{"id":2564,"date":"2013-11-15T18:48:28","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T10:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/?p=2564"},"modified":"2013-11-15T19:00:06","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T11:00:06","slug":"greatness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/2013\/11\/greatness\/","title":{"rendered":"Greatness: If You Need It Defined, You Don’t Have It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part Five of a five-part series entitled, How To Write A Story, A Good Story, And Finally A Great Story. You can read Parts One<\/a>, Two<\/a>, Three<\/a>, and Four<\/a> here.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Ron_Swanson_Pyramid_of_Greatness\"<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been reading my series on ‘How to write a good story,’ then you\u2019ll know I place a very high premium on tension and suspense. I firmly believe they are the most important elements of your narrative. Without them, you\u2019ve just got the ramblings of a lunatic. No, check that, a lunatic would be more interesting. <\/p>\n

Let me put it this way. Have you ever read a stranger\u2019s diary? It\u2019s boring. It\u2019s just the day-to-day travails of a person who means nothing to you, and without any context, you have no reason to care. That\u2019s what reading a story without tension or suspense is like. <\/p>\n

Conversely, do a good job of creating tension and suspense for your readers, and you\u2019ll have a successful story.<\/p>\n

But as the title of this series implies, I haven\u2019t just promised you how to write a good story, I\u2019ve promised greatness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for a quote:<\/p>\n

They say no one person can do it all
\nBut you want to in your head
\nBut you can’t be Shakespeare and you can’t be Joyce
\nSo what is left instead<\/em><\/p>\n

Lou Reed – Magic And Loss
\n<\/em>
\nI can\u2019t actually promise you greatness. I can\u2019t even accurately describe what greatness is. Why is it that certain books stick with us our entire lives? Why is it our favorite characters become part of who we are? Why do I return to my favorite authors, Kundera, Cervantes, Tolkien, time and time again when I need them? Even if I answer these questions for myself, there’s no reason you’ll have the same answers.<\/p>\n

However, even if greatness can’t be defined, that doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t strive for it. <\/p>\n

If you want to be a great storyteller, then be a great storyteller. Dedicate your life to it. Make it the most important thing in the world to you, at the expense of your emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. That is the cost of greatness.<\/p>\n

\"Van<\/p>\n

If you want to make a living as a writer, I promise that with hard work and perseverance, you can achieve it. It doesn\u2019t take great talent. It takes proficiency and dedication. Learn the techniques, add a dash of individuality, and you\u2019ll thrive. <\/p>\n

Everyone loves a good story. It doesn\u2019t matter what technology has in store for us, there will always be a market for good storytellers. Maybe you\u2019ll be writing for video games or creating virtual realities or SMS serials. Whatever the medium, the principles of tension and suspense will still be true. <\/p>\n

But if what you crave is greatness, then throw everything I\u2019ve said out the window and follow your own path. Be ready to meet with ridicule and scorn. Expect to be destitute. But most of all, realize that what you are really craving isn\u2019t greatness, or fame, or even acknowledgement. What you are craving is Art. And the creators of great Art are more than likely to be consumed by the pursuit of it. <\/p>\n

I have a feeling that if you truly craved Art, you wouldn\u2019t be reading this blog. You\u2019d be holed up somewhere creating. And I’d wish you the best on your Artist\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n

But then there’s the rest of us. We must not despair when we fall short of greatness. We may not be the next Shakespeare or Joyce, but we will probably be the happier for it. We love stories, and we love to entertain. But we also love life and we will enjoy it to the best of our ability. We won’t subsume ourselves in pursuit of an elusive ideal. We’ll do our best to create magic, while at the same time remembering that our job isn’t everything.<\/p>\n

Greatness is for the few. We can admire it, and try to emulate it, but we will inevitably fall short. That’s okay.<\/p>\n

The world needs plenty of good stories to go along with the great ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part Five of a five-part series entitled, How To Write A Story, A Good Story, And Finally A Great Story. You can read Parts One, Two, Three, and Four here. If you\u2019ve been reading my series on ‘How to write a good story,’ then you\u2019ll know I place a very high premium on tension and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2551,2552,2553,2549,125,2555,37,2511,969,80,2557,102,2554,2536,1834,2556,2550,2530,2526],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-diary","tag-greatness","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-james-joyce","tag-lou-reed","tag-magic-and-loss","tag-miguel-cervantes","tag-milan-kundera","tag-ron-swanson","tag-shakespeare","tag-stranger","tag-suspense","tag-tension","tag-video-games","tag-vincent-van-gogh","tag-writing-advice","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2574,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions\/2574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}