I was recently talking to a housemate with whom I discuss all kinds of things: clothes and dyeing my hair, the metaphysics she learns about at school, and also, writing. We talk about writing sometimes because we’re so different. She studies science and I’m in English, and this difference between arts and science is one I run into all the time. However, my conversations about this divide have never been so productive, because we realized that what unites us is communication: whether it be a lab or an essay or an email, we’re both always writing about what we know. Since she’s so open, both with sharing what she learns and hearing what I have to say, I can tell her what I would love to lecture about to all people who don’t study English: writing is important, writing is good for you, and writing is for everyone.
The thing about writing is that you can’t escape it. It doesn’t matter what field you’re in, or even if you’re not in one at all; you will, for the rest of your life, need to have a grasp on written communication. Whether you’re sending an email, drafting a risky text, or structuring a dissertation, being able to express your thoughts on paper is an elemental aspect of just plain living. It’s unfortunate, then, that so many people leave writing behind them in high school, forgotten about and employed as a subconscious skill that just happens without thinking about it (in the email you send at light speed because you forgot to submit an assignment).
English is a lot of things, but at its core, it’s understanding what someone else has to say and making yourself understood. That’s what writing does for us: the more elevated your language, the more diverse your skillset, the higher level of language mastery that you have, the better you will be able to make yourself understood. As I was talking to my housemate about this, I realized that perhaps the best way to refine your writing is through writing stories, which again, is not only good for you, but something everyone can do. You don’t need to be an English major to write a story, and in fact, you’re already telling them all the time. You tell expertly crafted stories at debriefs with friends and during small talk with coworkers, and translating these oral recollections into written records will do wonders for your ability to make yourself understood.
When people sit down to write a story, there are generally two areas that they struggle with: coming up with the story or figuring out how to write it. Here are some ways to help you get started, and to elevate your writing skillset.
The Life Story
Perhaps the easiest story to write is the one that’s already been lived. We instinctually know how to tell this story orally: when you’re telling someone the weirdest or funniest or best thing that’s ever happened to you, you know how to set the scene, build towards the climax (the actual thing or event that makes the story weird or funny), and conclude with flourish in order to maximize empathetic reactions (laugher, expressions of disgust, or gasps of shock). For example, when I talk about a vacation I went on, I know to begin by explaining how I ended up in the place, describe the place, give one or two key takeaways or peak experiences, and conclude by saying, “it was amazing! Have you ever been?” Putting one of your favourite life stories on paper can be more challenging than you think and requires you to replace things like tone of voice and body language with adjectives and pacing of sentences. This is a great place to start, because you’re not coming up with anything new, you’re just translating to paper something you’ve already lived and talked about.
The Dream Story
So many people I know talk about their dreams and get really excited when they have a good, uncomfortable, or scary one to share. Writing the dream is the same as writing life but can be more interesting if you have a taste for the fantastic or weird. Dream stories can be the appropriate next step from life stories because sometimes dreams are disjointed and confusing, appearing to us in separate scenes rather than a cohesive plot. Linking several scenes from one dream, or tying several dreams together can be an excellent exercise in thinking about structure: how can I link these separate ideas together and have it make sense? How can I take several experiences or visions and organize them so that there is a story arc, or a reason for which I’ve chosen to relate them to each other?
Translation Exercise: Writing a Genre Story
A fun and unique way of practicing style and working on your ability to use language to express tone or mood is writing within a specific genre. Sometimes it’s easier to come up with a brand new true crime narrative or a really interesting mystery, but it’s also a fun challenge to try translating one of your preexisting stories into a different genre. For example, taking a funny thing that happened to you and writing about it as if it’s a horror story requires you to seriously think about what adjectives and descriptions you’re going to use. It requires you to reflect on implying and inferring: how can I use words to imply or suggest a certain mood? What can I add to or how can I rework this paragraph to make it scarier, or funnier, or more romantic?
The Idea Story
This is the most challenging of stories, because it starts with a concept or idea, and it requires more abstract thinking than the other stories I’ve mentioned. Many people have issues that they are passionate about, and the idea story begins with boiling down your passion into a core concept. For example, if I’m really upset about the way that professors grade students, my core concept is injustice, or power imbalance, or feeling subjected to an unfair system. The next step is to find a separate, perhaps related, vessel to communicate this idea. Oftentimes, we can again turn to our lived experiences to source this vessel. For example, I sometimes think about how I adopted my dog from a breeder rather than a shelter, so I might write a story about puppies at an animal shelter who are trying to escape. I’m writing about puppies, but in communicating how unfair it is for puppies to be born into a world that automatically subjects them to a shelter, and the sadness and injustice of young life contained within an unfair system, I’m still just writing about my core concept: systemic and unfair power imbalance.
I so often hear people tell me that they’re not “creative,” but creativity doesn’t refer to creating something new as much as it refers to finding a new way to express something you already know. Life reflects art and art reflects life, and the stories you can write are already all around you. Writing a story, whether it be a real-life experience or the more abstract idea story, simply entails taking something you know and rephrasing it in a new and fresh way. We all have to write, and it’s always a good idea to become a better writer. Practicing through storytelling not only functions as a creative outlet, but ensures that you can make yourself understood.
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,— that is all”
John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”