Faith in Stories by Allison Symes

Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Writers need a certain amount of faith to put pen to paper/hands to keyboard to write anything. There has to be faith in the process and the knowledge that, having written, you can write again. 

For the first timers, it is a case of not having anything to lose so just write. Getting into a routine (even if it just five minutes at times) can also help encourage your faith in the process of writing. It is a case, I think, of conditioning your brain into thinking this is writing time, let’s get on with it then. I’ve found this to be the case. 

 

The biggest single thing any writer can do to help themselves is to read widely and often. Read non-fiction as well as fiction, read inside and outside of your genre, classic and contemporary. You will pick up from all of this how stories/non-fiction works are set out.

You will also work out what you like and dislike here and can apply that to your own creations or avoid if it is something you dislike. I dislike characters who are reliant on others to bale them out but do nothing to help themselves. I have every sympathy for characters who do try to help themselves but struggle. There is a difference.

So I will often create characters who are in trouble but you can see how they got there and then, I hope, will want to read on to find out what they do to get out of their situation again, whether it is with the help of others or not. I won’t create characters who do nothing to help themselves.

You do pick up on things like the Rule of Three almost subconsciously when you’ve read enough tales to indicate that something happens twice, the same thing happens again on the third time but there is a different outcome this time, whether it is a happy one or not. 

We have faith in the stories we like. We know they work. They’ve entertained us. For non-fiction I would hope it would be a case of being entertained and learning something useful. It is then a question of trying to emulate successful writing techniques in our own works.

We do know it is do-able because other writers have done it. So there is nothing to stop us doing this too. We can learn from the Bible stories too. Jesus kept his parables short and to the point to keep them memorable in an era where most were not literate. His stories still have enormous resonance now. I think The Good Samaritan is an excellent example of the Rule of Three in action!

When you are not feeling like writing much or anything, do turn back to your own favourite stories. What solace do you find in those? Read. Read more. At some point the spark to fire off your own imagination will kick in again.  You need faith here too.