Writing vs. Storytelling
Jul. 18th, 2014 02:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elise_rasha For every person out there who has never written a story, there are some hardcore rules I believe you should know and be following.
1 - Know how to construct a sentence.
2 - Know how to spell.
3 - Know how to punctuate your sentences.
4 - Listen to Weird Al's "Word Crimes".
Actually, the fourth rule is more of a recommendation, but I'm going to toss it out there anyway. It's fun, it's educational, and it speaks to my heart. The rest is pretty simple and aligns with the basics everyone is supposed to be taught from an early age.
Now, I know in my last post, I said let's just start writing. Let's get the ideas out. Let's not worry about publishers and being commercially marketable. I stand by those statements, and I always will. It's encouragement, and I will do my best to offer that to anyone who wants to write.
I also encourage the "new to writing" authors out there to make sure they know the basics on grammar, spelling, and punctuation and to have a good grasp on them. I've talked about options before when it comes to publishing: Self, self to traditional, and traditional. New writers no longer have to rely solely on a major publishing house. They can hire an editor, but to rely solely on your editor is a little foolhardy. To rely on the editor from the publishing house is a little foolhardy.
This isn't because the editors don't know what they're doing. They do know what's required of them, and they are very good at their jobs.
Editors are also human beings prone to making mistakes. I own most of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. In one of the books, the one character was experiencing something in the quite, not the quiet.
When it comes to grammar, be your own advocate. The editors are doing the best jobs that they can. You, the new author, are one of many so know basics for grammar. If you ever have a question about something, this is the internet age. There are plenty of sites out there that can help.
Now you might ask, what does grammar have to do with story-telling? I mean, come on, Elise, the title of this entry is Writing vs. Story-telling. What does grammar have to do with it?
Well, first of all, I don't want new writers to confuse writing with story-telling. At its core, writing is just constructing a series of sentences to form a coherent thought or idea. Writing is what I'm doing in this blog right now. Writing is, by design, something we do to preserve our experiences and our history, to relay information, to teach, and to entertain.
Writing is not the same as telling a story. When you buy a computer or a stereo, the instructions aren't telling you a story. They're telling you how to set the system up so you can use it. Memos and text books tell you how to do something. That doesn't make what's written a story.
Let me put it another way.
How many people, when a baby starts to babble to them, say, "Is that so", as if the babbling were some kind of story? How many five-year-olds tell their parents about their adventures with their friends, real and imaginary? How many of us tell our friends about the crazy things we did as children? How many relatives of World War II veterans have rolled their eyes at those old war stories but sat there and listened anyway?
Those are stories. Newspapers reporting on conflicts are stories. A celebrity writing an autobiography has a story tell. Story-telling is older than writing. Ancient Native American tribes kept their rituals and cultures alive by oral story-telling traditions. The same is true of all ancient cultures before man started drawing squiggly lines in the dirt and forming the written word.
Writing is not story-telling. Writing is simple. Writing is the means by which we preserve our stories.
Story-telling is complex because it needs to be compelling, engaging and challenging, not just for the reader, but for the writer as well. The satisfactory pay-off is well worth the effort.
1 - Know how to construct a sentence.
2 - Know how to spell.
3 - Know how to punctuate your sentences.
4 - Listen to Weird Al's "Word Crimes".
Actually, the fourth rule is more of a recommendation, but I'm going to toss it out there anyway. It's fun, it's educational, and it speaks to my heart. The rest is pretty simple and aligns with the basics everyone is supposed to be taught from an early age.
Now, I know in my last post, I said let's just start writing. Let's get the ideas out. Let's not worry about publishers and being commercially marketable. I stand by those statements, and I always will. It's encouragement, and I will do my best to offer that to anyone who wants to write.
I also encourage the "new to writing" authors out there to make sure they know the basics on grammar, spelling, and punctuation and to have a good grasp on them. I've talked about options before when it comes to publishing: Self, self to traditional, and traditional. New writers no longer have to rely solely on a major publishing house. They can hire an editor, but to rely solely on your editor is a little foolhardy. To rely on the editor from the publishing house is a little foolhardy.
This isn't because the editors don't know what they're doing. They do know what's required of them, and they are very good at their jobs.
Editors are also human beings prone to making mistakes. I own most of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. In one of the books, the one character was experiencing something in the quite, not the quiet.
When it comes to grammar, be your own advocate. The editors are doing the best jobs that they can. You, the new author, are one of many so know basics for grammar. If you ever have a question about something, this is the internet age. There are plenty of sites out there that can help.
Now you might ask, what does grammar have to do with story-telling? I mean, come on, Elise, the title of this entry is Writing vs. Story-telling. What does grammar have to do with it?
Well, first of all, I don't want new writers to confuse writing with story-telling. At its core, writing is just constructing a series of sentences to form a coherent thought or idea. Writing is what I'm doing in this blog right now. Writing is, by design, something we do to preserve our experiences and our history, to relay information, to teach, and to entertain.
Writing is not the same as telling a story. When you buy a computer or a stereo, the instructions aren't telling you a story. They're telling you how to set the system up so you can use it. Memos and text books tell you how to do something. That doesn't make what's written a story.
Let me put it another way.
How many people, when a baby starts to babble to them, say, "Is that so", as if the babbling were some kind of story? How many five-year-olds tell their parents about their adventures with their friends, real and imaginary? How many of us tell our friends about the crazy things we did as children? How many relatives of World War II veterans have rolled their eyes at those old war stories but sat there and listened anyway?
Those are stories. Newspapers reporting on conflicts are stories. A celebrity writing an autobiography has a story tell. Story-telling is older than writing. Ancient Native American tribes kept their rituals and cultures alive by oral story-telling traditions. The same is true of all ancient cultures before man started drawing squiggly lines in the dirt and forming the written word.
Writing is not story-telling. Writing is simple. Writing is the means by which we preserve our stories.
Story-telling is complex because it needs to be compelling, engaging and challenging, not just for the reader, but for the writer as well. The satisfactory pay-off is well worth the effort.
