Brandon Sanderson, famous novelist, had taught some writing classes at BYU (Brigham Young University) many years ago. In the following video, he challenged his students to be chefs, not cooks.
The video is an hour long, so I'll try to summarize that challenge for you...
What is the difference between a cook, and a chef?
A cook is an individual who follows established recipes to prepare food.
A chef is an individual trained to understand flavors and cooking techniques, and can create new recipes with available ingredients.
Let's take the metaphor to writing.
If you write like a cook, you are following a formula. On page X you must have introduce character A, on page Y you must have plot element B, and so on and so forth.
If you write like a chef, you understand how plot, drama, tension, theme, storyline (or plot line), story structure, character arc, and more combine and interact to create the final result, and you are ready to create new combinations because you understand the basic techniques and the ingredients (characters, words, description of senses, etc).
At least that's my interpretation of what he said.
I'll even throw in my interpretation of "anti-cook" (not in the lecture).
New writers who don't understand story structure and the rest of basic plotting and writing techniques often have a hard time accepting that they need to learn story structure and the rest, because they think it will turn them "formulaic".
But as Sanderson pointed out, you are formulaic because you're writing like a cook, not a chef. You need to understand the basic techniques, to know how to apply them in different combinations to create new original results.
At least a cook will produce something edible, if not original. If you are an anti-cook, you may well produce something completely inedible. Or in writing, something people put down and never pick up again.
So, go learn the basic techniques, and write like a chef.
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