Your "Core Stories"

I was listening to a Fated Mates podcast episode from last year when they interview Jayne Ann Krentz who introduced the concept of "core story"

JAK says : "i think its important for writers to have a sense of their core story. And if you have a sense of your core story, you can sum it up in 2 or 3 words max"

She says it has nothing to do with genre or background or plot, but the emotion and conflicts you write. Her core story is "mutual trust". No matter what genre she writes in (and she writes in A LOT) , her stories, at the root, are about trust (building trust, violating trust, etc). Its what shes curious about and interested in exploring in various ways.
Your core story becomes your universe and it what you write about through your career no matter what face/genre it takes.


I was thinking about my stories and what they all have in common and, ironically, "faith" is present in all of my novel length works*. A lack of faith, finding faith, losing faith. Faith in higher powers, faith in people, faith in ones self.(i have a rocky history with faith, religion, and spirituality despite 8 years in Catholic school and my whole life raised Catholic)

That and "family".... The meaning of family, losing family, holding on to family, connecting with family. This topic is present in my catalogue of short fiction.

What are your core stories?





*I do NOT write religious/inspirational fiction.

 

Having been involved in the ministry at one time. The art of crafting a sermon comes to mind when you say core. My writing today does not really vary that much except in theme. Back then the message was how was my point expressed in the old testament, how did the new testament re-enforce that same principle. I then used a modern day analogy in the form of a short story. True success could be measured at the door on the way out after the service, could someone articulate what the sermon was about in a couple of sentences.

Today the core of most of my writing is, there is a story behind every person, every event. It is up to me as a writer to notice all of the small details and components that make up what is happening. The choices of words and emotions that run through a person while they are in the middle of some event in their life, I try and capture those.

Every story I write has a message, something we should all be able to identify with, something we may be able to take away from someone else experience and add it to something in our lives. If I can't do that, I try to make you smile or laugh. I think a third of what I write is humor, I the rest is a mix of non-fiction or fiction that is based on 90 percent truth.

 

That's a really interesting concept and something I've been thinking about for the past little while, though I wasn't trying for a 3-word summary. Looking back over my small body of completed stories, I came round to seeing a common theme of character who doesn't fit in, displaced or discomforted by being somewhere they don't quite belong. In three words? Outsider looking in, maybe. One word? Alienation, perhaps. Write what you know is one of the rules, I guess.

 

Something even more condensed than a logline or tag line. I like it.

 

Interesting idea. I thought it would take me a long time to think of my own "core story," but it only took me a minute. A prevalent theme in many of my works is "confidence and failure."

 

Defy, survive, and thrive.

 

Mine's probably something like, "defying expectation" or "being your true self."

At least that seems to be what I'm most interested in writing at the moment.

 

I’m not sure how funny you are trying to be, but I think looking in dichotomies is good. It helps me concentrate my themes, when I am forced to compare one ideal against the opposite (and often mutually exclusive) ideal.

 

This is interesting. Not too log ago someone asked me what I write about. My quick answer was the beauty in mundane moments. And I think that is my core story. Quiet moments can be quite powerful. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe in the necessity of a good plot and making things happen. But, as writers, we can turn the ordinary into extraordinary through our language and words.

 

I'm not sure my stuff necessarily boils down like that nor do I believe that's a productive exercise. The concept seems too reductive.

 

It sounded a little dubious to me, too, until I broke down one story and realized the theme could fit the others as well. Enlightenment comes in odd ways.

 

Im not saying find/make up a core story and write in it for the rest of your life
I feel like... If there is a common theme you keep writing about, it must be important enough to you to keep writing about it. Even if you dont realize you are writing it (i didnt. After listening to the podcast, i went back to my finished works to find a common theme and there it was).
Its a nice, self reflective exercise . You learn more about yourself as a writer.

 

Same. When you first started this thread I wasn't sure I had a core story. I mostly write literary fiction but also the-world-is-ending genre fiction. And then there is my never-published murder mystery novel. But after thinking about this, a few days later I started to realize my core story existed in how I tell these stories more than what the stories are actually about. Thinking about this I sort of did learn or realize something about myself as a writer. My core story is even there in my nonfiction. This core-story thing is something that seems to have worked for me, and I would say it's present in all my published works. I can see knowing this helping me out as I craft new works. A core story is sort of like a specialty for a writer and can tap into the heart of their talents. I'm glad you started this thread. It's an interesting topic and concept for a writer to explore and lends to a bit of self discovery.

 

Identity issues - As a Christian its difficult to discuss spiritual identity in a world that can disregard the notion. I've never really addressed that on it's face but it's embedded in my stories as all my characters seem to be striving to find their identities, reclaim their identities, keep them, or dodge looming shadow selves.
Amnesia, doubles, twins, robots, puppets, stalkers, body mutations, are all symbols populating my fiction.
Even my WIP takes the idea to the extreme as the characters have multiple identities and multiple names being actors, directors and are constantly shifting places and function in the narrative from real world to manufactured.

 

Hi,

Did my best considering that I write across several different genres. But in general they're about being challenged, overcoming that challenge, using your wits and unraveling the mystery. So "Overcoming a challenge by using your wits and solving a mystery". It's not two or three words, but it's as close as I can get.

Cheers, Greg.

 

Took me a while to boil it down enough in the right way I think, but I realized all my recent story ideas are about escaping tyranny.

 

To expand it a bit, learning that the danger of not standing up for yourself is far worse than the danger of allowing someone else to tyrannize you.

Which just made me realize that the main character of my novel Passing Strange is not who I thought it was—it's not the POV character.

 

So, would your core story be something like common ground or common understanding? Maybe with some empathy thrown in there? Just thinking some more about this topic, but it does seem like there is a similar focus in your writing from what you posted here.

 

For some reason, I hope the last one on your list is your true core story.

 

Common ground, common understanding, creates empathy.

We all go through tough times. The death of someone close to us, falling in love, having children, dealing with disasters from fire to weather to poor health. At some point in time, even the most ardent skeptic wonders, what's the point of life is? Am I alone. Is there a purpose? Why did this happen? There is nothing new under the sun, no new problems, only different variations of the same stuff. Turning to God for answers has been part of our history and supplies answers many times where there are no others.

Anytime you are part of a ministry you are part of peoples lives, the good stuff and the bad stuff. You are there for support there for encouragement and there for a scriptural answer..

life really is an adventure, it can be many things, most of the time it boils down to how you deal with all of the changes. As a writer, you see life unfold in front of you. If you read any of my posts you will see I show no empathy for those who lack something to say, lack a message or a direction. It means in reality that they have not paid attention to those around them. They ignored those in pain, those in joy, those going through the steps of life. There is nothing new under the sun, no new story lines only better ways to tell it, better ways to share those moments with others, through keen observation. A true writer is not only a good story teller, they are a good listener and observer. The last two fixing most problems when it comes to writer's block.

There is so much truth to writing what you know, also no greater responsibility.

 

I don't know if this would be part of my "core story" but I seem to be drawn to the number 5.

I just went back through the project I'm editing because I couldn't remember how many months I'd said until storm season, and its 5 months.
Not only that... I've used the number a couple more times through out the story: 5 guides, 5 shepherds, 5 "mules" (in this world they have creatures similar to mules), the MC's bother is 5 years younger than her. The MC first met the Male MC when she was 5.



Maybe it's not that deep. But it was a pretty eye opening discovery lol. I didn't realize I used that number so many times!