The Keys To Writing A Good Story, And Other Things Dan Brown Can Teach Us

Part Two of a five part series entitled, How To Write A Story, A Good Story, And Finally A Great Story. Part One is here.

Regular readers know about my reverse man crush on novelist Dan Brown. I’m fascinated by the success of his books and what it means for mainstream media consumption. I was extremely curious about the Da Vinci Code but found the reading experience excruciating. Yet I couldn’t put it down and finished the whole thing in 24 hours. What does that mean?

It means that the Da Vinci Code was just good enough. Dan Brown has mastered the formula for writing a novel the way a lumberjack has mastered cutting firewood. There’s no art in what they do. It’s entirely utilitarian, and the more efficient they are, the warmer they’ll be this winter.

Okay, enough with the metaphor. The point I’m trying to make is that we can learn a lot about what makes a good story by looking at what Dan Brown does well. It’s not very much, but everything at the same time.

There are a lot of elements that go into writing a good story. You need interesting characters that engage the reader. You need to have effective prose. You must try to eliminate all plot holes and construct a veneer of plausibility that is convincing for the reader. Yet I submit that Dan Brown is bad at all these things.

All of the above skills are important, but they aren’t the most important factors that will determine whether your story succeeds. What really matters, what is really at the heart of narrative, is convincing the reader to care enough to turn the page. A Dan Brown novel infects you like an awful, contagious disease, and you have to know what’s going to happen next.

How does he do it? Tension and suspense. These are the secret ingredients of every effective story. These are what Dan Brown uses in his two-page chapters to keep you from putting his books down. And because each one deserves a post of its own, we’re going to stop there for today, and pick up again tomorrow.

But before I hit publish, let me finish with a point of inspiration. The title promises ‘other things’ that Dan Brown can teach us. I think we should all take heart from the fact that such an average writer can find mainstream success. Many people might say that this suggests we have to dumb things down for a mainstream audience or appeal to the lowest common denominator. I disagree. I look at Dan Brown and say, hey, even though his characters are two-dimensional and he’s dealing with obscure subject matters like art history, he’s finding a huge audience for his work. If such an average writer can make it big, we all can. If we practice our craft, we can all succeed as novelists. That’s why I choose to celebrate Dan Brown rather than bemoan him.

Check out Decater's new novel, available now at Amazon. Plus, don't forget his earlier books: Ahab's Adventures in Wonderland and Picasso Painted Dinosaurs.