funnest thing I’ve ever done. My current project does have a message, by the way.
I have some passionate ideas for a book I wish I could write but I have next to no punctuation skills or sentence composition skills. I was at the low end of learning in school and struggled. Most of what I know I read in libraries for years as I grew up/older.
Reading is what got me through some really tough years of my life, when I felt trapped in a place where I didn’t belong. I know there are and will be countless others like me. I want to give them that chance to escape into another world when this one sucks, that is why I write but for some reason, this video just left me frustrated. I have tried, time and time again to write a novel and I have told myself that the one I’m working on right now, I will finish it but the central theme of the story isn’t the great injustice I see in the world, it isn’t motivated by me wanting to tell the world something, it’s just based on a dream I had a year or two ago. Now I don’t know if I should instead write something with a theme closer to my motivation to write….
If you write something that's closer to your motivation then it'll be easier for you to finish the book. Like the video says without motivation you will get frustrated. That's just my opinion.
good questions
“You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say.” And thus the world was forever changed. Those who tried Green Eggs and Ham got food poisoning.
These books are highly coveted by many scholars, often placed on top 10 lists and rotated to peers.
I think a key concept here is precisely "catharsis" since that was what made the first great stories, the greek tragedies, great to begin with...
Gud review
Bilbo Baggins goes "on an adventure, he sees lots of destruction, and in that process, becomes a better version of himself."
At the end, Bilbo is wounded and heartsick, from his wounds, from being unable to destroy the ring, and from seeing his beloved Shire fall into the Enemy's hands. At no point does he become "a better version of himself." Lord of the Rings is full of regret and tragedy for a magical world that was fading and the industrialized world made by man that was coming. There are characters who persevere in the face of despair, true, but that's part of the story, not the conclusion.
Oof. If that’s how you read _The Hobbit_ it makes me sad for you. - Tim
Someone mixed up The Hobbit and LOTR.
@@ernststravoblofeld You're correct. My bad.
How do you handle it when you have multiple themes that are like comorbidities with each other?
I ask, cause when I could finely distill the thought and feelings I desperately want convey I learned that one of the reasons why it was so hard to work out was because it wasn't just one theme. (Or if it happens to be just one theme I couldn't encapsulate it in to one, two factor problem, but multiple two factor problems.)
Though I might be getting the relation between theme and two factor problems mixed up. Been a while since I last reviewed them.
One thing vs another is a perfectly fine theme all in of itself! You can have one character with one mindset and background foiled by one with the opposite. Sounds like you have a good set up for organic conflict in your novel :)
Some examples:
Star Wars prequels/The Clone Wars: the theme that friends are worth fighting for makes Anakin’s slow transformation into Darth Vader more tragic/compelling
Spider-Man Into/Across the Spiderverse: the movies are making the point that one’s identity and upbringing do matter because everyone has worth, but none of that matters when it comes to being (a) Spider-Man
This was interesting. Why you write to impact what you write. Story without purpose (other than be entertaining) might end up being soulless. I agree. But to be honest, as long as you create interesting characters (that are part of you, after all the only thing you can write is from your experience, knowledge, perspective) you will be part of the story you are writing and it will be personal. How you do it and incorporate it into seamless story that will not look like you telling people how to live their life is different matter. You want to show your perspective, not force it to others. It's an invitation to your mind, not an order.
You should read the best victorian English novel " The Gadfly" by E. L. Voinich- it is much better than all the innumerated books.
subbed, great content!
I have a question. Once you finish writing your story, how do you determine the best format for it? Format meaning audio, comic/graphic novel, children's book, etc.
I have a finished story that could work as a comic/graphic novel or a children's book and I'm trying to decide which is better for the story and would be most impactful for the reader.
We would say to think about your SAM (single audience member -> czcams.com/video/ZWnXsc76YLc/video.html).
Another way to say this is, who did you write the story for? What does _that person_ like to read?
If it's graphic novels, then turn it into a graphic novel, if it's a children's book, then children's book, and so on.
- Tim
@@StoryGrid thanks Tim! I just watched the video and that was helpful!
Oh I feel a little fire becoming bigger😧
This exact reason is why I think books like Fourth Wing are so criticized. Yeah, it might be a fun, vapid good time, but a majority of us want more than surface-level dragons and romance with a whisper of rebellion plot. Because books like Fourth Wing lack any sort of meaning or message, they read like a lighthouse that runs on a timer and a generator. Sure, everything functions and happens the way it's meant to, but there's no real life going on inside. Would you rather read about how the generator clicks on at nightfall and continues until dawn, or would you rather hear about the four lighthouse keepers who sit down for cards every night, how one skips the game every couple of days to pray for his son who's just gone to war?
Books with meaning give stories life and longevity, and I just feel like we're losing all of that with the way incomplete books are being pumped out of the publishing houses now.
>Harry Potter
>Hunger Games
>Great books
The answer to those questions I answered long ago. War.
Holy jump cut, Batman!
My non negotiable would land me on the banned book list
Unfortunately I often come up with plots before message.
Trying to find a theme to tie into everything that feels organic to the events of my story and the growth of my heroes can be hella frustrating.
Leads me to looking up essays on how stories can work WITHOUT a central theme.
People like books with universal themes and this is what Theodora Taylor talks about.
Okay, how does _Cujo_ or _The Shining_ change the world or the reader?
Haven't read _Cujo_ but _The Shining_ is pretty clearly a Cautionary tale about alcoholism and addiction. - Tim
can you write different books that have the same message? like does it have to be a new non-negotiable for every story idea?
100%. Writers have built entire careers on a single NN. - Tim
@@StoryGrid i see. thank you sm for the reply!
I just wanna write absurdism and insanity.
Same, or anything depressive
Do it. This video is awful. Not everything needs "a message." Modern fiction is being ruined by putting the message first and a good story second.
A new writer will actually find him or herself moving toward their own "non-negotiable" message as they write. I know I did. It is human nature.
I don't like the idea of an author having a way they want to change me by reading their book. In fact, it's one of the most infuriating things when I feel like a book is telling me how to feel. There are ways to explore themes that that encourages the reader to think for themselves on the subject, not just tell them what the answer is.
Even then, not everything has to have a deeper meaning. George Orwell didn't like writing unless he felt like it had a purpose, great for him. I writing. Telling stories is how I relax. Themes are great and all but people aren't going to read through a book if it isn't entertaining first. All the "masterworks" mentioned are also incredibly entertaining books.
Underrated comment right here.
While the video is (IMO) quite helpful, what Story Grid got wrong, I think, is the notion of a passion or message being needed for a work to be memorable. I appreciate the video in acknowledging that passion can very well fuel a story to greatness - but what it comes down to is not the author's passion: it is the character arc. Writing purely in accordance with your passion makes your story feel like a mouthpiece for your ideology.
I feel like this video is specifically for writing books like he mentioned, books with universally deep messages that keeps resonating with you long after you read them. You can write what you want but his video is specifically for this type of books. I feel like for a book to not feel like the message is forced, the characters have to come to the conclusions naturally and logically, it also helps to not beat the reader with the message but to let them ponder on it (ie not force them to view things like you but to simply share your message and let them come to their own conclusions).
Some writers are motivated to preach. Some readers read to confirm their biases. But the books that hold my attention are neither of these. They are the books that present great questions without asking of you the reader to answer, but for you to witness how and if the protagonist can answer. Those books are for me.
I will defend the video here. It’s not advocating preaching or telling a reader what to feel, but simply letting your deepest passion/concern motivate your writing. One doesn’t preach or tell the reader what to feel in effective fiction, one evokes and shows. The reader may or may not come along for the ride. That’s up to them.
“I want to change you” is about the worst approach to any relationship a person can have. It’s pretentious beyond belief and a main reason why SO much fiction sucks right now.
What's the message in Harry Potter?
That mud bloods and muggles are not inferior. It’s also about love and family and friendship but it’s the anti-racism that separates it from a lot of children’s fantasy.
Yes.
Also, death is a natural part of life.
@zeropaloobatheuber1572 I 100% would disagree that Rowling meant for that (or any other theme) to be THE message. Good story telling naturally features universal truths.
Hmm
This is...fairly obvious...the only kinds of books I have ever read.
This message could not be a total bs if writers like Stephen King did not exist :) He is absolutely all about entertainment in writing without any worldbending messages. And like you or not, after 300 years old people will remember him better nd buy his books more than most of the authors mentioned in schools.
Um… every single SK novel _I’ve_ read has a non-negotiable in it. _The Shining_ is a cautionary tale about alcoholism and addiction. _Misery_ is basically an autobiography about the same subject. _11/22/63_ is a deep message about fate and understanding what you can and can’t control.
This video isn’t a guess. It’s how stories work. They only last and resonate when they have a deep meaning.
- Tim
The irony is that "The Lord of the Rings" doesn't follow the story grid...
How's that? - Tim
@@StoryGrid Oh, wow! I didn't think you'd see this comment. I've been thinking about this ever since I read "The Story Grid", and especially after listening to the podcast (A Martian Carol was the episode's title, I believe) where both you and Shawn Coyne state your dislike of Tolkien's LotR (the book).
My opinion is: of course, the overall framework of the Story Grid works well with LotR. There are conventions, obligatory scenes, etc. But it doesn't fit neatly in any of the external and internal genre. Sure, some subplots do fit (Aragorn's arc is a status/morality-testing story for instance), but the overall story doesn't. Why is that?
My view on this is simple: the twelve content genres work well with the vast majority of contemporary fiction and most older works, but it doesn't account for all older genres. Given that Tolkien drew on epic poetry (The Kelevala, Norse sagas, Beowulf, etc.), it's not difficult to see why it doesn't fit with the twelve content genres of the Story Grid.
Someone who's well-read in the epic genre (like Tolkien was) will easily intuit the "secrets" of the genre. It's an external story that focuses on the great deeds of exceptional individuals who shape the fate of the world.
I won't list all the obligatory scenes and conventions, but they differ from any of the other content genres and are shared by all epics. (You need, for instance, a vast setting, societal stakes, a traitor, separated lovers, etc.) You can even separate it into subgenres: war epic (Illiad, Song of Roland, Pharsalia), beginning and end of times epics (Edda, Theogony), historical epic (Brut, Aeneid), etc.
That's just one example of an old content genre that doesn't fit with the Story Grid. I can name a few others with examples if you're interested. (For instance, I don't think that "A Christmas Carol" is a "horror supernatural" as it contains one of the six obligatory moments).
I suppose one could say: "who cares? nobody reads this kind of stuff anymore." Fortunately, Tolkien shows that it's not the case! (Also, I do believe that Kingdom of Heaven is another, more recent one.)
I don't think that everyone got what this video is about.
Not all the writers, mentioned here, set out to deliver a particular message. Orwell is the notable exception, which is why his writing comes across as didactic. I'm not knocking it - I'm a fan - I'm just stating the obvious.
Instead, by writing how you see the world, from the heart, your writing will have something to say.
It doesn't have to change the world, but writing your "truth" means that your story has a better chance of speaking to other people. Creating connections, even through time, makes a story worth reading.
Now, writers are encouraged to think about what they want to say at the heart of their story, what message they are hoping to get across, and they need to state that when submitting. They are not expected to leave that to chance or their publisher's and editor's interpretation.
Thinking about your message helps to tighten your story and with crafting intentional prose. However, like Tolkien (who created his ideas for LOTR long before he wrote it, and denied it was allegorical for WWII), don't be surprised if other ideas sneak in. We don't live or write in a vacuum, and we cannot help but be influenced by our experiences.