Storytelling is the key to good fiction. What is storytelling? It is the way you tell a story. A story is not merely a plot plus characters. If you give ten writers the same plot and characters, you will end up with ten wildly different stories (of varying levels of quality). That is where the talent of storytelling enters the equation. You can have a compelling plot and interesting characters, but if you don’t have a skilled storyteller to deliver those elements you’re not going to have a good story. It is not just a matter of being able to compose grammatically clean prose—ChatGPT can do that. Good storytelling is composing the story, from sentence to sentence, in a compelling way.

I think storytelling can be learned to some extent, but there is also an innate element to it as well. Certain people are naturally better at telling a story than others. They do this by setting up mysteries, using suspense, teasers, reveals, call-backs, drama, tension, irony, and using cliffhangers to keep people hooked—among many other tricks and tools. Those storytelling tactics will make a story compelling regardless of the specific plot and characters.

I’ve written before about how mystery is the key to a good story. Even if the genre is not directly a whodunnit style mystery involving a crime, there should be some elements of mystery in the way you tell the story, with information withheld so that the reader is anxiously flipping pages, eager to discover what happens next. Good storytellers use mystery to add intrigue to a story. You don’t want to reveal everything from the start. Just as important as what you reveal is when you reveal it.

For instance, the plot and characters of a story could be about a woman who plans to kill her husband to get his money and remarry her lover. But the storytelling is how you tell that story. From whose perspective? The wife, husband, lover, or a detective investigating the case? In what order? Do you start before or after the murder, use a linear narrative or flashbacks? How is the information revealed to the reader—who knows what and when? Sometimes characters know things the audience does not, and other times the audience knows things characters do not. Both can work to enhance a story. Talented storytellers figure out the best way to deliver information, using a wide array of narrative devices for the most dramatic effect.

I had this revelation about storytelling while listening to a podcast book review of a classic science fiction novel. While I admired aspects of the world-building, I found the novel laborious to get through and ultimately forgettable. Those on the podcast likewise felt underwhelmed by the book, though they struggled to explain exactly why. It had a good enough plot, the world-building was top-notch, and it had so many interesting futuristic technologies and ideas. The characters weren’t great, but that wasn’t the main problem with the book. I think the problem was the storytelling. Despite having interesting elements, the author failed to tell the story in a compelling way.

That book is just one example among countless others of writers falling prey to the same problem. They have a good idea, a good plot, and good characters, but the way they tell their story is flawed. A good plot and developed characters aren’t enough. You need to tell your story in an interesting way. That includes introducing mystery, suspense, teasers, reveals, call-backs, irony, drama, etc.—and being a strong crafter of sentences in general. If you write compelling prose, people will continue reading regardless of the content.¹

Much of “storytelling” comes down to a writer’s voice. When I first started studying writing, I listened to interviews with writers talking about their craft, and they would always say how developing a “voice” was the most essential thing. But I grew frustrated because they never concretely explained what that meant. A writer’s voice is somewhat nebulous and difficult to describe. But after years of writing myself and developing a voice of my own, I finally realized what they meant. Though like them, I still cannot quite explain it to others.

AI can assemble all the ingredients needed to tell a story, but the way it comes together will likely always leave readers wanting—because it will be lacking a unique voice. Actually, that’s not entirely true. ChatGPT might be developing a “voice” of its own by writing in detectable patterns and repeating certain words and phrases. But that is not seen as a good thing; it is a limit of AI that makes its prose less lively, original, and engaging.

The precise instructions for how a writer develops a unique “voice” cannot be defined in plain words because every good writer’s voice is unique. You just know it when you see it (or hear it)(or read it). That is good news and bad news. The bad news is, it makes it more difficult for new writers to acquire a good storytelling voice—it can take years of honing one’s craft. But the good news is, without a clear definition, a good storytelling voice cannot be programmed into AI, meaning AI may never acquire one. So the time a human author spends developing a voice and storytelling skills will always be worth it.

The sci-fi book those podcasters were talking about was written decades before the invention of ChatGPT, but our critiques of it could apply to any fiction written by AI today. It has all the elements of a good story (a decent plot, world-building, and characters), it’s perfectly written (no grammatical mistakes or typos), but… something is missing. That something is a master storyteller’s voice.

1. I could read anything written by David Foster Wallace. ↩︎