You’re looking for the specific issue that’s holding them back, not everything that’s ever happened to them. The goal is to dig deep in their backstory, but with the guidance of a treasure map, not by tearing up the whole damn yard. What goes into writing a strong character? Bonus round: give an example of a strong character.Ī strong character is a character who’s conflicted, which means you need to figure out what issue they’re struggling with, internally, before you begin writing. If trust your muse and just write, the story will appear. What’s the worst piece of writing/storytelling advice you’ve ever received?ĭon’t outline. Handy case in point: defenesrate, otherwise known as “chucking something out of a window.” I always wanted a real reason to use that word. * Oh, one more thing, the bigger the word, the less emotion it conveys - not to mention meaning. And as soon as they figure that out, they defenestrate* the book and go see what’s on TV. That means that when you tell them things that they don’t actually need to know, they’re going to spend time inventing reasons why you might have told them, which means that pretty soon they’re reading an entirely different story than the one you’re writing. Remember, the reader believes that everything in your story is there on a need-to-know basis, so they assume that everything you tell them is critically important to their understanding of what’s going on. Give the audience one piece of writing or storytelling advice: They can choose whether or not to listen to facts or headlines or “truths” but stories? They can’t help it. No one wants a dog to go hungry.īecause people listen to stories. They’d say that they were on the road and had run out of dog food, and the stores were closed, and could they just have some scraps. Every night they’d pull up behind a hotel banquet room at about ten and go into the kitchen. They never went hungry though, thanks to a tip they got from an aging hobo. They were down on their luck, and often got so low on money that they only had enough for gas. Many years ago a friend of mine was traveling with a buddy.

Wired for Story now available! Check out and seek her on Twitter ( This is a blog about writing and storytelling. Since I’m all about smashing open people’s heads with a rock (though Lisa assures me that’s not how it’s done), here she sits down for an interview. Lisa Cron wants to help you write better not just by teaching you better skills but by cracking open your brain and showing you how it’s wired to tell those stories.

Lisa cron