Story (n.):

The structure of ideas and expressions that makes imagination real – everything you write is a story.

Anyone can tell a story. And that’s a bigger deal than it sounds like – an effective story is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, capable of changing minds, shifting cultures, inspiring inventions, and much, much more. Good stories can reshape the world as much as any force of nature, as much as even the greatest human endeavors, and there’s not a single human out there who can’t tell one.

But telling a good story isn’t easy. In fact, most of the time, it’s incredibly difficult! That’s partially because, until now, the process of turning ideas into words, and words into impactful stories, has remained mysterious. But after consulting with as many story-scientists and word-wizards as we could coax from their underground labs and secluded mountaintops, the VocaTales team is confident that we’ve discovered the most accurate recipe yet for creating your best stories ever.

So how does a great story come to life?

It all comes down to a simple three-part process: Story-building, story-craft, and storytelling:

Storybuilding

Every story begins within the jumble of ideas, images, concepts, experiences, memories, and emotions that we call imagination. Storybuilding is the process of making connections between these various bits and pieces of imagination to give them a defined and orderly structure. This initial process of storybuilding includes daydreaming, brainstorming, researching, planning, organizing, and the first stages of writing: working solo to put pen to paper; arranging words into sentences, sentences into sections, and finally arriving at a first draft.

Each individual writer has their own unique approach to storybuilding. But the goal of every storybuilder is the same: to construct a foundation for effectively communicating anything they’ve imagined.

Storycraft

Once the basic structure of a story is complete in the form of an early draft, the next step is to refine its elements to communicate more effectively with an audience – Storycraft is the social aspect of the writing process; the art of improving your work to make it as impactful as possible to others. These improvements are achieved through a cyclical process of analysis and editing: the cycle includes both self-analysis, in which the writer imagines how their audience will respond to the different elements of a story and makes changes accordingly, as well as the more direct process of incorporating feedback from readers, reviewers, and editors. The “elements” in question are the very same set of building blocks that were used in the initial storybuilding stage – the concrete “framing” of a story (plot structure, mechanics, characters, dialogue, etc.) as well as the more abstract and intangible “x-factors” (like theme, style, voice, tone, motif, and symbolism).

For experienced storytellers, considerations of storycraft might play a role in the initial stages of planning and brainstorming, as guiding principles in the storybuilding stage. But the process of crafting doesn’t begin in earnest until your work is ready to be shared with peers, experts, and readers who can provide a roadmap for further improvements. Successful storycraft ensures that each element of a story is polished and appealing to its intended audience, and that they’re all working together to convey a unified picture of the writer’s imagination.

Storycraft is almost always the most challenging and time-consuming stage of effective storytelling, but it’s also the most important: nobody can achieve perfect craftsmanship right from the get-go, and it’s only by incorporating the critiques and responses of others that we can be confident that our stories are inspiring their intended reactions from an audience. Of course, it can be difficult to hear critiques of your writing. But in learning how an audience relates to your work, you aren’t just amplifying the impact of your current story, you’re also honing the skills and craftsmanship that will play a major role in the success of every story you write in the future.

The extra effort is always worthwhile. When you’re finished storycrafting, you’re confident that you’ve done all you can to communicate effectively with your readers – after all those rounds of review and editing, your final draft is finished, and poised to make an impact!

Storytelling

The time has come – you’ve built, you’ve crafted, and you’ve conquered the first two stages of the creative process. Now, it’s time to release your story into the world, and watch with pride as it takes on a life of its own. Just one more step remains – Storytelling is the ultimate goal of every writer and creator: to connect with an audience and share your imagination, by delivering a polished story that can be enjoyed for years and decades to come.

Reaching an audience isn’t as simple as writing ‘The End’ and tossing your manuscript into the center of the town square. You might connect with a few lucky readers with that kind of simple strategy, but it usually takes a whole team of experts in fields like marketing and publishing to maximize your audience. Of course, digital publishing options have made this process more accessible to writers everywhere, but it still takes some skill and practice to navigate in order to reach as many readers as possible.

With the right resources and the right platform, though, anyone can find their audience – and undertake every step of the storytelling process, from building to craft to publishing, with joy and confidence. All it takes are some helpful tools, an enthusiastic community, and of course, your own innate ability to dream, create, and share your imagination.