The Writer's Craft: Modern Insights | Storytelling 2 | Chapter 3

The Writer's Craft: Modern Insights

(Storytelling 2)

By Olivia Salter

CHAPTER 3

Conceptive Technique - Story Types

The work of a fiction writer can be broken into two main tasks: conception and execution. While some writers may begin with only a vague idea and develop it as they go, a skilled literary artist typically works with a clear purpose in mind from the outset. Understanding the different types of stories is crucial, especially when trying to determine what kind of effect you want to produce. In this context, we'll first explore the conceptive aspect of storytelling before diving into the execution and structure.

It’s important to note that there’s no guaranteed method to spark great ideas. Creativity is personal, and no technical knowledge can substitute for the inspiration needed to find a story worth telling. However, understanding the basic types of stories and how they differ can guide writers in shaping and developing their concepts.

Knowing whether your story is primarily focused on character, incident, or atmosphere can help you concentrate your efforts in the right direction. If your story emphasizes atmosphere, for example, you’ll focus on building an emotional or sensory environment rather than getting sidetracked with unnecessary character development or intricate plots.

Story Length: Novel vs. Short Story

While all stories share common elements, novels and short stories are different in terms of scope and complexity. A novel has room for multiple layers, with varying emphasis on character, plot, and atmosphere throughout. A short story, by contrast, is more focused. It aims to produce a single, unified effect. With limited space, any extraneous emphasis on secondary elements can weaken the overall impact. For this reason, understanding the core of your story—whether it’s about character, plot, or atmosphere—is especially critical when writing short stories. However, the same principles can also apply to episodes within a novel.

The Three Story Types: Character, Plot, and Atmosphere

At its core, a story is about what people do in a particular time and place. How you emphasize these elements—personality, action, or setting—defines the story type:

1. Character-Driven Stories: These stories focus on the traits and development of characters. The plot serves as a vehicle for exploring a character’s strengths, weaknesses, or evolution. In a character-driven story, readers are most interested in how individuals grow, change, or unravel over time.
2. Plot-Driven Stories: Here, the primary focus is on what happens. The sequence of events or actions takes center stage. These stories tend to be more dramatic, with a clear series of events leading to a climax. While characters are still important, they serve the plot rather than driving the narrative.
3. Atmosphere-Driven Stories: These stories emphasize the setting and mood. The environment, whether physical or emotional, shapes the experience of the characters and the readers. Creating a powerful atmosphere can give a story its distinct tone, evoking specific feelings such as fear, beauty, or suspense.

While these types are distinct, they often overlap. A plot-driven story may still require well-developed characters, and an atmospheric story might involve significant action. The key is deciding where to place the emphasis.

Character Stories: Depth Through Development

A true character story centers on the evolution or decline of its characters. Readers follow the characters as they encounter challenges, and the story hinges on whether they grow stronger or weaker in response. The progression of these traits is the essence of the plot in character stories. The actions taken by the characters must align with their personalities; otherwise, the story feels disjointed. The events in the story are there to illuminate the characters, not overshadow them.

Plot Stories: The Archetype of Storytelling

Plot-driven stories often represent the most traditional form of storytelling. Unlike a simple tale, where events happen by chance, plot-driven stories feature a series of events that are tightly interconnected, with each incident being essential to the overall design. These stories are often easy to recognize—they have a clear, gripping narrative arc—but not every plot idea can fit into a short story. Compression isn’t the goal in short story writing; rather, the short story should be naturally brief, focusing on a few key incidents that can be developed in detail. The best short stories feel complete despite their brevity, delivering a fully realized narrative in a limited number of words.

Atmosphere Stories: The Challenge of Intangible Worlds

Atmospheric stories emphasize the setting or mood, and crafting them requires a high level of imagination and technical skill. Unlike character or plot stories, which deal with concrete people and events, atmospheric stories deal with emotions, impressions, and the intangible. This type of story is the hardest to pull off successfully, as it requires the writer to evoke feelings and sensory experiences through words alone. The challenge lies in making the reader feel the atmosphere, whether it’s haunting, serene, or oppressive, without relying too heavily on external descriptions.

Recognizing and Developing Your Story Type

Once you’ve identified the type of story you’re telling, it becomes easier to focus on how to develop it effectively. Character-driven stories demand attention to the internal growth of the characters. Plot-driven stories require careful planning to ensure the events are interconnected and purposeful. Atmosphere-driven stories need to build a world or mood that captivates the reader from beginning to end.

While other types of stories, like love stories, exist, they can usually be categorized by their emphasis on character, plot, or atmosphere. The key takeaway is that by understanding your story’s core type, you can ensure that every element of your narrative supports its primary focus.

In summary, identifying whether your story is character, plot, or atmosphere-driven is a critical first step. This helps you streamline your creative process and ensures that your story resonates with the audience in the way you intend.

Story Types and Techniques

Understanding Story Types for Effective Fiction Writing

When it comes to crafting fiction, a writer’s process can be broken down into two main categories: conception and execution. While some authors may start with only a vague idea and develop the story as they write, this is not the typical approach of a deliberate, skillful storyteller. A conscious writer begins with a clear purpose and vision, guiding their choices and actions throughout the entire process. The focus here is on conceptive techniques—specifically understanding different story types and how they shape the execution of a story.

There is no magic formula for finding a good story. That depends entirely on the writer’s creativity and talent. However, understanding the fundamental types of stories, and knowing which type a particular idea fits into, can significantly help a writer develop their narrative more effectively. If a story concept leans towards character development rather than plot or atmosphere, the writer can focus on bringing those character traits to life, without diluting the impact with unnecessary focus on the other elements.

The Difference Between Novels and Short Stories

Whether it’s a novel or a short story, all fiction shares the same core elements: characters, events, and settings. However, a novel, due to its length, can emphasize multiple aspects—character, plot, and atmosphere—across different chapters and scenes. A short story, constrained by its brevity, typically aims to create a single, concentrated effect. Any distraction from that main focus can weaken the story’s impact. Therefore, it’s crucial for short story writers to grasp and refine the core idea of their narrative from the outset.

Three Core Story Types

Fiction is built around three key components: characters, events, and settings. How a story prioritizes these elements determines its type:

1. Character-Driven Stories: These stories explore human nature, focusing on specific traits of the characters. Rather than providing a complete portrayal of someone’s personality, the writer zeroes in on a few defining qualities and shows them in action. A true character story involves growth or change in the characters over time. The story’s climax hinges on whether the characters will shape their circumstances or be shaped by them.
2. Plot-Driven Stories: These narratives emphasize action and events. They are the foundation of storytelling, often referred to as archetypal fiction. While character and atmosphere are still present, they take a backseat to the unfolding of the plot. The hallmark of a plot-driven story is a clear chain of events leading to a resolution, and it must be paced to fit within the limited word count of a short story. A good short story isn't about compressing a longer narrative, but about presenting a complete tale suited to its natural length.
3. Atmosphere-Driven Stories: These focus on creating a particular mood or feeling, often through descriptions of the setting or emotional tone. These stories are the hardest to execute well, as they rely heavily on imagination and the ability to evoke sensory or emotional responses in readers. They don’t just describe a place; they immerse the reader in a distinct emotional environment. Crafting a story of atmosphere requires the writer to master subtle techniques that capture intangible feelings, whether it's the eerie chill of a haunted house or the warmth of a nostalgic memory.

Blurring the Lines Between Types

Although these categories are useful for understanding story structure, most stories will include elements of all three. A plot-driven story will still have characters, and an atmosphere-heavy piece will still involve some form of action or interaction. The key is knowing which element to emphasize for the greatest effect. If the main appeal of your story is how a character changes over time, that’s where your focus should be. If your idea revolves around a complex sequence of events, plot will take center stage. Writers must identify the dominant element early on to guide their narrative approach.

The Short Story: A Case for Brevity and Depth

One of the most common misconceptions about short stories is that they are simply condensed versions of longer tales. But a true short story is not the result of compression—it is a complete, self-contained narrative that naturally fits its shorter form. It’s a genre that thrives on careful selection of details rather than squeezing in as much information as possible. Each word, sentence, and scene in a short story must serve a purpose. This selective approach allows for depth and focus, creating a narrative with the same complexity and emotional resonance as a novel, but within a more concise framework.

Writers should avoid “rhetorical compression,” where events and ideas are crammed into too little space, sacrificing the natural flow and depth of the story. Instead, they should aim for “selective brevity,” carefully choosing only the most essential moments to highlight.

Crafting the Right Atmosphere

Creating a successful atmosphere-driven story is often the most challenging task for a writer. Unlike characters or events, atmosphere is more abstract—it’s about capturing a feeling, a tone, or an emotional undercurrent. Whether it’s horror, nostalgia, or serenity, the atmosphere must be deeply woven into every element of the story. This requires the writer to have a strong command of language, using it to evoke not just visuals but also sensations and emotions.

Good atmosphere doesn’t just describe a scene—it immerses the reader fully. A horror story, for instance, might focus on the growing tension in a seemingly normal setting, using subtle details to evoke dread. A nostalgic tale might use language that conjures vivid memories or feelings of longing. The challenge lies in striking the right balance between description and emotional impact without becoming overly verbose or disconnected from the narrative.

Other Story Variations

While character, plot, and atmosphere are the fundamental building blocks of fiction, they don’t exist in isolation. Many stories, especially love stories or moral tales, blend these elements in different ways. A love story, for example, can emphasize character growth, plot twists, or the emotional atmosphere of a relationship. Understanding how to balance these elements is key to developing a strong and engaging narrative.

By recognizing the true nature of their story idea—whether it’s primarily about characters, plot, or atmosphere—writers can develop it in a way that plays to its strengths, ensuring a more cohesive and impactful piece of fiction.

Conclusion

Mastering the art of fiction writing requires an understanding of story types and how they inform the structure and focus of a narrative. Whether crafting a novel or a short story, the writer must recognize whether their idea is primarily driven by characters, events, or atmosphere and develop it accordingly. Short stories, in particular, demand clarity of purpose and precision in execution. Writers who understand the core nature of their story can more effectively craft compelling narratives that resonate with readers, without wasting effort on unnecessary elements.