Storytelling

If I have a clear reason to study, I do; thus my studying history has only ever involved school or job-seeking. I needed to have a goal. In school I studied out of fear of failure, which to me was getting anything less than an A. When I was hoping to land a job that would take me away from the hellacious one I was currently suffering through, I practiced answering interview questions ~ over and over. 

I've never, however, studied storytelling. I didn't know that was something writers needed to do. I absorbed good storytelling, of course, through voracious reading, which I suppose one could label "study", although it certainly wasn't conscious. But it seems that a lot of would-be authors actually do study storytelling. The "Save the Cat" method is often touted; something I'd heard of but knew nothing about. When I took a quick look at it online, it didn't strike my fancy. First of all, in order to follow its steps, one would need to outline. I just can't. Frankly, I don't understand how so many writers do. Not to belabor the point, but I have no idea where a story is going until I'm into it. Know how boring a story would be if I deliberately set out to outline it? I don't have ideas, at least not in advance. 

The whole "plot beats" makeup of Save the Cat is foreign to me and seems contrived. Maybe I already do it and don't realize it ~ I'm certainly not going to tear apart one of my stories to find out. And I don't like "paint by numbers". For me, writing is supposed to be fun (I'm certainly not doing it for the money!), so I freestyle my stories. I don't worry that I'm supposed to insert the "break into two" step on page 87 or the "B story" on page 30. (I don't like B stories, or subplots, anyway.) It's supposed to be a creative pursuit, not a desk chair assembly. 

I don't want to study methods and confuse myself. I already have enough self-doubt as is. I could say that not following the dots is the reason my books don't sell, except that's not true. Most of them are good, no matter how they were constructed. Writing really isn't rocket science. If you've ever read a book, you know there's character, stakes, conflict, and resolution. That's basically it. It's pretty instinctual. Who would write a story where nothing happens? Who would write a story in which their main character is a stick figure? 

Studying is overrated. When I trained new employees, which I did for many, many years, I didn't hand them the instruction manual and leave them to their own devices. The way one learns is by doing. Try and fail, try and fail, try and succeed.

So, no studying for me. I'm not trying to pass a course or land a job, so there is no goal. Besides, I may be retiring from writing anyway, so this is all a moot point.