General Tips for writers

01-08-16 Writer 0 comment

Here are a few things that you should remember when writing a story:

  1. Sometimes the writer allows himself to take part in the story. Everything can be literary, including the writer. In Fog (Niebla) by Spanish author Miguel de Unamuno, a man with a completely gray personality has spent most of his life attached to his mother. After her death, having become a grown man, he falls in love with a young woman who is his maid. The young woman does not feel the same about him and goes away with a boy from the neighborhood; the main character decides to commit suicide. He remembers reading an essay about suicide, written by a college professor, and making a promise to visit the professor if suicidal thoughts were to appear at any time. When the character does visit the professor he turns out to be Miguel de Unamuno himself, who reveals he is writing a novel and has decided to kill the main character because he is no longer relevant to the story. Thus the idea of suicide, because he is a character that must die to let the story take its course. The main character challenges Unamuno telling him he is no God and cannot decide upon his life. He goes back home after deciding not to commit suicide. That same night, he dies of indigestion.
  2. Let us remember that the author and the story teller are two separate beings: the author is the real person that creates the story; the story teller is who either way- in first or third person – is in charge of telling the story. It is possible that the story teller is omniscient and a character within the story at the same time; there have been interesting results using this formula. The characters challenge the story teller or cause him to reveal certain parts of the story that were hidden from the reader. As told before, the writer can make virtually anything happen in his story but the devices he uses are as effective as the experience taken from the creative process and learning from other authors.