The Beautiful, Brutal "And So?" Test, by Lisa Cron

                                  

There's something that we live by when we read a novel or watch a movie, but tend to completely forget when we write one: readers (and viewers) assume that everything the writer tells them is there on a strictly need-to-know basis. Our assumption is that if we don't need to know it, the writer won't waste precious time telling us about it. We trust that each piece of information, each event, each observation, matters-right down to how the protagonist's hometown is described, the amount of hair gel he uses, and how scuffed his shoes are-and that it will have a story consequence, give us insight we need in order to grasp what's happening, or both. If it turns out that it doesn't matter, we do one of two things: (1) we lose interest, or (2) we try to invent a consequence or meaning. This only postpones our loss of interest, which is then mingled with annoyance, because we've invested energy trying to figure out what the writer was getting at, when the truth is, she wasn't getting at anything. So as a writer how do you avoid falling into this particular trap? By using something I like to call the "And so?" Test. It works like this: ask of each insight, each piece of information, each scene, "And so?" Meaning, what is the point? Why does the reader need to know this? If the answer is she doesn't, give it the boot. You'll both tighten your story logic, and banish those pesky darlings that otherwise send your reader off into a decidedly different story than the one you're actually telling - that, or to the refrigerator for a snack.

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Lisa Cron is the author of the forthcoming Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. She's a story consultant, an instructor in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and there's nothing she loves more than talking story. She can be found at wiredforstory.com.

Writing the Emotionally Resonant Character, by Rosanne Parry

 

One of the pleasures of great fiction comes when a character you love takes an action that you didn't foresee and yet is so right for the character that it feels inevitable. You find yourself saying, "Of course! That's so like her!" The flip side of the experience is the character whose action so surprises you that you scratch your head and flip to the cover just to make sure you're still reading the same book. That's emotional resonance at work (or not at work in the second example.) Character interviews and charts listing personal appearance and habits are an excellent beginning, but how do you move into the realm of what makes a character internally consistent and emotionally true? To get at the deeper character, a writer has to ask herself deeper questions. Here are two to get you started.

What is the virtue that my character's family or friends or community values most highly? What is the worst sin this character could commit in his social circle?

For example, soldiers don't leave men behind. They will risk everything to bring the body of a fallen soldier home. This has been true since Hector and Achilles were fighting at the gates of Troy. The worst shame and guilt that a soldier suffers is from a failure to protect his men, even in death.

This question gets at the heart of what motivates your character's choices, and gives you a basis for escalating the conflict in your story. The more you put a character at odds with his personal moral compass, the more tension you will have in your scenes. It also protects you from unintentionally making a character choose something that is inconsistent with his values. For example a good soldier may well leave bodies on the field in retreat, but he would never do so without exhausting every option and suffering remorse. Having your character's core virtue or sin firmly in mind helps keep that character consistent and emotionally resonant.

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Author Bio: Rosanne Parry

If you are interested in exploring these ideas further, please consider taking Rosanne Parry's conference workshop Character and the Seven Deadly Sins. Rosanne is the award-winning author of Heart of a Shepherd and two other novels. She has taught workshops at Fishtrap, SCBWI, NCTE and numerous schools and book festivals across the country. She lives in Portland. www.rosanneparry.com

About Doubt, by Molly Best Tinsley

Writers hear voices--a provocative sentence or two bubbling up in the mind’s ear; a created, or remembered, character beginning to speak autonomously.  These are gifts of the creative process to be cherished.  Then there are the other voices, the ones that chime in when we’re mustering the energy to get started on a project, or when the first burst of energy has been spent and we’re trying to figure out where to go next.  “Why bother?” these voices ask.  “You’re not a real writer.  That was a dumb idea.  You’ll never get it  to come out right.  What’s the point of going on?”

These doubts are the legacies of childhood, when parents and other adults defined who we were and decreed what we had to do.  Back then, writing meant navigating a tangle of rules—spelling, grammar, and “what the teacher wants.”  There is safety in all these obsolete limitations; they maintain the status quo.  But they have nothing to do with our creative abilities or the vitality of our writing.  We must laugh them off our mental stage, embrace the freedom, and forge on.

No one ever postpones or stops writing because of lack of talent or technical expertise.  The talent is always there to be tapped, and solutions abound for any technical writing problem.  There’s only one thing that can stop us from writing if we let it, and that is self-doubt.

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Molly Tinsley left the English faculty at the US Naval Academy to write full-time.  Her story collection Throwing Knives won the Oregon Book Award; her most recent release is the memoir Entering the Blue Stone.  Three years ago she donned the editor/publisher hat, co-founding the small press Fuze Publishing (www.fuzepublishing.com).  She facilitates the workshops, Crafting Lively Dialogue and The Second Draft.

For more information about the conference, visit http://www.willamettewriters.com/wwc/3/

The Other D Word

 by Molly Best Tinsley

Asked what they consider their greatest writing challenge, my workshop participants always cite discipline:  if inspiration doesn’t find its way to paper or disk, it must be due to a lack of discipline.

But try inverting this diagnosis:  what if the obstacle to writing is too much discipline?  Isn’t it discipline that compels us to do almost anything else instead:  mow the grass, organize some piece of household or office entropy, honor to-do lists, and tightly schedule our time?  And if we do manage to set aside all the discipline that facilitates our daily lives, we come up against the discipline we’ve learned to associate with writing:  correct spelling and grammar, topic sentences and thesis statements, strictly defined assignments, all of which squeeze the air right out of the creative process.

The next time you find yourself not writing, think about setting aside all the discipline that’s getting in the way.  Get comfortable with your favorite beverage, writing implement, clipboard, and allow yourself to waste time.  Daydream.  Accept whatever comes to mind—a memory, an image, a what if.  Record it in your messiest handwriting, on the diagonal, or sideways, across the lines.  Forget logical connections; don’t worry about filling in gaps.  Let yourself enter the undisciplined unknown.

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Molly Tinsley left the English faculty at the US Naval Academy to write full-time.  Her story collection Throwing Knives won the Oregon Book Award; her most recent release is the memoir Entering the Blue Stone.  Three years ago she donned the editor/publisher hat, co-founding the small press Fuze Publishing (www.fuzepublishing.com).  She facilitates the workshops, Crafting Lively Dialogue and The Second Draft.