In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Tiffany Yates Martin says the best way to improve your own storytelling is by analyzing other people’s stories. You probably already read for pleasure and pick up tips by osmosis, but that’s not enough. “Expecting casual pleasure reading to automatically strengthen and improve your own writing is like looking at a Monet and thinking you’re learning how to paint a masterwork,” Yates Martin says. “Even if you already read analytically, assessing a story’s strengths and weaknesses—even habitually dissecting books, movies, or shows after reading or viewing—is just step one.”
A first read will give you a general sense of the story’s successes and weaknesses, but it’s no substitute for a deep dive. “Learning to analyze books, movies, TV shows, and other forms of story offers you the built-in objectivity of an editor that you may lack with your own work,” Yates Martin says. “Once you learn to spot these elements in other people’s stories, it’s vastly easier to see your own with that same objective clarity.”
So, how do you do this? Yates Martin suggests a few steps to master this skill:
- Step 1: How are you affected? Did you laugh? Did you cry? Was it better than Cats? Be specific and thorough in listing what you liked and hated about the novel, movie, or story. You don’t have to analyze why yet, but you should have a strong impression of the work.
- Step 2: Where are you affected? Now you start taking a closer look. Go back through the story and identify where you had strong feelings. Was there a point where you decided you loved the protagonist? Was there a dead zone where you almost stopped reading? Again, be specific. If you fell in love with the hero in act one, find the chapter, scene, and even the line or description where it happened.
- Step 3: Why are you affected? At this step, your impressions evolve into analysis. “Your reactions to a story aren’t happening incidentally; good authors use craft techniques intentionally to create the effect they intend,” Yates Marin says. “Using your reactions and the specific places that elicited them, dig deeper: What exactly elicited your reaction, and how did the storyteller achieve that? In answering these questions, be specific and concrete.” Your answers will show you what techniques worked on you as a reader and show you what you can duplicate in your own writing. You’ll get much more out of this kind of exercise than from vague writing advice like “make sure your protagonist is likable.”
