The Power of Storytelling

You can't really have a story without storytelling, can you? From ancient myths to modern novels, storytelling has been a fundamental way of sharing experiences, conveying messages, and engaging audiences. It's safe to say that to tell your stories you're going to want to master the art of storytelling. Well, let's explore storytelling and see what valuable tips I have to offer you to use narrative techniques that will engage with your reader. 

I hope you're ready for an anatomy lesson. 

Create Relatable Characters

This is the very soul of your novel. Your reader isn't going to care about your story if they do not care about your characters and they will not care about your character if they can not relate to them. Sure I don't know what it's like to be a princess in a romance novel who had to run away to avoid an arranged marriage, but I do know what it is to be a teenage girl sneaking out to go to a friend's house in the middle of the night. 

Your reader may not be able to relate to the situation, but they can relate to the motivations and the emotions your character has, use this to your advantage.  

Develop a Gripping Plot

While the characters are the heart and soul of your novel, your plot is the backbone. Without it, your novel won't have the strength to stand. Your story needs conflict, challenges, and obstacles to put your beloved characters through so your reader can be rooting for them to come out the other side of it (mostly) unharmed. Build suspense, raise questions, and create a sense of urgency that keeps the reader hooked. Pick any number of novel outlining techniques and make sure you are hitting all of the important points in your story. (i.e. rising action, climax, and resolution.)  

Use Descriptive Language

Now that we've got the backbone and the heart all sorted it's time to surround our metaphorical body with flesh and blood. (Yes I do plan on seeing this analogy all the way to the end - not sorry!) Skeletons are creepy, you don't want to see just a skeleton walking down the street with a heart betting in its chest - so you wrap it in skin, porcelain reminiscent of moonlight, brown eyes sparkling with the depths of warmth, and a fiery mane cascading down her shoulders. Give your readers something worth seeing. If your character walked into a room, make sure your reader knows what it looks like.  

Employ Dialogue

It's time for our skeleton to talk. Give your characters something to say. This will give your character depth and show their personalities in a way simple narration never can. Use dialogue to convey information, show relationships between characters, and provide insights into their thoughts and emotions. Using dialogue instead of narration can be a great way to move your plot forward and connect with your readers as long as your dialogue sounds natural and authentic. 

Build Tension and Conflict

Well, I'm out of anatomy parts to use so we'll just say that conflict is the caffeine that is running through our writer's body and our skeleton's body. Conflict is what stops your story from stalling out after just a few chapters, it's what drives it through page by page until you reach the resolution. Your charter wants something and things just keep getting in their way. 

Conflict can be internal, external, and even better, both. Your readers are investing in seeing your character succeed and every time you throw something in front of them your reader is going to have to give up whatever else they were doing that day so that they can continue reading to find out if they'll make it to the other side of the bridge or if they'll sacrifice the bus load of senior citizens to save their soul mate. 

Incorporate Pacing

I thought I was all out, but here's the final one, we gave our skeleton a heart, but we forgot to give it a beat to follow. Pacing, just like the rhythmic beating of your pulse controls the speed at which the story unfolds. Moments of action get our heart racing and the same goes for your story, these scenes should move fast as well, and when you want your reader hanging on in suspense or the scene is more emotional slow it down a bit. 

Pacing takes a bit of practice, but the best way to get better at it is to read more and write more. There is no better teacher than self-experience

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Now go write your story.

With love, 

B.K. xo

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