I'm looking for something a bit more than grammar, but less than the somewhat random "rules of storytelling" which seem to be partly based upon pleasing editors and partly based on something pulled out of much darker nether regions.

Now I know there's elements of style but that's very very basic stuff. It's almost grammar and meant really for nonfiction writing (IMO).

The question I want to answer is: why does a story work?
What techniques did the author use to make it work? Not just oh she used foreshadowing, and metaphors and similes very well. Those are still tools to me. I want to know how to create certain effects using those tools.

I think the way every writer gets that craft-knowledge now is they read as much as possible and when they read a really good part they figure out how it works and then apply it elsewhere; and when a writer fails, they try to figure out why it failed and then find their own solution to it. This way they build their craft-Q up. I just wish I had the time to do that.

Current Books on craft don't help me much. I hate buying books on craft that tell me i oughta read read read (not that I mind reading - but that it's obvious advice), and to make my character multidimensional (obviously), and so on, but wont actually go into detailed analysis or examples. Or worse give a quick fix like give him a flaw, or make it wear a eye patch. All of which seem to be offering more rules than understanding.

Maybe i'm reading the wrong books. Any english lit majors/writers in the house? any books to recommend on developing the craft?

i think many authors are afraid to write such books and analyze thier own methods or afraid of being made a fool by publishing a book on craft. Only person i know did it is ursula Le guin. i wish i had her book with me. I left it back home, dang it! (i'm overseas right now)

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The question I want to answer is: why does a story work?

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In my semi-humble opinion, based on what you are saying, this is here I think where your problem lies. Trying to find out why a story works isn't going to help you, I don't think. What you want to know is how to make each specific story you want to write, do what you want it to do.

I fit somewhere in the middle. I have had a lot of great insights from more technical books like SCENE and STRUCTURE by Jack Bickham (get it from your library or buy used via Amazon), as well as WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Maass, WRITING THE BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL by Zucherman. There's also THE FIRST FIVE PAGES, by Lukeman, which many people speak highly of but I have on my shelf and haven't read yet so I don't know.

I get a lot of benefit from those kinds of books, but I can't read them as how-tos. I have to just read and absorb the ideas (and btw, the BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL book by Zucherman goes into extensive detail with examples from Ken Follett's books for illustrative purposes, very helpful though also makes the chapters very dense.) and then use what I've learned on new stories. I can't just try to follow the steps in the writing books I read, or that leads to worse fiction than what i was writing before!

I think that most people have an intuitive sense of what the elements of a good story are, but when we go to write one, we sometimes blank, or we fall back on old tired cliched things, stereotypes and tropes.

When I get myself into that kind of mode, I find reading a book on writing helps break me out of it and think more creatively about the work of crafting a story.

There is other advice I've found immensely helpful, like on overall story structure, or characterisation, or point of view. But the difficulty in posting here is that while certain advice may have great importance to me and my writing style, I feel it may just end up feeding yet another argument over 'rules' because it doesn't apply to another author's style - and may not apply to yours.

Thats kind of the trouble with trying to give general writing advice, as Ben says. To me, the closest thing to an objective goal or measure for writing is the desires and goals of the author with a given story.

I think the core thing to ask yourself when you sit down to write is: What story am I trying to tell and what is the best way to communicate that to the reader? Also, what feelings are you trying to evoke?

Do what you need to do make that communication happen the way you want it to and the style points will take care of themselves, even if they don't follow the 'rules'. If you're not sure if something will work, write it and see. What's the worst that happens? It doesn't work and you have to rewrite it. But you may discover something very effective that will become part of your style.

Just my thoughts, hope they help.

"The question I want to answer is: why does a story work?
What techniques did the author use to make it work? Not just oh she used foreshadowing, and metaphors and similes very well. Those are still tools to me. I want to know how to create certain effects using those tools."

These seem like different questions to me. Story structure vs. sentence structure. One is like structuring a story, making an outline, plotting, etc. The second is about making sentences readable and grammatically correct. Sort of the same way a house is built of many bricks. But the bricks and the house are two different things.

It seems to me that you are interested in the micro aspects of writing as opposed to the macro. (If I got that right.) What about looking at some books on poetry? Not that you need to write poetry, but poets are interested in the interplay and structure of words and that might provide some instruction/inspiration.

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Not that you need to write poetry, but poets are interested in the interplay and structure of words and that might provide some instruction/inspiration.

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Songwriting has a similar compressed scale, an economy is required. Even just studying song lyrics that you really like, or lyrics from musicals and operas where the song is meant to carry the plot forward might be useful.

I'm reading a book right now that I swear has the most beautiful turns of phrases, the most interesting way of wording things. I have started underlining key phrases so I can go back later and study them more closely. Mostly it's a really evocative way of describing things - a way of putting two opposing ideas together in a description that illuminates both the object/person being described and the ideas in a greater light. It's really fascinating to me, and it's a kids' book! (STONEHEART, if you're curious.) I found similar things in THE BOOK THIEF. So in my case, I plan to study the way things are worded in these stories a bit more, because I don't feel like my stories have enough of this (though I think this is writer self-doubt on my part, as I think I'm okay in the evocative description department, but I'd like to do more/be better at it.)

It's a bit like asking a karate instructor how to defend yourself in all situations; he will say learn practice karate--he is unlikely to say read a book.

Your best bet is try stuff out in 'fragments' and see if it works--after a while you will become more confident with your choices.

I don't see a particularly close relationship between those two questions, though. Sure, stories are made up of sentences, but you could have a bunch of beautifully crafted sentences strung together that don't make anything resembling a coherent story.

So: what makes a STORY work? Well, allowing for subjectivity (clearly, different stories do and don't work for different readers), a "working" story should:
1). Do what it sets out to do (ideally BOTH from the perspective of the reader and writer - but remember, readers may take away things from stories that writers never intended to put there, and equally miss stuff writers try and include).
2). Reveal itself as something complete and self-contained. A reader may not know where a story is going until the very final sentence, but when they read that final sentence, they should be able to understand everythng that has gone before, should be able to see why it is there, should realise that the story is greater than the sum of its parts. It should have been an entertaining ride to get to the end, but the end should ideally then illuminate and enhance that journey further. I am not pretending this is easy, nor that it is necessarily right for EVERY story to do so, but it's one of the things that tend to mark out truly great, memorable stories from just good ones.
3). Flow. Pacing and cadence are important, a story should rise and fall smoothly, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Line revision or editing can often break a story by destroying the flow; revisions tend to look at the detail and often overlook the whole picture.
4). Engage. If the reader isn't engaged in something about the story (event, character, setting, idea, language) then it's meaningless. If you can engage one of those elements, you might have a story. Two, and you are likely to get out of a slush pile. Three or four and it's looking good. All five and you are going to be published - but again, it isn't necessary for every story to try and do all of these things, some are simply inappropriate for a given story because it depends what the story is trying to do (I have written stries with beautiful language, interesting ideas, and - quite deliberately - no characters or setting whatsoever).

There are doubtless other things a story needs to do to work, but that lot will provide a start.

Robert McKee
Jack Bickham
Orson Scott Card
Steven Pressfield

All have written books on method: How to use the "tools" of the trade, and what those "tools" are for.

Albert Zuckerman
Donald Maass
Sol Stein

Are all literary agents who've examined the works of their best selling clientelle, and give you those results.

But, when all is said and done, you have to know what you want to write, to achieve with the prose, to strengthen. Reading Al Zuckerman's monotonous breakdown of four versions of Ken Follet's The Man From St. Petersburg outline may help you get a feel for strengthening the story at that level (and show you haw to keep it interesting while doing so). Reading Maass's Attention = At Tension advice may inspire you to keep some level of conlfict progressing the story along. Bickham might drive the point home with his Scene = Goal, Conflit, Disaster which is achieved through Cause and Effect and Stimulus and Response. But knowing all this isn't good enough, you have to build your story with these framing tools.

Common denominators I've found:

• Start with a character, really get to know him or her: friends, enemies, loves, likes, fears, weaknesses, morals. Use these against the character to unexpectedly shake up their world.
• Learn about the time period and milieu (even if you have to create them). You will find where elements of the milieu (culture, available devices/unavailable devices, plants and animals, magic or scientific advancement) work to impede, threaten, endanger or otherwise create obstacles for your character.
• From these two create a long term goal for your character, then fill his or her path with obstacles and conflicts on every level you can.
• Plot/Create some order by Outlining the resulting actions, experiment with different obstacles and add writing devices: Time-bombs (time limits), Crucibles (situations where opposing characters are forced to remain in close proximity) to see where tension can be escalated.
• Expand the plotting to chapters, so you know where you are going with each, and can develop escalation of tensions (or what Bickham calls building the conflic to disaster).
• Write it out, exploring the character's feelings and thoughts leading up to and dealing with each point during the chapter, and painting a sensory picture (with as many senses as possible) of the environment as perceived by your chosen protagonist.
• After building to major conflict/disaster, find an ending that satisfies: pull victory from defeat or the charater needs to learn something about his or her loss. (There are also a number of twists and reversals available at this point.)
• The character returns to some form normal, or normal changes for him or her.
  

It's not all of the answers, but you should be able to see a "usable" progression.