Skip to content

Pushing the limits of story

You can do anything

David Gane
David Gane
1 min read

Today, I read something from Robin Sloan that made me take notice:

Detective fiction has many rules, but fiction generally has only one: you can do anything, as long as you pull it off.

Much of the time I spend teaching gives my students the essential tools of the story—want, obstacle, action, response, outcome—which I repeat over and over.

I know that there are edge cases. Stories with minimalism, anti-plot, no plot, resist conflict and have no conflict. On and on and on. WOARO itself fits a very classic Western story structure.

However, learning story was my saving grace in figuring out script and novel writing. If I hadn’t come across it, I’d still be stuck and struggling—lost and frustrated.

Despite all that, I know Sloan is right. A story can be anything. You can do anything. In fact, I love those that test its edges and push it past its limits.

But as I always say, do it—but understand that not everyone will follow. And that’s okay.

Blog

David Gane Twitter

Co-writer of the Shepherd and Wolfe young adult mysteries, the internationally award-winning series, and teacher of storytelling and screenwriting.

Comments


Related Posts

Happiness and pain

When asked what they want, people often say they want happiness or pleasure. However, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman argues that people are loss-averse, meaning they are more likely to act to avert a loss than to achieve a gain. This finding means we are more likely to

Fast Fiction

Before writing the daily blog, I had been experimenting with fast fiction—fiction that was written and shared quickly. The first time was during the summer of 2021 when I wrote a new story every day for 31 days. I then tried to do it once a week for a

Mistakes happen

Yesterday's newsletter didn't go to the right group, so I had to resend it tonight. It may even come out after I'm finished with this blog post. I finished it early yesterday, did several edits, then had my wife read it before I sent it. Yet, it still failed—but