don’t think go. Not et. 1 ail believe that art transforms life But 1 [know that if you eat pay all te instruments in the orchestra of sory, no mater what music may be in your imagination, you're fondemned to hum the same old tune, I've writen Story to empower your command of the craft, to free you to express an orig inal vision of life, to lit your talent beyond convention to create fas of distinctive substance, structure, and sje. Besesianye THE STORY PROBLEM HE DECLINE OF STORY ‘Imagine, in one global day, the pages of prose turned, plays pe?) formed, films screened, the unending stream of television comedy} fand drama, twentyfourhour print and broadcast news, bedtime} Gls told © cilten,bonoom bagging acne nee iossip, human's insatiable appetite for stories, Story is not) only our mos; prolific at form but rival all activities —work, ply, eating, exercise—for our waking hours. We tell and take in stories | ay much as we sleep—and even then we dreans, Why? Why is 80 ‘much of our life spent inside stories? Because a5 critic Kenneth Burke tells us stores are equipment fr living Day after day we seek an answer tothe ageless question Aris- totle posed in Ethics: How should a human being lead his life? But ‘the answer eludes us, hiding behind a blur of racing hours as we struggle to ft our means to our dreams, fase idea with passion, ‘nam desite into reality. We'ee swept along on a riskerdéen shuttle rough time. If we pull back to grasp pattern and meshing, life, like 2 Gestalt, does flips: Girt serious, then comic; static, feantic ‘meaningful, meaningless. Momentous world events are beyond ‘our control while personal events, despite all effort to keep our hands on the wheel, more often than not contcol us. Traditionally humankind has sought the answer to Aristotle's {question from the four wisdomis}~philosophy, science, religion, art—taking insight from each to bot together a livable meaning,ut today who reads Heyl or Kant without exam © pass? Sc aan he geese, gles ie wth compen and pe sani Wh cate wht gic o econo, solos estan? Regen, for mary, has Bom’ an empty naa that “Pets It A ua a tansl slog diminishes, Mrrurn te tare we fl Bele the a of The word ow cosures fms, owls, thea, and levis insu quotes snd isch venous Banger that he 107 te have Become humanity pine source of inspiration, a8 I sibs toner duos and gin insght ito if. Ov ape Fer Sir ina teflecon ofthe profound haman ned o gasp the pa tne ong. not mel san nln execs, but within 2 (ry pesonal entonal experienc In the words of plyigt Jean Ano, Fcton gives ie is form” Some ae thi raving for sry 28 spe eneainment, an ‘cape vn if ther an an exorion oft But what, afer all, irene? Tobe entrined eo be mere nthe cee \“nhony of story to an intellectually and emotionally satisfying end. Toth fm sudlence, entrainment i thes of siting a the a, conenting on 2 Screen in onder Wo expetenee the Sory’s ‘hetrngand with at nsght,thearoutl of stong a inex even pail emotons ands the mening deepens be ered tothe Uhimstesatston of those moins ‘Whether ir the bimph of eed entrepreneurs oer Hite demons in GHOSTBUSTERS or the compen reslon of ner ovr in SHINE. the otegation of carat n THE RED DESERT tr ssn in THE CONVERSATION al ae Sins rove, Sh plas, hgh al shades of the comic nd agi esterain when they the uence fesh rodeo ie empoweed wis nae the searing To rete behind th notion ta the iene spy tran dp souls the dor an espe realty a covery “4 abandonment of the artist's responsibilty. Story isn't a flight from teal bt vehicle hat eases us on ou serch fo iy ou best ‘Hit mae eset th aarchy of estece “whe he ewer expending rer ofthe edi now gs the oppor send tris beyond Bode and langage tun THE stoRY pRosieM ¢ 35 feds of millions, the overall qualiy of storytelling is eroding. On | getasion we read or see works of excellence, but forthe most part we B) weary of searching newspaper ads, vdeo shops, and TV listings for something of quality, of puting down noves halézead,of slipping {5 Flawed and false storytelling i forced to substitute spectacle for H jubstance, trickery for truth. Weak stories, desperate to hold aul BAD) sant, in Barone more and more decorative. The behavior of actors FY becomes more and more histioni, more and more lewd, more ‘and more violent. Music nd round effect Become increasingly tumuloous, The tol effec tansudes into the grotesque. A culture cannot etohe without honest, pomerl iontelling, When society > repented experince glony, hollowedout, peudostriy, it degen- erates. We nee satires and tragedies, dee and comedies that Ehime a ean ight int the dingy comer ofthe human payche and toca. Inot a8 Yeats warned. the centre can ot hl Bach yer, Hollywood produces andor distributes four hur ted oie dred i, vitally im pe day. few ae excel | lent, but the msjoniy ae mediocre or worse. The temptation i o lame this gt of Banaliy onthe Babb figures who approve productions. But recall « moment fom THE PLAYER: Tim Robe Bines young Heywood executive explains that he has many ene rms because each year his studio accepts over twenty thon Story submissions but only makes twelve file. This accurate laloge. The story departments ofthe major stdios poe though thousands upon thousands of cps, tetment, novel and plays searching for a great screen stor Or, more likey, something alia to good thatthe could develop to beter shanaverage. By the 1990 acrpt development in Hellwood climbed fo over 3500 milion er annum, tee quarter of which i ai to writers for options ewes on le tat wl eer be made. Despite aty g RopERT MEKKE hulebilion dllars and the exhaustive elfrts of development per- ome, Holywood cannot find better material than it produces. The fardecelieve truth i that what we se on the screen each yea i @ reasonable reflection ofthe best writing ofthe last few years ‘Many screenwriters, however, cannot face this downtown fact ‘and live in the exubs ofillusion, convinced that Hollywood is blind to theit talent. With rare exceptions. unrecognized genius is_¢ tnyth, Fitstrate screenplays are atleast optioned if not made. For raters wit can tell a quality story, ia sller’s market—always has been, always will be, Hollywood has a secure international business For hundreds of filme each year, and they wil be made, ‘Most will open, run a few weeks, close, and be mercifully forgotten, ‘Yet Holywood not only survives, i thrives, because it has viet ally no competition. This wasnt always the case. From the ise of ‘Neotelis othe high tide ofthe New Wave, North American cin ‘emns were crowded with works by brant Continental filmmakers that challenged Hollywood's dominance. But with the death or retirement of these masters, the lst twenty-five years have Seen & slow decay in the quality of European films "Today European fimakers blame their fire to atract audi cence on a consptacy of distibutors. Yer the films oftheir predeces- sare—Reoit, Bergman, Fellini, Buuel, Wajda, Clouzot, Antonioni, Resnais—were screened throughout the world, The system hasn't hanged. The audience for non-Hollywood fl is stl vast an loyal, Dintbutors have the same motivation now they had then: money Whats changed is that contemporary “auteurs™ cannot tell tory with the power of the previous generation. Like pretentious interior deco rator, they make fis that stike the eye, and nothing more. As & result, the storm of Furopean genius has become a slough of aid films that eave a vacuum for Holywood to ‘Aslan works, however, tow travel throughout North America and the world, moving and delighting milion, seizing the interna tional spotight with ease for one reason: Asian filmmakers tell stipe stores, Rather than seapegoting distributors, non-Hollywood ‘lmmakers would do well to lok tothe East, where artists have the passion to tel stories andthe erat to tell them besuifly. THE STORY PROBLEM 4 35 “THE LOSS OF CRAFT Boe art of story is the dominant cultural force inthe world, and the ee een eee ea ees cet eae16 4 sowen MeEEE ‘work by tial and error agrnst a model built up fiom accumulated ‘eadig and watching, The unschooled writer calls this “instil” ‘ut i's merely habit and ie’ vigidly limiting. He ether imitates his ‘mental potofype or imagines himselin the avant garde and rebels ‘against it But the haphazard groping toward or revolt against the sum of unconsciously ingrained repetitions is not, in any sense, technique, and leads to sereenplays clogged with clichés of ether the commercial or the art house varity. This hitorsmiss struggle wasn't always the case, In decades pst screenwriters Jeamed their craft either through university study or on their own in a ibrar, through experience in the theatre fr in writing novels, through apprenticeship to the Hollywood stuio system of through a combination of these means. arly in this century 2 number of American universities came to believe that, like musicians and painters, writers need the equiv- alent of music or at school to learn the principles of thelr craft. To that end scholar such as William Archer, Kenneth Rowe, and John Howard Lawson wrote excellent books on dramaturgy and the prose art. Their method was intrinsic, drawing strength from the bigsmuscle movements of desire, forces of antagonism, turning points, spine, pogresson,exlss,climax—story seen from the inside out, Working walters,-with or without formal educations, used these texts to develop their art, tuming the halfeentury from the Roaring Twenties through the protesting sixties into a golden age ‘ofthe American story on green, page, and stage. ‘Over the last twentyfive years, however, the method of teaching creative writing in American universities has shifted from the intrinsic tothe extrinsic. Trends in Iterary theory have dravet professors away from the deep sources of story toward language, codes, text—story seen ffom the outside. AS a result, with some notable exceptions, the current generation of writers has been sundereducated in the prime principles of story Screenvriters abroad have had even less opportunity to study tbeie craft, European academics generally deny that writing can, in any sense, be taught, and as 2 result, courses in Creative Writing have never been included in the curriculum of Continental univer THE STORY pRosLeM 6 a7 ecancther nt, is impossible to say, Whats worse, disdain for [jesovting has untl recently, exhded it fom study al Bar fim schools ave Moscow and Warsz ‘Much canbe ei gst the od Holywood stad stem, but sry ets. Thi ny is gone Every now and then a tl rei {diets apprenticelhip, but in its zeal to bring back the golden days Ge forgets tha an apprentice needs « master, Todays excutves Dia recognize ably, but few have the sil or patience to tum a ein an ait “the fnal cause for the deine of story ans very deep Values, fpolive/ngatve charges of Hi are atthe oul of our art The shes sory around a perception of whats werth ving fo, ‘worth dying for, what’ focish Yo pure the meaning of BP itis, tth—the essential valuen. In decades past, writer and Bc more ors rend on thse questions but mere and mare B is hos boop an age of moral and ethical cynic, elas, dN abject —s great confsion of values Aa the fal dis Ef itates and emal entagoninma re, who, for ample els he Siiderstands the nature of lore? And how, i you do havea conve: Be ido yo express tan evermore skeptical audience? BE, 5 Ths ersion of values has brought with ita coresponding eo lof story. Unlike writers n the pas, we can astume nothing. Firat we must dg dept into life to uncover new inight, new pa » tefinements of value and meaning, then create a story vehicle that BI! Gxpresses our interpretation to an increasingly agnostic world, No Fen eve Lt Ange, 1 ia man) ep eng Fp sowing ol lwo UA nd NBG, nig see [pf cold wate npn advance mall pu Holywood sor ahwg nonter MCREF pnts coverage and just lin tile and waiter, The report 1 wrote ‘over and over again went ike this ice derpion,acable dnogu. Some amasing moments some vente moments nal asi of welichosen words. The on, Foe ucts The fs tity poge eral on aft belly of expos thn the est never thee fe, The main plo, what here of ted with comenen conidene aed wea motivation, Nod remit protagonist. Unrated tions tha could shape ito sb las meer ds Charnes ae avr raed Be mre than they vee. Nat a mmc’ insight int he ier ines ofthese people oF thar scty. WS a Wiss ealecin of preditabie, ial, and (lh epsde tha wander fit apes haze, PASS ON IT But {never wrote this report: Great sory! Grabbed me on page one and held me nits embrace. Thin ac busta den clint spi of ow superb sieve of plot and splot, Sule relations of dep character. “honacing insight int this acy. Made me laugh, made me en. Drove to an Act Two dima so moving that I though the sory tos ver. Ande, ut of the ees ofthe scond ae this writer ee td a hind ato uch power, sck beauty, sch magpifcmce I'm sting his report from he floor. Hower, this pt is a 27009 Frmmatca nightmare with evry {fh word misspalld. Dia Tague’ 50 tangled Olercoulan gt his tongue around i Despina sae with camer diesins, suber expla- rations, and pilesophical commentary. 1's note ype i the proper format, Obviously not a profesionel writer. PASS ON IT. 1 writen his report, 1 have lost ray ob. ‘The sign on the door doesn't read "Dislogue Department” of pescription Department” It reads "Story Department.” A good story makes a good film possible, while failure to make the story ‘work virally guarantees disaster A reader who can't grasp this Jondamental deserves to be fired. I's surprisingly rare, in fact, to THE STORY PROBLEM 4 19 Hyd beawifily crafled story with bad dialogue or dul descip- Bion: More often than no, te better the storytelling, the more vivid Bie images, the sharper the diclogue, But lack of progression, false Spotaton, edusdant character, empty sublet hole, and oter | fac story problems are the foot causes ofa bland, boring te. FF Literary alent snot enougt, Ifyou cannot ll story al those “atu images and subtleties of dialogue that you spent months bind months perfecting waste the paper they're writen om, What we Beate forthe world, what it demands of us, is story. Now and fr. Bece. Countless writers lavish dresy dialogue and manicured \ descriptions on anorexic yarns and wonder why their scripts never P jee production, wile others with modest Iteary talent bat great Foyeling power have the deep pleasure of watching their dreams U) ivngin the ight ofthe screen, ti Of the total creative effort represented in a finished work, 75 erent or more ofa writers labor goes into designing story. Who fe these charactzs? What do they want? Why do they want it 1 low do they go, about getting i? What stops them? What are the consequences Finding the answers to these grand questions and By shaping them into sori our overwhelming creative task Designing story tests the maturity and insight © nowledge of society nature, and the human bear tory demands both vivid imagination and powefl analytic thought. SelFexpresson BP i never an issue, fr, witingy or unwitingly, all tries, honest P)and dishonest, wise and foolish, faithfully miror their maker, Fe exposing his humanity... oF lick of t. Compared to this teror, BE yting dialogue ia sweet diversion. Ls So the water embraces the principle, Tel Story... then freezes, For what is story? The idea of story is like the idea of { ives. We can dance and sing Vong, We think we understand music until we ty to compose it fand what comes out of the piano Scares the ca Fh. Ieboth TENDER MERCIES and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK Pe wonder stores bentyl fo the wena they are— BF nat on earth do they have in common? If HANNAH AND HER {SISTERS and MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAILare both the writer, hisee tuittnt conse stoies delightful tod, and they are, where do they wach? Compare THE CRYING GAME to PARENTHOOD, TERM: ATOR to REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, UNFORGIVEN to EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN. Or A FISH CALLED WANDA to MAN BITES DOG, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT to RESERVOIR DOGS. Moving back through the decades, compare VERTIGO to 8+ to PERSONA to RASHOMON to CASABLANCA to GREED to MODERN TIMES to THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN—all superb tercen stores, all vastiy diffrent, yet all produce the same result an tuudience leaving the theate exclaiming, "What a great story” ‘Drowning ina sea of genres and sls, the writer may come to ‘elie that fall dase fms tel story then anything cin bea story. But if we lok deeply, if we stip away the surface, we find that at hear all ave the same thing. Bach is an embodiment of the uni ermal form of story. Fach articulates this form to the screen in & Tongue way, but in each the essential fori dental, nd it t0 thls deep form tat the audience is responding when it reacts with, “What a good stony” Tach of the arts is defined by its essential form, From sym phony to hiphop, the underying fom of music makes a piece Prue and not noise, Whether representational or abstract, the ca ‘inal principles of visual art make a canvas 2 painting, not & doodle Equally, fom Homer to Ingmar Bergman, the universal form of story shapes @ work into story, not portraiture or collage “serosal cultures and through all age, this innate form has been cenessy variable but changeless. ‘Yat form des not mean formula." ‘There is no screenplay-witing recipe that guarantees you cake wil rise, Story is far too ric in Inystery, complociy, and Geility to be reduced to a formula ‘Only fool would ty. Rate, a writer mst grasp story orm. This 4s inescapable. GOOD STORY WELL TOLD Good story” means something worth telling thatthe word wants jo hear Finding this is your lonely task. It begins with talent, You) ynust be bor with the creative power to put things together in a ‘ray no one has ever dreamed. Then you must bring tothe work a Ef vsion thats dcven by fresh insights into human nature and | Jecety, coupled with indepth knowledge of your characters and jour world. ll that... and, as Halle and Whit Bumet eval in Buc exelent itl bok, ot oflove : 2° The lve of story—te belie that your vision can be expressed F nly though story, that characters can be more “eal” than peopl, © that the fictional woxdis more profound than the concrete, The ove ofthe dramatic fascination withthe sudden surprises and reve ff) Jasons that ving ea-changes in i. The love of tuth—the bei Ghat lies ciple the ati that every th Sn He must be ques BV soned, down to one's own seret motives. The love of umanity—a | illngness to empathize with sulfering souls, wo crawl inside their ‘kins and sce the world though thee eyes. The love of sensation— 1 the desire to indulge not ony the physial but the inner senses, The Tove of dreaming=the pleasure in taking leisurely rides on your imagination js se where leads. The love of humor—ajoy in H the saving grag that estore the balance of life. ‘Te lve of ln Be gxage—the delight in sound and sens, syntax and semantics. The (tense that teases good wang, bates bad weting and lows the Giference. The love of selfs stent that doesnt need to be cone Fant reassured, that never doubts tat you ae indeed writer, © You must veto wnt and bea the loneliness Tut the low ofa good story, of tere characters an a word | toven by your passion, cogs ad ete gill no © ennugh. Your gol must be good sey wel tld. hasan ceo ml oon, 20 you must master the corresponding principles of Sap Ths eft it mean gncinterest between ourselves and the audience. Craft is the sur total ‘ofall means used to draw the audience into deep involvement, to Told that involement, and utimately to reward it with 2 moving and meaningfil experience ‘Without caf the best weiter can dois snatch the first idea off the top of his head, then sit helpless in front of his own work, tunable to answer the dreaded questions: I it good? Ori it sewnge? —--1f sewage, what do Ido? The conscious mind, fixated on these ter rible questions blocks the subconscious. But when the conscious ‘mind is pat to work on the objective task of executing the craft, the spontaneous surfaces, Mastery of craft fees the subconscious. ‘What isthe rhythm of a wrte’s day? First, you enter your ‘imagined world. As characters speak and ac, you waite. What's the next thing you do? You step out of your fantasy and read what you've written, And what do you do as you read? You analyze. “Is it ‘good? Does it work? Why not? Should I cut? Ad? Reorder?” You. write, you read; cteate,cxtgue; impulse, logi; right brain, left brain; reimagine, rewrite. And the quality of your rewriting, the | possiblity of perfection, depends on a command ofthe craft that | guides you to correct imperfection. An artist is mever at the mercy ofthe whims of impulse; he willflly exercises his craft to create harmonies of instinct and ides, STORY AND LIFE Over the years I've observed two typical and persistent kinds of failed screenplay. The fist isthe “personal story” bad serip: In a ofce sting we meet a protagonist wit a protems She dere promotion but she's being passed oer. Angry, he heads Jor her parent’ home to discover that Das gone senile an Moms ‘an cope, Home to her apartment and a fight with her sobish, caning roommate, Now out on date and smack int aftr o communicate Her nenv vets her tan expensive French, restaurant, comple geting that she's on a dict. Back tothe office where, amzing, she gets her provttion ... but new pres THE sroRY PROBLEM ¥ 35 sures ori ack at er pro’ lac er jut a shes a retien Mom eso he dp, Coming ho she devs hat Jer rommate as ln her TV and vied witht pving te Fro She bres up wt er leas th reir, and rine Bi ioe pounds Bu chin upsets hr raion no ah. A Dy tse hrartoheart ovr a dinner with her fils cures Mom's BF) swoes. Her new roommate not only turns out to be an anal-retentive em oh py the ret we chen wit cashiers cs, bt ino Fe cs hr to Someone Now. Were now om page rn. She ko her i and ok fr te st we fv pag hich ave theca eu of raningin ewe hough dies a | the rmone wth Soncoe Neu res, Aa sh ns er "fie Deon wher or ata cont? The sel eon Dye Through « lageper misup ofthe aippr, software salesman Be comes into posesion of theshingthat al ndilenton- as |S webnowitioday. Theshingthat-wilendcirizetionaswe know i Metoday equ mall, I fc, W's concealed inside a ballpoint pe anitngly inthe poke of his haps rotagonis, who becomes the tage of «cas of thre dozen characters, ll of whom have double or tripe identi, al of whom have worked on oth sides of ‘he Iron Cura, al of whom have know one another since the {Cold War, all of whom ate tying to HI the guy. Tas sx is fe with car chau, shootout, hiring exces, and explo- tions When not lowing sng up or shooting fle down, halts for dlalgue thick scenes ae the her trie 40 srt though these ‘duplicitous people and iad ou just whows he cam trast end wit, ‘cacophony of violence and multnalindllar es, during which ‘he hero manage to destroy the thing tht ulbencliatonas sweknonsitoday and tu ave humanly. H)(The “personal sto” is ndeructred, seo ite portaie Be that mistakes verisimiitude for truth. This writer believes thattheay 4 ROBERT EKEE _mote precise his observation of daytoday fact, the more accurate his reportage of what actully happens, the more truth be tells. But fact, no matter how minately observed, i truth with a small Big “Ptruth is located behind, beyond, inside, below the surface of things, holding reality together or tearing it apart, and cannot be directly observed. Because this writer sees only what is visible and factual, he is blind tothe trath of ie “The “guaranteed commercial succes,” on the other hand, is an coverstructured, overcomplicated, overpopulated assault on the physical senses that bears no relationship to life whatsoever. This vwiter ie mistaking Kinesis for entertinment. He hopes that, regardless of story, if he calls for enough high-speed action and dazzling visual, the audience willbe excited, And given the Com- pte Generated! Image phenomenon that drives so many summer releases, he would not be altogether wrong, Spectacles of this kind replace imagination with simulated actuality. They se story as an excuse for heretofore unseen effets that carry us into a tornado, the jaws of a dinosaur, o futuristic hholocausts, And make no mistake, these razzle-dazzle spectacles can deliver a circus of exctement. But lke amusement park rides, their pleasures are shortlived. For the history of filmmaking has shown agen and again that as fastas new kinetic thrills rise o pop laity, they sink under a “been there, dene that” apathy. ery decade oso technical innovation spawns a swarm of il told movies, for the sole purpose of exploiting spectacle, The inven tion of fim itself, a starting simulation of actuality, caused great public excitement, followed by years of vapid stories. In time, howe ve, the silent film evolved into a magnificent artform, only to be destroyed by the advent of sound, a yet more realistic simulation of actuality. Films of the early 19308 took a step backward as audi fences willingly suffered bland stories forthe pleasure of hearing actors talk: The talkie then grew in power and beauty, only to be knocked off stride by the inventions of colo, j-D, wide-screen, and now Computer Generated Images, or CI. > CGI is neither a eurse nor a panacea. It simply adds fesh hues| to the story pallet. Thanks to CGI, anything we can imagine can be f Géne, and done with subtle satisfction, When CGIs are motivated ys seong sty, such a FORREST GUMP or MEN IN BLACK, [he tec vanishes and the say fs teling eaching the [poem witout caling atnton to itll The “commercial Ee, bomeer softened by the ge of spec and Brno ac that lating entrainment od ol nthe charged jnuman truths beneath the image. “The wtrs of porture tnd spc, indeed al writer, fe yost come to understand te relationship of sry toi: Sty ‘A storyteller is life poet, an artist who transforms day-to-day hiving, inner Ife and outer ie, eam and actuality into a poem ‘whose thyme scheme is events vather than words—a two-hour Pp metaphor that say: Life i ike shi! Therefore, a story must aeteact A Sveakest possible excuse to include anything in a story is: "Buti acu I) appened Eering happens; eering imaginable happens. esd, the unimaginable hapens. But sr is net iin acta ‘occurrence brings us nowhere near the truth, What happens is | tact, no eth, Truth what we think about what happens. ) ‘Consider a set of fcts Known a The Life of Jon of Arc? Foe eis celebrated writers have brought tis woman tothe stage, ge and aceen, and each Joan is tnique Ancol spiial Joan, Shaw's witty Joan, Brecht's political Joan, Dreyer’s suffering ah Holwood’s romantic ware. In Shakeopenr’s hands she J became te Tuna Joa, a dnt Bish pit of view. Each roan is divinely inspired, raises an army, defeats the English, burns bi the stake, Joan's facts are always the same, bat whole genresa6 ¢ nopent meree eects, color saturation, sound perspective, editing rhythm, and the Tike These have no meaning in and of themselves. The identical editing patter applied to six diferent scenes results in six distin: tively different interpretations. The aesthetics of film are the means to express the living content of story, but must never become an end in themselves. POWERS AND TALENTS [Although the authors of portralture or spectacle are weak in story, they may be Blessed with one of two essential powers. Writers who lean toward reporiage often have the power of the senses, the power to transport corporal sensations into the reader. They sce land hear with such acuity nd sensitivity that the reader's heart jumps when struc by the iid beauty of their images, Writers of action extavaganzas, on the other hand, often have the imaginative power to lift audiences beyond what isto what could be, They can take presumed impossbiities and tuen them into shocking certain ties, They also make heats jump. Both sensory perception and a lively imagination are enviable gifs, but, like a good marriage, one complement the other, Alone they are diminished. ‘At one end of reality is pure fact: at the other end, pure magi nation, Spanning these two poles i the infinitely varied spectrum of fiction, Stiong storytelling strikes 2 balance along this spectrum. your writing drifts to one extreme or the other, you must fearn to 28 4 RopERT MeKEE eres hat i morning ou sole lhe end the sonata tut My Kon te Schoo ui” Like olerige’s erate she oka eens aterton. She drow hem aot wat dng ha sac ved oe thr cite cap, She vr er ulin tem up. easing ther own, making them ae avec cy beldogal high espente uni se pa alt pent fg scene "And thats ow T gt the le con the bw i morning” Her coworker lean back ‘Sind munsing. “God yes len, yr uth that” oat te orling pases tthe guy ether who ta teers he hetendng le of how his mae ded over Thrwtiend and bres the lout of eveyone, His soy al 3 he nrc, peli raniing fom tv deal o echt eae ees od ner coin lay Though recon, Aheset bend bette fle pot for anther ep ting eat carts ke ot pet ‘Gent ee between lal mater elany ol ers round ental ltd anaes lava hace the Fpl ballad, Maser stoners know ow to squeze ie wear taf tings whl por soles rice the pro fad the Val Yo ay have te isight of Buda, it oucaot tl tor yur ea a dy chalk Siow ent vary, Merry let secondary but ete Ths tee siete af ed lerson andre rage reg than ow ayers and owls wish tad are seseert youu ate some or ou wou be ching 0 ie, You a ev rig tom tal posible crs. On by ~ Sng eephing end ping ou kn abot he cao {ing an yo ke ou ln re ey. For ent wit 4 Gat He Rel wits an ene burns wildly but sco | plshes nothing PART 2 ELEMENTS OF STORY “A beauty tld story is « symp unity in which stractue, seting, chara, anv, and idea meld seamlessly. To fd their harmony the writer must study the elements of story as if they there instruments of an orchesta—fis separately, hein concer.