The Art of Storytelling

Writing About Writing #4

You Cray-Cray, Bruh

I had a crazy idea. The idea was to host a short fiction competition aimed at critique and honing the craft. You submit stories, I read them, I score them according to my own unique judging criteria.

I like the thought of it but also—how could I possibly score other writers? What do I know about the art of storytelling? What things would I look for and judge on?

This article is where I think about that aspect of it.

Do you like the thought of that competition?

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The Categories

What categories would it make sense to judge? I’m thinking 5 for no clear reason. Let’s see if five categories present themselves.

Grammar, Syntax & Spelling - Obvious start. You gotta be able to write good and if u brake da rulez it hasta be 4 a porpoise.

Craftsmanship - This one is most like judging the story itself. Did you tee-up a conflict, explore it, and then provide payoff? Was there a journey the READER went on, much less the characters? Which reminds me—

Characterization - Are the characters believable, relatable, people? Do they go on a journey, an Arc if you will? Am I invested in them? Does their dialogue relate to who they are?

Storytelling & Prose - Did you show more than you told? If you told—was it on purpose? Did your language enhance the story, or detract from it? Did you spend too much time describing scenery and characters, and not enough time on characters doing things?

Pacing - Did the story move well? Did it feel slow and trudgey? Did the twist ending come out of nowhere and feel unsatisfying?

Je ne sais quoi - This is a french phrase that means “I don’t know what”, it is used idiomatically to express the unknowable something about a thing or a story. This is also a 6th category, so I’ve spilled the banks of my original plan. Anyway—some stories just capture my attention and leave me holding on. I can’t really explain it. It might be something in the previous categories, but I want to leave a category for something unspecific, where I can identify something hard to pin-down about a submission.

So now, let’s break these categories down.

Grammar, Syntax & Spelling

This is basic mastery of the English Language. If it feels like it was written by a 10 year old it will show and be hard to get through. If it feels like an academic essay, it will be hard to get through also. Grammar exists to give our sentences rules; syntax exists to give our sentences structure; spelling exists to give our sentences words. Rules were made to be broken, so if you are going to deviate from these rules it has to be intentional and be clear that it is intentional and not a mistake. Short sentences help build tension in a suspenseful moment; long sentences work great for waxing poetical about scenery. Different tools for different purposes. I am definitely not a strict grammarian; anyone who has read my stories with a close grammatical eye may have noticed that already. So if I’m going to judge grammar, syntax, and spelling—I need to be able to identify grammar, syntax, and spelling.

Craftsmanship

Stories have a beginning, middle, and end. The characters go on an adventure. It’s not easy. They learn things. There’s symbols and motifs sprinkled throughout. There’s set up and there’s payoff. The characters behavior makes sense and feels unique. All of these things go into the craftsmanship of telling a story. Did you take the characters on a journey? Did the readers go on that journey with them? It’s hard to really pin down what craftsmanship is, but you can tell a well crafted story and oftentimes it makes you feel something or imagine something, you react and participate in the act of storytelling itself.

Characterization

I mentioned this a little bit in the previous criterion, but the Characters have to feel different and relatable. They have to have thoughts and motivations all their own, and we have to have a reason to root for them or root against them. They have to change from beginning to end. Their Dialogue has to feel emotive and real, and not cardboard and awkward. Making your characters feel real will do so much more to make the story feel real, than putting all your effort into the world and none at all into the characters. Invest in your characters and give them reasons to do things. Don’t let your character do or say anything if it’s not something they would do!

Storytelling & Prose

How is this different from Craftsmanship? This is more about the structure than it is about the substance of the story. Prose relates to the words you choose—is your language intentional? Some stories lend themselves to flowery prose, others it’s better to use simple vernacular. The way you structure the story also counts. Did you start at the beginning, and end at the end? Did you start in media res? Did you design the structure to hide the big reveal until the very end, or could we see it coming? Was their dramatic irony? Was there surprising twists and turns—and if so, were they appropriate for the story?

Pacing

How to move the story, and how fast, is definitely an art more than a science. It’s an element of craftsmanship, but deserves it’s own mention because it’s something every story needs to have. Not every story will have flourish, but every story will need to have pacing. Pacing is very important with building up to a big surprise slowly, or moving through an action sequence quickly. The pacing should be as much a part of the story as the character and setting, because the pacing reflects how the reader should feel while reading. Move quickly if you want the reader to be stressed. Move slowly if you want the reader to be relaxed. If there’s a pacing mismatch then it’s going to be confusing—unless it’s intentional and by design. Pacing has to fit the story as much as any other piece.

Je Ne Sais Quoi

Sometimes in storytelling there’s no way to categorize why it makes us feel things or why it strikes us imaginatively. All of the previous five things are ingredients that go into a story soup, and everyone might use the same ingredients, but one will taste completely different from the other. That’s that unspeakable something that makes a good story great. It would be cheap to say simply “this story was made with love” as if the other stories were not. But there’s no denying that there is something experientially different about reading some works and reading others. I don’t know what that is, so I have to leave an open category for it just in case.

So, Yeah

These are the categories I would use if I was judging a competition of writers. Do you agree with my categories? What do you think? What categories would you use? Would you define them the same way I did?

Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading!