Narrative Structure Quotes

“The unsurrogated narrator has the monumental task of transforming low-level self-interest into the kind of detached empathy required of a piece of writing that is to be of value to the disinterested reader.”
― Vivian Gornick, The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative

“Mechanical rule produces similar stories like goods produced in a plant. Every strong and original narrative structure is crafted personally. The unique philosophical belief system, as well as the cultural value of a particular society, is the ultimate headwaters of original and compelling narrative structure.”
― DB Thakuri, HEADWATERS OF SCREENWRITING: The Art of Crafting Original Screenplays

“A story with a problem is like a person with a problem: interesting.”
― George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

“Causality is to the writer what melody is to the songwriter: a superpower that the audience feels as the crux of the matter; the thing the audience actually shows up for; the hardest thing to do; that which distinguishes the competent practitioner from the extraordinary one.”
― George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life