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My dad was an avid storyteller, and it was from listening to him that I learned how to tell a good story. My dad was especially good at painting a picture, remembering (and making up dialogue) and adding in background information about the people in his stories. He was fond of telling the same stories over and over again, and, I noticed that as the years went by, that some of the facts in his stories changed.

That’s how stories develop in a writer’s mind, or in this case, in a storyteller’s mind. The stories happen one way and we remember the incident in a slightly different way, and then the story retold takes on a life of its own. That’s what happened with my father’s stories.

My father told so many stories with so many variations that, after a while, I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe his stories at all. But it didn’t matter because I learned a valuable lesson from him about stories. Stories evolve with the telling. Details are added, forgotten, changed or embellished. Stories change because we change. We own a story when we tell it often, and even if the story is part fact and part fiction, we believe every word of it.

That’s what probably happened with my dad, but he’s not around to ask anymore. The way he remembered his life experiences changed over time with each telling, so he told the story a little differently each time. He may have remembered a detail in one telling that he didn’t remember in the last. Or maybe he just liked the way people listened to his stories, and he wanted to add details that made the store more interesting, more vivid or more shocking.

When he told us the story of how his grandfather came from Spain, became a Texas Ranger and married his grandmother, the story was a little different each time he told it. Sometimes, his grandmother was a Navaho and sometimes she was an Apache. Sometimes, his grandfather bought her from her father, the chief of his tribe, for four cows and sometimes it was six goats. No matter what the truth of the transaction was, it illustrates how people lived in Texas in the late 1800′s.

The father from the movie Big Fish reminded me of my dad. A dying father tells his son the story of his life, a life the son is not all that familiar with. The stories are farfetched and fanciful, so the son doesn’t know what to believe. Like the movie, my dad’s stories were sometimes a bit farfetched and fanciful. My dad didn’t tell me the stories of his life on his deathbed; he simply told them to me throughout my life. And with each telling, details were added or left out, changed or embellished.

My father will always be remembered by all who knew him for his love of storytelling. I learned to love a good story by listening to his stories for as long as I can remember. In retrospect, it didn’t matter whether or not the facts were true or imagined; what was important was the journey he took me on and the people I met along the way. These people, my ancestors, have become real people to me. As I remember their stories as told to me by my father, I add my own details and they will continue to live on in my imagination.

I picked up a couple of New Yorker magazines a few weeks ago. Many aspiring writers believe that if you are pubished in the New Yorker, you have made it. That may have been true when writers like John Updike and John Cheever graced their pages, but is it still true today?

I won’t tell you which short fiction I read because I wouldn’t want to bash anyone who did happen to be published in this prestigious magazine, however, I will make a few comments about the type of writing that appears to be acceptable today.

I read two different pieces. The first one was nicely framed around a single incident. The incident, in retrospect, was a pivotal point in the lives of several people. I enjoyed that part of the story which hung together rather well and anticipated how the author would end the story. I was surprised when it was wrapped up quite poorly. After the incident was over, the characters went their separate ways and the author simply told the reader in a few short sentences what happened to each of the characters in the years that followed the incident. Whatever happened to “show, don’t tell?” As a writer, I would never presume to simply summarize events to the reader unless it was to set the tone or for background purposes. The writer’s task is to lay out events, draw each character clearly with words, give us a peek inside the heart and mind of each main character. It seemed to me that the author ran out of steam and dashed off a few sentences just to get it finished. Not good fiction.

The second piece I read was quite intriguiging. It was the story of how three people’s lives become intertwined for a short time. A terrible incident/misunderstanding occurs in which a crime is committed. They cover up the crime and go their separate ways. When reading the story, the author creates a lot of mystery around the interaction of these three people without revealing too much about any of them. As a reader, I don’t know how they think, what motivates them to do what they do or how they got together in the first place. One great scene describing the events that lead up to the crime and the crime itself are very well written, but then, the story just kind of drops off the map. The three people end their arrangement and go their separate ways. Way too much unsaid. Not enough about the characters at all. It left me thinking, “What was the point?”

To say the least, I was disappointed with both of these pieces. Short stories are very difficult to write because you can’t include as many details as you can in a novel, but there are still some elements you just can’t leave out or it doesn’t work. So, the question begs, where has all the good writing gone? Let me know if you find it.

This is the first in a series of posts I want to dedicate to the question, “How do you really learn to write good fiction?” Okay, first of all, when I use the word “good,” it encompasses a few basic concepts. The list could be very long, but here is my list:

1. It sells.

 2. Readers say, “I couldn’t put it down!” and they stay up reading much later than they should because the writing, story and characters are so captivating.

 3. It’s straightforward, easily comprehensible and grammatically sound.

 4. It’s entertaining.

 5. It offers something to the reader–a lesson learned, a new insight into the human condition, a new slant on an old theme, a surprise; it’s something more than simply a series of actions with a beginning, middle and ending.
If you read books about writing, the list would be endless. The 5 elements of good writing I just listed only scratch the surface of all that may be packed into a good piece of fiction. It’s a good starting point to attempt to answer the question, “How do you really learn to write good fiction?”

Many writers will agree that you learn to write by being a voracious reader. Since I wanted to be a writer, I took their advice.

On a past job, I was fortunate enough to be able to read between the times I was required to do actual work. In a little over 3 years, I read over 200 books. I read many of Anne Perry’s Victorian mysteries as well as autobiographies of Malcolm X, Katharine Hepburn and Martina Navratilova. I read all of the works of Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, Mary Higgins Clark and Lawrence Block during my mystery phase. I read all of novels of Ken Follett and John Irving. I dabbled in Graham Greene, Amy Tan, Isabel Allende and Mary McGarry. I moved on to Gregory Maguire and the land of Oz. Essays by Irma Bombeck and David Sedaris topped off the list.

I read to be entertained, but I also read to learn how to write. Some of the novels were poorly written, some too simplistic, some masterful and some were tedious. Overall, I absorbed a “feel” for the structure of the short and the long novel.

As I embark on my own fiction writing career now, I find that not reading is better. It is too easy to be influenced by the book I’m currently reading especially when I write fiction. If I’m to find my own style and voice, I need to focus on writing and abandon reading, at least temporarily. But the reading I did in the past has given me a good foundation. Every one of the authors I read taught me something. And those lessons will serve me well in my own writing.

So back to the question, “How do you really learn to write good fiction?” Read, read, read. Then evaluate what you have read. When you write, be your own critic. Write your own novel. Then read it. You may not know if it sells quite yet, but if it is captivating, well written, entertaining and offers something to the reader, then you might be on the right track. You just might be writing good fiction.

I have wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, but it took a while for me to realize just how much. I gave in to it one night while I was still living with my parents. I was probably around 20. I hadn’t decided what I wanted to do with my life and I was between jobs. The entire block went dark around 8 o’clock at night. After all of our neighbors went outside to investigate and spent an hour or so discussing power outages, everyone retreated to their dark, silent homes to wait for the lights, and more importantly, for their TVs to come back on.  When that didn’t happen, everyone gave up and went to bed.

I stayed up, restless, vigilant. The silence was incredible. It’s amazing how much noise a little suburban house can make when the electricity is on. You never realize the hums that we live with and that blend into the backgrounds of our awareness. I was fascinated by that and since the power outage lasted so long, the silence kept calling to me. So I decided not to waste it, this silence I knew I would probably not hear again for a long time. Flashlight in hand, I looked around and found a book. I have no idea where it came from or who it belonged to. It was sitting in a bookshelf in the TV room. So I sat there in the silence with my flashlight and started to read.

I didn’t stop until well after it was light and the batteries of the flashlight were running low. The light came in through the front window as dawn broke. The power was still out. I had shifted positions on the couch at least thirty times and I had read a book cover to cover for 8 hours. During that, my first real read, I remember how much my body craved sleep, but not my mind. The story had taken hold of me and I couldn’t stop until it was over.

The lights came back on right about the time my parents were getting ready for work. Completely exhausted, but somehow renewed, I fell into bed with the knowledge that I had finally found what I loved–the written word and a really good story.

What book did I read? You will be surprised to know that it wasn’t what I would consider great literature. It was a story about what would happen to the U.S. if a comet hit the earth. As it turns out, it’s become quite a cult classic among early science fiction disaster stories.  The name of the book is Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Welcome to my redesigned blog! If you have visited this site before and want to continue to read my posts on leadership, please go to  http://teamleaderconnection.com. Teamleaderconnection.com will be the permanent site of all things leadership.

Barbgerron.com will be more of a personal blog. I have wanted to be a writer for as long as I could remember,  somewhere around the age of 8 or 9. I was captivated by the written word and still am today. I am a voracious reader and I am still thrilled beyond belief when I read something that is really well written. Even if I don’t particularly agree with or like the content, I always admire great writing.

So to fulfill my dream of being the author that someone reads and admires as I have done with so many authors, I have created this blog. I plan to dazzle you with my great writing, my thoughtful insights and opinions and with my (ever evolving) clever wit. I hope you don’t mind if I occasionally talk about the things I love most in life like cooking, crossword puzzles, movies, great books, learning, relationships, current events, religions, love and much more. Keep reading and feel free to comment on any post or e-mail me if you want to have a good debate at barb@barbgerron.com.