I think what's great about story telling is there's so many ways to experiment. So many themes. So many methods to try but so many rules to be broken.
A collection of random thoughts.
1) Vonnegut's 8 rules
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmVcIhnvSx8&feature=related
2) Vonnegut's graphs of how stories develop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBIogLNFkV8
3) Another great quote from Vonnegut:
I guarantee you that no modern story scheme, even plotlessness, will give a reader genuine satisfaction, unless one of those old-fashioned plots is smuggled in somewhere. I don't praise plots as accurate representations of life, but as ways to keep readers reading. When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away—even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time. One of my students wrote a story about a nun who got a piece of dental floss stuck between her lower left molars, and who couldn't get it out all day long. I thought that was wonderful. The story dealt with issues a lot more important than dental floss, but what kept readers going was anxiety about when the dental floss would finally be removed. Nobody could read that story without fishing around in his mouth with a finger.
4) Piece it together.
Sometimes it's tough to find the material in your life to tell the long story you want to tell. Fine. Use pieces.
Take 3 interesting things that has some similarity to each other. Break each little story into a couple bits. Now place the chunks into a longer piece. The stuff doesn't have to flow into each other at all or have you draw the similarities. Let your readers do that. It's fun for them. Here's an example I did recently that folks seemed to like:
http://ninjasandrobots.com/i-fall-a-lot
5) Lead with pain.
...write one true sentence, and then go on from there
Hemingway
I often start with just a single statement of something that I find painful. I tell a story from there. Starting with pain helps folks relate that this story your about to tell has something that might help them relieve the pain. They'll stick with you.
6) Just start.
The best thing I've done to get better at story telling is to just start doing it consistently. I force myself to do it once a week. It might take a couple years, but you'll love the asset you've created after that investment.
There is no such thing as waiting for inspiration. The idea of “diagramming” an essay in advance, as we are taught in school, may be useful to students but is foolishness for any practicing writer. The Muse visits during the process of creation, not before.
Roger Ebert
