Happy February ya’ll!
As many of you know, I’ve been working on reading about the craft of writing and storytelling for the past few months. I don’t know why I never thought to do that before, but here I am.
Much of what there is to read about we, as writers, know intuitively. But I think it’s time I do things on purpose in my writing instead of looking back and saying, “Oh, good. It’s there.” My theory is that by doing it on purpose, I will cut down on editing time…..
We shall see if that theory comes true.
One thing I’ve been using the last few months in both my short stories and my novel is the phrase “And So?”. Many writing teachers use this to help writers see which scenes are needed in the story and which aren’t. According to Lisa Cron, who wrote Wired for Story, ‘you’re testing for story relevance’ when asking “And so?” She makes sure to remind us as writers that if we don’t go through and ask this for every scene, THE READER will.
You know how you’re supposed to cut those darlings? AKA the parts of the book that sound pretty but probably don’t move the story forward? This is the WHY behind that idea. Because you don’t want a reader finishing a chapter and thinking, “And so what?”
As Samuel Johnson once said, “Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”
These days, for every scene or even to think about what might happen in a short story I asked myself, “And so?” and if I can’t answer that because it doesn’t attach to where I want the protagonist to be at the end, I go back and rework the scene from the beginning.
Do you use something like this? Have you heard of using the question “And so?” to find out which scenes you need to cut or develop more?
Last week I asked how you stayed focused while writing. Cherie let me know that being a grant writer and being used to a deadline was a tremendous help in continued focus. Soulla said she also sets deadlines for herself so that the adrenaline kicks in.
Deadlines are a great way to keep focused. We are our own boss as authors, right? So we should obey ourselves!:)
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