30th March 2017 | for Creatives | writing, reaching your audience, storytelling, Octavia E. Butler |
"A good story is a good story. If what I'm writing reaches you, then it reaches you no matter what title is stuck on it."
"Technologies come and go. The story remains constant. More to the point, our need for stories remain constant. Storytellers and writers aren't going anywhere. They may need to bend with the wind. They may need to find new ways to thrive. But they—we—will always have a place. The audience will be there."
"What we feel strongly about is that thing we want to stand on our rooftop and shout to the world, that thing we would die for, that thing we are uniquely qualified to express. What we feel strongly about is not the plot, but rather the underlying meaning that drives the plot. What is that thing? Be curious. Because that is what your story is about. "
"A great story is a series of surprises. Every chapter should have a surprise, every paragraph should have a surprise, every sentence should have a surprise."
"To explain things clearly, you connect the unknown to what your audience already knows. Stories draw on common human knowledge and experience, and link those knowns to the unknown, or the old to the new."
"A lot of people tell me their stories because they think they know mine, and in a way, it's very gratifying. The more inward you become, the more universal you become."
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