The single best writing tip ever . . .

No build up. Just going to come right out with it. Today's post has one purpose only: To pass along the best single piece of craft advice I've ever gotten.

It actually comes from Kevin Oderman, my creative non-fiction teacher in the Wilkes University Creative Writing Program, and an outstanding craftsman himself.

In response to one of my assignments, Kevin said something like, "Everything you do must serve the story."

Basically, what he was saying was that writers must control their impulses to use a piece of dialogue or add a character or go off on a tangent or employ a certain phrase and ask themselves, "Does it serve the story?" It amounts to making good choices--intentional choices--to advance plot, character, and all the other fictional elements comprising your story.

Pretty simple test. If it doesn't serve the story, it has to go.

I actually used this test to evaluate a piece of stage business in a performance I was reviewing. It didn't serve the story. Not only was it extraneous, it detracted from the story. One piece of stage business weakened an important plot point. And it smacked of indulgent stage direction as a result.

Whatever story you tell, in whatever form (play, screenplay, prose), I challenge you to ask yourself whether the device you've employed or the scene you just added serves the story. The story is master--ironically, not you--and you need to pay slavish attention to it.

If you don't put your story first, who will?

How about you? Does this tip work for you? What is the single best piece of writing advice you've received?