The Power of Stories

Words are powerful. Stories are more powerful. True stories create a deep impact.

That's why we need to know how to tell them, well, so people will read them. A weak story is easy to write. Such stories are often written in passive voice rather than simple past tense. (For example, "Jack was running up the hill," rather than, "Jack ran up the hill.") Weak writing is also identified by the use of weak verbs. ("Ran" is good, "Jack charged up the hill," is better.)

Most of the time, we can hear weak writing. It's the way we talk. Verbose. Passive. Too many adverbs, because we chose weak verbs and need to amplify them to explain what we really meant to say. It's easy to write that way. It's hard to write well. But it's worth the effort.

Most of us enjoy gripping stories. Those are the ones we can't put down. We keep turning the pages until we get to the end. And afterward, we remember the message behind such stories. Because we read them.

So why not write them? Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, you can employ the elements of story-telling to draw your readers into the action. That's how we show rather than tell stories. And when we do that, our readers become involved. They see themselves in our stories.

When they do that, they buy our books—and read them. And sometimes our stories influence their lives.