What "The Story Knows Best" Really Means, by KM Weiland

When writers start talking about the autonomy of their stories, non-writers are likely to give us looks that range from confused to concerned, especially when our comments include the following: 

"Nothing was working for me until I quit fighting my story and let it do what it wanted." 

"I have no control over my story. I just sit back and let it take off."

"My characters made me do it."

"The story knows best."

These comments may sound like wild exaggerations to our listeners, but, in truth, we mean every word of them. Our stories often do seem to have minds of their own, and those minds usually seem to understand the subtleties of story craft much better than we do.

What does this idea that the story knows best really mean?

As our by now nervous non-writing friends would be quick to point out, a story isn't a conscious entity. It can't know anything. Our characters are just figments of our imagination. Outside of our own minds and the words we've put on paper, they don't exist, much less exercise control over us or our story worlds. How can we claim to "listen to the story" when the story is an emanation of ourselves?

To some extent, the phrase the story knows best is a pie-in-the-sky concept used by writers to describe the indescribable. When you're in the throes of creative passion, hammering away at words that seem to appear on your computer screen faster than you can think of them, when the story does things you never planned for it to do, when your characters take the bit in their teeth and gallop away onto trails unknown-that's something almost too magical to put into words. How do you explain any of that to someone who's never experienced it, when you can barely grasp it yourself?

We can't. So we say the story did it. Or our characters took charge. Or we were just a conduit through which higher inspiration could flow.

None of that is really true.

What’s true is this:

The story doesn’t know best. The characters don’t know best. You know best.

Yes, you.

When we say the story knows best what we really mean is “our subconscious story sense knows best.” Even when we can’t consciously articulate what we’re feeling, something deep inside of us understands how to craft our stories into something perfect. Every author needs to make a point of not just acknowledging this underlying story sense, but of recognizing it in action and refining his ability to interpret and channel it.

Talking about how our “stories know best” is a fun and easy way to describe the process—but it not only sells us short, it can also inhibit our ability to see that story sense for what it really is and to work toward harnessing it in perfect tandem with our conscious, logical story skills. The next time you’re talking about your story with a hapless non-writer, let that twinkle in your eye shine out as you unnerve him with your announcement that your story knows best. But don’t forget to remind yourself that, really, it’s your inner story sense doing all the heavy lifting.

About the Author:

K.M. Weiland lives in make-believe worlds, talks to imaginary friends, and survives primarily on chocolate truffles and espresso. She is the IPPY and NIEA Award-winning and internationally published author of the Amazon bestsellers Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel, as well as Jane Eyre: The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic. She writes historical and speculative fiction from her home in western Nebraska and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors. Her newest writer's help book, Conquering Writer's Block, released in December, 2014.