By Books Author Denise Turney

Writers can learn a lot from real life and the arts. In fact, inspiration for these writing tips came to me while watching a television drama. As interesting as the plot for the television drama was, the characters made too many mindless choices to keep me hooked.

After a while, I felt too frustrated watching the characters make choices that would put anyone’s life in jeopardy. Kindergarteners would know better than to do what these characters did. It was more evidence that great storytelling takes work, more than an intriguing plot.

To Tell Great Stories Writers Avoid These Mistakes

Because the acting was good, I actually tried to figure out why the characters in the TV drama were unbelievable. A possible reason could be that the producers and directors were so focused on the story that they often tossed practicality and common sense to the wind. And it’s easy to do, which brings us back to story development.

To sharpen your writing craft, consider practical real-life patterns and traditions as you write. In other words, don’t have a novel character raise six kids as a single parent, operate her own multi-million-dollar business and run two marathons a year, all without ever feeling tired. Even if you’re writing fiction, write believable characters. The more real characters you write feel and seem, the better.

Also, avoid these story missteps:

• Misalign character motives to what you reveal about the character’s childhood, development and experiences. In other words, don’t make a pastor have a marital affair just because the pastor moved to a new town or just because a woman tried to seduce him. Give the character strong, believable motives.
• Craft story scenes were women close the front door, not once lock the door, and go upstairs or into the basement without so much as a second thought. This happens in way too many movies, including thrillers.
• Set women characters in suspense settings but avoid having these same women characters look through a peep hole or glance out of the edge of their blinds to see who’s on the porch or front stoop before they open the door.

More Storytelling Tips for Writers

• Build deep, abiding trust between two strangers that have known each other less than a day, the type of trust that, in real life, takes months, sometimes years, to develop.
• Embed a motive to save someone in a character to the point that the character turns blind, even ignoring her own instincts, common sense and basic human impulses to save the person.
• Develop a character so that he exhibits only one personality trait, ambition or motive.
• Limit a character to a single emotion, only allowing a character to express rage, fear, kindness, weakness, intelligence or courage.
• Introduce fashion, housing, food, slang and cultural trends into a television drama, fanfiction, a short story or other storytelling that did not exist at the time the story takes place.

Power of Realistic Fiction

Great storytelling takes work. Even if you’re a writer who can knock out an engaging story absent an outline or character sketches, it takes time, focus and skill to write a story that resonates with hundreds or thousands of book buyers. For starters, you’ve got to appeal to each book buyer’s interests, ambitions, passions and fears.

Even if you write science fiction books, you have to create such believable characters that readers perceive the characters to be real. Readers have to believe that the story could happen, even if the story takes place on another planet.

And yet, the story has to have practical elements. Readers need to believe that your characters’ motives, weaknesses, strengths and personality traits are relatable. Whether you’re writing a novel, a stage play, major motion picture script or television drama, make sure that your characters use common sense. After all, if you’re a skilled writer, people could think that the choices your characters make really are the best options.