I wanted to be so amazing: two storytelling tips from Gordon Lish
Photo by Amina Filkins
Don’t shun repetition
Here is the first paragraph of Gordon Lish’s story “The Death of Me”:
I wanted to be amazing. I wanted to be so amazing. I had already been amazing up to a certain point. But I was tired of being at that point. I wanted to go past that point. I wanted to be more amazing than I had been up to that point. I wanted to do something which went beyond that point and which went beyond every other point and which people would look at and say that this was something which went beyond all other points and which no other boy would ever be able to go beyond, that I was the only boy who could, that I was the only one.
From reading this passage, you may not suspect that Lish was one of the 20th century’s greatest (and most controversial) editors. But nothing Lish does is an accident. He’s a technician, a storytelling wizard with a hawk’s eye for language and Wallenda’s sense of momentum. Rereading the passage, it becomes incantatory. Watch the repetition, the swerve (a one-word swerve in the second sentence), the repetition, the repetition. The passage is 103 words long. Six of those words are “wanted,” four are “amazing,” six “point”s (plus one “points”). The verb “to go” appears seven times. Lish likes to stick with things to exhaustion. Maybe this is an extreme example. But how many people are afraid of sticking with it, too eager to move on, to get to what’s next? If you’ve got something good to tell, sometimes you can try paying it out.
Just tell me what you want
“What makes the engine go? Desire, desire, desire.”
What makes the story go? Desire. Of the seven sentences in the passage, five start with “I wanted to.” We know what the narrator wants to do, to go, to be. If you’re interested in what the narrator wants and how he wants it, you’ll keep reading. If not, at least Lish has done you the favor of letting you know immediately that this isn’t the story for you. Generous storytellers give their audiences the gift of time.