Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
The world-weary, bottle-blonde peered at my parents through the smoky haze of a Las Vegas nightclub.
Her voice rough after hours of belting out jazzy numbers, my aunt shook her head. “Everyone has a story in Vegas. It doesn’t even matter if they are true.”
That’s the only wisdom I took away from a prodigal aunt, but it has served me well. My childhood request, “Tell me a story,” morphed to “Tell me what happened” in my reporter days, and now is simply, “Tell me about your life.”
Everyone has a story somewhere in their life. The trick is to sit back, listen and wait for the gems to be revealed.
We read a lot of stories here at Books & Such. Some days I feel like that cartoon “Charles Dicken’s Dream.”
The stories, both new and old, swirl through our heads. Characters flit in and out of our dreams, and sometimes I can’t remember if I read about someone in an actual book, or a manuscript, or a query. But, if the story is good enough, does it really matter?
Most writers are storytellers, trying to convey a truth by describing others’ actions and reactions. The drive to write a story often is what defines a writer and keeps the wordsmither returning to the page time and again.
But how do you know what makes a good yarn?
Unusual characters were Dickens’s hallmark, especially when they had a memorable “voice.” Wild stories of derring-do mark Alfred Lansing’s tale Endurance–the true story of Ernest Shackelton’s aborted trip to the South Pole in the early 20th century. The Bible is full of extraordinary adventures performed by ordinary people with a mustard seed of faith. They inspire, encourage, entertain and keep us asking for more.
What are you looking for in a story? What makes a character memorable? And how can we learn to craft our tales to stand the test of time?
Someone named Arthur Brisbane wrote: “How to be a Better Reporter — One: See a thing clearly and describe it simply.” As a reporter, I try to keep that in mind as I follow what you described in your reporting days as, “tell me what happened.” I believe what makes a character memorable (even “real-life” ones) can be found in the “extraordinarily ordinary” details used to describe that person and their reactions to the circumstances in their lives. It is part of our craft as writers to know which of these details will enhance the story. I think we can train ourselves to watch for such things, through reading the work of others and through observation of human nature and then incorporating the details into our work. And you’re right, the BIble is full of such stories and details.