Tip Tuesday: Learn Your Craft

Young Gina did not like the thought of this. Why should I have to know all the rules? Writing was about emotion, and story. Hellooooo, I knew how to tell a story. But did I really?

The answer is no, no I did not. Did I have a passion and a knack for it? Sure, but I didn’t write anything back then that’s worth reading now. I studied screenwriting and story structure during my years of college, and I honestly learned the most from a year long, non-credited course in screenwriting. You don’t need to go to college to learn your craft, you just need to know where to look. 

For me, the most helpful book I read was The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler. This is a great place to start. Of course, there are books you can read on everything, from outlining to dialogue. Vogler’s book applies to almost every story you can imagine, even reality TV.

Yes, reality TV. I did a whole paper on this in graduate school. Mythic structure is the basis of storytelling, and once you know the narrative structure and character archetypes, you’ll find yourself applying it to everything you watch, read and write. 

Plus, once you know the rules, you can bend them. Believe me, professionals will know whether you know your stuff or not, so you better have a reason for doing it, and it should be the best way to serve the story you want to tell.