Story Vitality
Since its inception, the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Contest has become the single most effective means for an aspiring author to break into the ranks of publishing professionals.
The Contest, of course, was created by L. Ron Hubbard, one of America’s most accomplished writers of the twentieth century. He was a bestseller as a young man, with his stories gracing the covers of the hottest pulp magazines. Ron published nearly 250 works of fiction in all the popular genres of his day, including mystery, adventure, thriller, western, romance, horror and fantasy. Ultimately, he helped to usher in Science Fiction’s Golden Age with such genre-creating stories as Final Blackout, Fear and To the Stars.
His broad understanding of the field, along with his proven techniques for generating tales quickly and gracefully, made him one of the most qualified people in the world to launch the Writers of the Future.
He knew the rigors of a writer’s life and how the publishing industry worked. He also recognized the vital elements a tale needed to be publishable, from story ideas to research to that intangible known as suspense. He pondered the depths of story vitality, and addressed the importance of an author researching his topic deeply, so that he understood the intricacies of his tale.
That he published articles on these very topics in the popular writing magazines of the day—Writer’s Digest, Writer’s Review, The Author & Journalist—comes as no surprise. That these essays are as valuable today to the aspiring writer as they were when first written is self-evident to any professional. For this reason, his essays were chosen to form the backbone of the now-famous Writers of the Future writers’ workshop. Taught by Tim Powers and K. D. Wentworth, it is regarded by many past winners as the most valuable of the Contest’s awards.
It was Algis Budrys, editor, author and the Contest’s first Coordinating Judge, who noted, “You will almost certainly become a successful writer if you take L. Ron Hubbard’s writing precepts to heart and practice them.” He noted that when an editor picks up a story, the first things he or she looks for are (1) a clear and recognizable character (2) in a detailed setting (3) who is doing something interesting.
In “Story Vitality” L. Ron Hubbard smoothly illustrates some of the fundamental techniques of how to build a story by carefully selecting these three basic elements.