Tuesday, 08 May 2012

• The Power of a Great Story

  By Sam at Creative Theology
  
  I was at a movie this past weekend, and saw a preview for The Words, which looks like an excellent movie. During the preview, there were sound bites from interviews with the actors, and one line caught my attention. Jeremy Irons who plays The Old Man, said he enjoyed being a part of the movie because of the compelling story. He added:

  A great story will draw an audience. Everything else is just dressing up.

  The everything else is just dressing upbit reminds me of the great modern American writer Ernest Hemingway’s style. He was famous for his terse writing which was the result of his voracious editing. He was known to say that he would edit until only the absolutely necessary words remained.

  For writers, there is no better advice. Great writing is only a result of even better editing.

  Even the best editing, however, doesn’t produce a compelling story. In fact, the worst writing is a poorly crafted story, dressed up.

  So dear writers, start with a great story, and refuse to dress it up.

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