It seems fitting then to revisit an essay Clark wrote 20 years ago about powerful short-form writing. Most of the good stories we tell can be told in 800 words or less. Let me try one. It involves ...

What remains, Book 1, is the oldest extant work of dramatic and literary theory, and could also have been entitled, What Makes a Story Work or, How to Write a Good Story. Fittingly or not ...

One question I’m often asked by readers is how we decide which stories to write or what events to cover ... And then there are those times when a really good story comes along and you just ...

Every story worth reading has a good beginning. From “Moby Dick” and “Pride and Prejudice” to “Harry Potter and the ...

Writing that many pages may seem daunting, so to make this easier, break down your story into three acts. A good rule: Devote 30 pages to Act 1, 60 pages to Act 2, and 30 pages to Act 3.

Readers and listeners need to be invested in the story, and one good way to do that is to provide plenty of context about the characters. Stansel compared it to writing a romance story.

They are asking, in other words, “What is your story?” In my experience as a headhunter ... because digging through our past choices, good and bad, can be difficult. To help people with ...