Keep writing to bridge that quality gap in your storytelling

I just listened to an inspiring series of videos by Ira Glass, host of the radio program "This American Life," sharing tips on storytelling and how to improve as a storyteller. Now as you probably know, Glass is a broadcast journalist of the highest order. Though the stories he tells are true, make no mistake, he tells a good story--creatively. He is an exemplar in the form and any aspiring storyteller can learn something from him.

The four-part interview, available on YouTube, takes little more than 20 minutes to listen to. I would highly recommended the series:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

 But if you'll settle for highlights, here are a few points that resonated with me:

Great stories are built around anecdotes

You absolutely must engage the reader with a sequence of events. This happened and then this happened and then this happened. The lesson for fiction writers is that stories not only need action--a sequence of actions. That's not to say that stories with more action are better than those with less. But you have to think of your narrative in the simplest way possible. What happens? When? And make sure the reader has been pulled into the action.

Build in reflection

After you've finished telling the world's greatest story or even while you're telling it, you have to build in some time to reflect on what's been told. What significance does it have? Why tell the anecdote in the first place? How much time you spend on reflection depends on both genre and POV (and maybe other elements of fiction),  but not to spend any time will diminish the strength of your story, no matter how good it is.

Keep writing

There's only one way to bridge the gap between what quality you know your book or story should be versus what it is. And that is to keep writing. Most of us have a idea of what good taste is in storytelling, Glass says, or what quality we want our work to be. Usually, there's a gap caused by a lack of experience. Sometimes that gap is substantial. Whatever the size, the more you write, the more that gap will lessen.

Glass recommends steady regular work (writing) regardless of your circumstances. Create deadlines or have them created or built in for you to ensure that you will keep creating new work. But whatever you do, don't stop writing. Don't give up.

This was a powerful message for me to hear right now--that I need to keep working and creating. The only thing that will move me from where I am to where I want to be is to w-r-i-t-e.

Accept the responsibility for improving your art--your creative life--by continuing to do it with regularity and with discipline.

And thanks to Jane Friedman and her newsletter "3 Happy Things" for the line on the video interview series with Ira Glass.