Sto­ries are the way peo­ple have always com­mu­ni­cat­ed with each oth­er. That means any­body can tell a sto­ry. But some peo­ple tell sto­ries bet­ter than oth­ers because they’ve learned that good sto­ry­tellers do three things:

• They check out oth­er people’s sto­ries and how they tell them. That’s education.
• They tell sto­ries a lot. That’s practice.
• They pay atten­tion to how oth­er peo­ple respond to their sto­ries. That’s feedback.

Nobody gets real­ly good at telling sto­ries with­out all three.

First, you need to expe­ri­ence a lot of sto­ries. That might be lis­ten­ing to sto­ries, watch­ing movies and tele­vi­sion, or read­ing. All of these are great ways to learn sto­ry­telling. But there’s a dif­fer­ence between lis­ten­ing, watch­ing, and read­ing just to be enter­tained, and doing these things to learn how to be a bet­ter storyteller.

To learn, you need to pay atten­tion to the details. Where does the sto­ry begin? Why do you think the sto­ry­teller starts there and not some­where else? This will help you with your beginnings.

What places in the sto­ry sur­prised you? Why were you sur­prised? Was the sur­prise good or bad? Did the sur­prise change the sto­ry? This will help you with plotting.

Who is the sto­ry about? How about the oth­er peo­ple in the sto­ry? How do they make it bet­ter or worse? This will help you with char­ac­ter development.

Most impor­tant­ly, how does the sto­ry end? How did you feel about the end­ing? End­ing a sto­ry is one of the most impor­tant things. A sto­ry can be awe­some from begin­ning to mid­dle and then end bad­ly, and the audi­ence will be unhap­py. Audi­ences like a sat­is­fy­ing end­ing. By tak­ing in a lot of sto­ries, you’ll start to under­stand what makes a sat­is­fy­ing ending.

Let’s ana­lyze a sto­ry togeth­er. I like doing Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood with stu­dents. It starts when Lit­tle Red finds out that her grand­moth­er is unwell and her moth­er packs a bas­ket of food that will help Grand­moth­er feel bet­ter. Why do you think the sto­ry starts there? Why not ear­li­er? Why not lat­er when Lit­tle Red is already on the way to Grandmother’s house?

Now let’s think about the char­ac­ters in the sto­ry. Why is the sto­ry focused on Lit­tle Red and the wolf and not Lit­tle Red’s mom? What about the woods­man? Why isn’t he in the sto­ry until the end?

How about the plot? Were you sur­prised when the wolf ate Grand­moth­er? How did it make you feel? How does this change the story?

When does the sto­ry end? How do you feel about the roles of Lit­tle Red, the wolf, Grand­moth­er, and the woods­man after the sto­ry has con­clud­ed? Is it a sat­is­fy­ing end­ing for you? Would you change it?

This is how to pull apart a sto­ry to see what makes it work so you can learn skills for your own writing.

Now that you can ana­lyze a sto­ry, you need to start prac­tic­ing writ­ing them. Remem­ber to always write until you get to the end. A lot of writ­ers slow down in the mid­dle of a sto­ry because they are wor­ried about mak­ing mis­takes or they’ve changed their minds about the char­ac­ters or plot as they write. That’s no rea­son to pause! Drafts will always have mis­takes, and writ­ers will always change parts of the sto­ry while they’re writ­ing. That’s what the next draft is for. To fix these things!

Leave mis­takes for lat­er. As for changes … if you decide a character’s name, or the loca­tion of the sto­ry, or even the time peri­od needs to be dif­fer­ent, just keep writ­ing as if you have already made that change. Maybe make your­self a note to remind your­self which changes need to be made, and where. On the next draft you’ll look at your notes and fix as you go. The impor­tant part is to get to the end.

Get­ting feed­back will also help you fig­ure out where the sto­ry is or isn’t work­ing. Feed­back from read­ers can be dif­fi­cult. You might wor­ry that they don’t like your work. But your job as the writer is to tell the best sto­ry that you can. If a sto­ry doesn’t com­mu­ni­cate well, then you haven’t told the sto­ry the best way … yet. Pay more atten­tion to how your read­er feels about parts of the sto­ry than what they actu­al­ly say about them. If there’s a part where they felt bored, maybe that part is too long. If there’s a part they didn’t under­stand, maybe you need to explain things more clear­ly. When read­ers tell you the parts they enjoyed, remem­ber to do more of that!

Being a good writer doesn’t hap­pen quick­ly. You will write and rewrite, get feed­back and rewrite some more. Each time, you’ll become a bet­ter sto­ry­teller. In the end, there’s noth­ing like the amaz­ing feel­ing that you’ve told a sto­ry in the best pos­si­ble way. It’s worth the effort. I promise.