In Making Comics, Scott McCloud whips together a quick story to show various techniques for portraying a story in comics. He talks about different camera angles, pacing of a story, how dynamic to make images, and several others. At one point, he makes the note that he is using throwaway characters in a throwaway story. I was floored when I read that. I was really interested in the characters and where the story was heading. Then McCloud said that there is a difference between good story and good storytelling. If I was so interested in a throwaway story, then I suppose he just proved himself right.
This duality of story and storytelling has intrigued me ever since. I realize that both of them are integral to a succesful piece of writing. If your writing doesn't have an interesting story, people won't care. If you don't tell it your story well, people won't pay attention long enough to see if they care about the story.
The idea of story is interesting. On one hand, it can mean the plot or subtext of the events. A good story is one that has a deeper meaning, one that has a relevance beyond the actions, one that explores a facet of humanity. On the other hand, a good story can be one that a person connects with. Sometimes it's simply a matter of seeing impossible things happen and the events that follow that satisfy an audience, even if they don't teach a lesson or explore deeper thoughts.
Good storytelling is what makes a reader want to keep on reading. Word choice, sentence flow, mystery, and action all go into good delivery. When an audience trips over confusing sentences, spends too much time looking at scenery instead of interacting with it, gets too much information too soon, or keeps getting questions without ever getting answers, they stop caring. It takes a fine touch to find the sweet spot between boring and frustrating, but that is where interesting lies, and interesting is good storytelling.
Like I said earlier, I think a piece of writing needs good story and good storytelling to be good. This reminds me of two other terms, which are taste and quality. Taste (or preference) is like story. It is the subject that we personally care about. Quality is how well the story is told. Altough we tend to think of stories as simply good or bad, it is the combination of our taste and the work's quality that determine our opinion. Below are how I think the different combinations result. Although I know that story and delivery are both spectra, I have simplified it to good and bad.
Good Story/Good Delivery - Good
Good Story/Bad Delivery - Bad
Bad Story/Good Delivery - Good enough (worth reading at least once)
Bad Story/Bad Delivery - Bad
So, for one final time, everybody needs to have good story and good storytelling for success.
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