5 Top Story Writing Tips from a Big Fish
The foundation of any good film is a great story. In this guest post Daniel Wallace, author of the book ‘Big Fish’, later turned into the Tim Burton film of the same name talks us through his top five tips for writing the classic story.
1. Think small. Write about a watch, a rock, a lock of hair; don’t write about death, change and love. The latter comes from the former.
2. Write clearly. If your story is to have any impact at all the reader needs to understand what you’re saying. Deliberate obfuscation is aggravating. Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do. You get the idea.
3. Create conflict. Somebody wants something and there’s somebody or something in his or her way. See illustration.
This is almost every good story ever written.
4. Write about people. Sympathetic characters are characters we care about because they’re human, not because they’re sweet or perfect. None of us are one thing or another. If your character is just complex enough we will care about him even when he’s driving drunk and running over cats. On purpose. Why? Because of that thing that happened with his mom. You know.
5. Surprise yourself. Follow a story wherever it wants to take you. If it surprises and delights you you’ll probably surprise and delight the reader. And this is a good thing.
About Daniel
As well as being a top author and College lecturer Daniel is a keen Mac user and blogger running his own site at www.danielwallace.org The site is updated on an almost daily basis with video and news, Daniel has also published a range of One Minute Drawings (OMDs) which are proving very popular with readers.
Daniel’s recent book Mr Sebastian and the Negro Magician is receiving very positive reviews across not only America but the many countries in which it is available. Perhaps this is next Daniel Wallace book to make it to the big screen.
Links:
Daniel Wallace
Thanks for these great tips Daniel. I only saw Big Fish about two years ago and it actually made me cry at the end, with joy though. Love the drawing by the way is this your own creation ?
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@Kerry, Daniel did create the drawing himself in fact if you visit http://www.danielwallace.org you will discover over 30 One Minute Drawings. They are great !