Stefan Einhorn’s journey as a writer - what makes a story interesting?
Photo by Thorn Ullberg
Have you ever stumbled across an interesting book that has had a long-lasting impact on your life? If the answer is yes, congratulations, as the Irish say, “a good friend is like a four-leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have”, the same goes for a good book. Not only does a reader want to find an appealing book to read, but also a writer that wants to compose an intriguing story.
To further explore how to write an interesting story, Stefan Einhorn, a skilful Swedish writer as well as an eminent oncologist at Karolinska Institute, is invited to share his journey as a writer and his opinion on this topic.
Having written many fiction and non-fiction books, Stefan had an uncommon motivation for why he started his writing journey:
“I had written a couple of books about cancer previously since I was and still am an oncologist. However, I had a life crisis around the age of forty, and that’s when I decided to write a book about whether God exists or not. It took me three years to finish the book, and the ‘surprising’ conclusion I came to is that God may exist. Perhaps, perhaps not. So, I didn’t solve the problem that has evaded humankind for thousands of years.”
Afterwards, he continued to write books that address existential questions, such as the meaning of life.
When it comes to the question of what makes a story interesting, he stresses the importance of constructing a web of events in a story instead of basing the story solely on one single plain event.
“What makes a story vivid is a well-thought plot. In my opinion, a single event may be sufficient for a short story but not for a novel. When I write a novel, I would like to surprise my readers with unexpected events to give them the incentives to continue to read. But the paramount point is that the themes of your story need to have a personal importance for you as a writer, in the meantime, seize the interest of the readers as well. I write stories not just for myself, I write stories because they will be read by others.”
Many of Stefan’s books are well acclaimed by the readers, one of which is Änglarnas svar (English: The answer of Angles), a great fiction that reveals the complex nature of humans and elegantly tells a story about reconciliation and forgiveness.
“I think Änglarnas svar is the best book I have written”, says Stefan, “It began as a short story, and the central idea was that it is easy to do good deeds when others applaud for you but what if your good deeds will be unseen and you may even receive criticisms for your good deeds.” He tells me that he was satisfied with the first chapter, but then he thought about adding one more chapter with the same theme but with another protagonist. So came the second chapter and the third chapter. “It wasn’t until the third chapter that I decided how the book would be and finished the whole plot in my head.” That is, the book came into existence during the writing process.
The inspiration of Änglarnas svar had a direct personal connection to the writer. It was when he visited the concentration camps in Poland during a trip that he first decided to write a book about it.
“My parents were survivors of the Holocaust, and I grew up knowing about the Holocaust. That’s why, I wrote this book after this trip, and one can say that I returned to the Holocaust in book form.”
Stefan points out that it is not easy to find such inspiration deliberately, sometimes “it just comes to you”.
Finally, Stefan has some tips for people who want to improve their writing ability:” If you are writing a fiction, you can start with something that is true, and then start to ‘lie’ and ‘lie’ as much as you can. In this way, you will not limit yourself only to the true details. With the “lies”, the fictitious part, you can make a true event even more interesting. Another important point is that a story must be logical even if it is a fantasy.”