Pacheco 1
Emilio Pacheco
Instructor: Jeff Sturges
English 101
3 March 2004
Research draft
How Good Is Your Story Play?
A good restaurant will always have customers. Its excellent food and service will continue to attract diners continuously. A bad restaurant will have a small and diminishing clientele. The week-old food and poor service will repel people. A restaurant depends on good food and service. The same can be said about writing. Writing depends on how well the food or information is and how it is served to the reader, and what kind of reader it is. The information has to be realistic and enthusing enough for the reader to feel attracted to it. The food has to be served in a way that the reader can readily enjoy it, which is improved with previous experience. Ultimately, the information needs to be appropriate for the kind of reader consuming it. Just like all people have different tastes and preferences, each style of writing has its particular audience. Therefore, to describe good writing thoroughly it is better to go into detail into one branch of writing.This paper is geared towards good writing in the literary fiction arena. Good story writing depends primarily on how the story play, characters, and setting is presented to its specific audience.
There exist a multitude of credible answers and opinions to what is good story writing. For instance, a published novelist claims that good story play, characters, and the ability to make a sequelare important to selling your novel (Bickham). John Carroll novel critic notes that a certain book was good for its unexpected twists and vivid characters (65). The way to write well was to learn from already-known good pieces and studying themexclaimed a columnist (Cheever 19). A magazine editor says that their good writing is contributed to writing stories taken from real-life (Evans 11). Research performed on second graders indicated that conventions, grammar, spelling, and mechanics are important for writing well (Kos, Raylene, and Maslowski 567). A screenwriter admits that his good writing was due to creating well-crafted characters and avoiding predictability (Littlefield 33). Good writing, notesa network magazine writer, pushes the content or information towards the users (Tolly 14). Therefore, though there are many opinions on what is good story writing, they all apply in one way. So can we say good story writing relies on conventions, grammar, spelling, and mechanics?
Ideas, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, organization, and conventions are traditional measures used to grade educational writing. These are used to grade papers in the Arizona Instrument for Measuring Academic Success (AIMS) test. A good grade in the AIMS exam indicates a clear, concise paper. Kevin Tolly, a network magazine writer, notices this: “A contemporary version of the existential credo "I think, therefore I am" must be "I run spell check, therefore I write." For, all too often, passing a spell check is the best that can be said of some technical writing [. . .] Writers should be more careful and, sadly, so must readers. After all, words matter” (14). Kevin Tolly notices that most technical writing lacked proofreading. The necessity for proofreading is obvious. Many errors can be easily avoided by proofreading. With proofreading,anyone can develop proper word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and organization. However, proofreading and the six-trait rubric alone do not determine that someone can become published. The six-traits will make a precise, concise book, but there is something else.
Good story writing depends on big factors that educational writing does not cover. The six-trait rubric will not make you the next Koontz. Koontz surely knew this when he wrote Odd Thomas, his most recent work. So did Michael Crichton when he wrote JurassicPark. The novel is so intense that it was made into a blockbuster hit, with a few modifications. Sure, Crichton needed excellent word choice, sentence fluency, to be understood, and organization, but he also needed other traits, like characterization as well as story play. Story play can be referred to the meat of literary work, the events and facts that make up the work. Characterization develops people essential to the piece, but is usually particular to literary writing. Traits like story play and characterization are essential.
Good story pieces will have excellent story play. Story play is so fundamental to this story writing thatit would exist without story play. Anyone can make up a simple story and tell it to us, which in turn, might grant them a passing grade. However, creative story play keeps our minds focused and stimulated. Story play makes good novels. Jon Carroll, a novel critic, celebratedGhostwritten as an excellent book to read. He noted that the story had "a game within a game, a secret plot that can be inferred (with lots of page turning and perhaps small diagrams on the backs of envelopes), but it is possible to ignore the puzzle entirely and still enjoy the tale" (65). From Carroll's point of view, the book had story play that engaged the reader, as a game of your favorite sport does. Unpredictable, astonishing events get a person out of your seat and in front of the television. The only thing that can make you do this is excellent story play. In addition, setting really counts in making good writing.
The setting needs to be adequate for the story play and targeted audience. A first-grader would most likely write about things they are familiar with, like the playground or at the park.So settings usually take place in situations common to the reader.Sid Evans, editor of Field and Stream, attributes his magazine’ssuccess to publishing stories having the following:
Alternately charged with adventure, drama, comedy, tradition, heartbreak, and the meaning of life--and death---But the natural world is loaded with it, so it's no coincidence that many of the titans of American literature were--and are--hunters and fishermen: Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ruark, William Faulkner, Aldo Leopold, Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison. (11)
The setting in this case is the natural world, where stories are born and lived. Nature gives authors “adventure, drama” and the “meaning of life.”One of Hemmingway’s most acclaimed books The Old Man and the Sea is about an epic struggle of an old fisherman and a prize marlin. The story has emotion and other good stuff. The setting, the sea, has a large contribution to this. Therefore, setting helps the writer develop good story play, which is indispensable.
The essential part of carefully developed story play can also be noted in bad movies. A movie reflects what its script says. If the script is bad, the movie is bad, and vice versa. It’s similar to building a mansion on sand; it will be swept by a storm. No matter how good the house is built, it has a weak foundation, which will give out to the elements. This can be compared to a recent film, John Q. It had an experienced director and a decent cast, including Denzel Washington. However, the script was of inferior quality. Just like Susan Granger, a movie critic, says it had “crude plot loopholes - like hostages being ldft alone yet never thinking of escaping. Each scene drags, underscoring thd obvious, and sentiment is slathered on top.” Susan Granger mentions that the plot had “loopholes,” events that didn’t coincide with common sense. Would a hostage stay if they had the chance to leave? The rhetoric is obvious, story play needs to flow in a logical (very important in this case) and consequential manner. Although John Q. did not do this, it does give us an example of the importance of story play in writing. Story play also flows with excellent characterization.
Good, tactile characters are necessary to get a reader hooked. In every children’s movie you see, the bad guys always are some out of life character that cannot hold their own against some six-year olds. Doesanyone believe this? Everyone did, especially when as a kid. However, children movies lose their credibility when the kid grows up and realizes people aren’t that gullible. So what determines if a character is appropriate?
Reality determines if the presented characters are engaging or not. Publicly acclaimed Tom Fontana, scriptwriter of “Oz” said, “When you think the characters are going to be violent ... they're not. And when you think they're going to be calm ... they're violent. When you say, “Oh, this guy is really a bastard,” he does something that makes you go, “Oh, that was kinda nice”” (33).Fontana felt good when people reacted to the show’s characters as if they were real people. Clearly said, Fontana liked the emotions viewers expressed to his characters. For instance, if someone were to write a romance novel, that writer would expect to develop characters that the readers can fall in love with. If these characters aren’t real enough, the novel will be a failure. So characters need to be so real that we can taste and smell them. Another quality of good story play, and consequently good pieces, is a purposeful ending.
Every excellent novel will have the potential for a sequel, or better stated, will end right. This aspect of good writing goes hand in hand with story play. The story needs to end just right to mark a deep impression on the reader. Peter Robinson, a published novelist, says, "Beginnings get all the polish; endings are often just left to fizzle out. Yet if you plan to write more than one novel, a powerful ending can be an important way of building up a loyal readership. And if your beginning and middle are so good, then why should you skimp on your ending?" (14).Robinson makes a clever point. If the introduction to a piece is good, then the ending also has to be. When someone enters an ice cream shop, they are delighted with scrumptious pictures of cones and sundaes. But if the ice cream tastes awful, they will never return. So if a writer makes a phenomenal introduction to their writing, then it is indispensable to them to make a good ending.Who can accomplish good story writing through story play, and all that it entails?
Anybody can write well as long as they achieve the critical steps of good writing. To start, the novice writer gains experience and talent by one way: practice. They can study other works and note how they can improve on their own writing. Benjamin Cheever, a journalist, says, “I've read 40 books on writing, but that's not the end of it, because if you're paying attention, almost every good book is a book on good writing. ‘There are many rules of good writing,’ wrote the historian Stephen Ambrose, ‘and the best way to find them is to be a good reader.’ You will not only be taught by the best writers in the world, you get them at their best. Learn from the best.” Take heed that Mr. Cheever has read many books on writing, but continues his search. Olympic runnersdon’t quit running just because they win a gold medal. These runners continuously strive to do their best. Similarly, good writing is achieved through constantly learning from others, from the best.
Writer workshops have proven to be incredibly helpful in creating good writing and good writers. One learns from professional writing and from peer and teacher feedback.John Garndner, a writing teacher, used Ernest Hemingway as an example: "Hemingway once remarked that "the best way to become a writer is to go off and write." But his own way of doing it was to go to Paris, where many of the great writers were, and to study with the greatest theorist of the time, and one of the shrewdest writers, Gertrude Stein" (77). Even though Hemingway said otherwise, the best way that he learned to write well was in the company of good writers and theorists. A wise man will become even wiser in the company of wise people; similarly, an aspiring writer will grow expertise with experienced writer's advice.The education Ernest Hemmingway received helped him become famous; can it do the same for anyone? What other human quality helps produce good writing.
Education and talent are contributing factors to good writers. This can be traced to the nature versus nurture plight that has been around for a century now. Most people agree that talent (nature) has something to do with good writers, but education (nurture) cannot be ignored. Gardner, mentioned previously, illustrates an example of this:
"The uneducated writer may successfully tell the stories of the people around him, may set down their longings and sufferings in comic or deeply moving or awe-inspiring ways---He may even become a subtle and original story teller. But he will almost certainly remain a sort of primitive, that is, a kind of folk writer; he has difficulty becoming a virtuoso, one of the writers whose fictions impress us not only by their truth to life, but also by their brilliance, their value as performance" (92).
So success may be accomplished by a talented, yet uneducated, writer, but their writing can improve so much more with an education. Many people have talent for playing music. Nevertheless, in order for them to make a living from it, they must learn from schools. Therefore, good writing is aided in large part by education, and some in-born talent.
Good literary writing is the essence of capturing the readers’ hearts through story play, which covers many of the things already considered. The plot has to be interesting and unpredictable. The setting needs to be common to the reader, or make the reader familiar to it. Characters have to be palpable and raw characters. The ending will always sum up the author’s point, while giving the reader a thirst for more. A good writer develops all of these by his/her talent and educational experience. Just like baby back ribs are prepared with up to twenty ingredients, only a well-seasoned mixing of these will make the perfect dinner. Good writing, with its essential aspects, will also leave readers sucking their fingers.
Works Cited
Bickham, Jack M. Writing and Selling Your Novel. 1st ed. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1996.
Carroll, Jon. "Underappreciated good writing." Whole Earth.Fall 2004. 16 Feb 2004 <
Cheever, Benjamin. "Writers in good company: writing can be a tough business, but you can take heart from those who have gone before you." The Writer. Feb 2004. 16 Feb 2004 <
Evans, Sid. "A Story To Tell: Hunting, fishing, and damn good writing." Field & Stream.1 Feb 2004. 16 Feb 2004 <
Fontana, Tom. "Ht's all about your characters: an Emmy winner on what makes good television writing." The Writer. Mar 2004. 16 Feb 2004 <
Gardner, John. On Becoming A Novelist. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1983.
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Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Sylvia A. Holladay. The Bedford Guide for College Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.
Kos, Raylene, and Cheryl Maslowski. "Second Graders' Perceptions of What Is Important in Writing." The Elementary School Journal.May 2001. 16 Feb 2004 <
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Tolly, Kevin. "Words matter." Network world.8 July 2002. 16 Feb 2004<