one thing she mistakenly believes matters most: her family estate, Tara.
Focus, anyone? How’s that for a mini-outline! We’ve taken the theme—survival driven by gumption—harnessed it to Scarlett’s issue, and then run them both through the hurdles the plot lays out for her. By synthesizing the theme, Scarlett’s internal issue, and the plot, we’ve boiled a 1,024-page book down to its essence. In one (albeit long) sentence, we’ve provided enough of the big picture to give a clear idea of what the book is about.
Harnessing Focus: How to Keep Your Story on Track
While clearly this is a very handy method for defining what, exactly, your story is about once it’s written, it can be even more helpful before you begin writing—or at whatever stage your story is at right now. It’snever too late or too early, and it always helps. Knowing what the focus of your story is allows you to do for your story what your cognitive unconscious does for you: filter out everything extraneous, everything that doesn’t matter. You can use it to test each proposed twist, turn, and character reaction for story relevance.
This isn’t to say that once you begin writing you might not change your mind about the theme, the story question, or that the story might not unfold in a completely different direction than you anticipated. But—and here’s another reason why figuring these things out first makes all the difference—if it
does
change, you’ll recognize it and be able to adjust the narrative accordingly. How? Because you’ve mapped out where the story was headed, you can now use the same map to rechart your story’s course. Don’t forget: when a story shifts focus halfway through, it not only means it’s now heading in a different direction; it also means that everything leading up to that spot has to shift as well. Otherwise, it’s like boarding a plane bound for New York City that lands in Cincinnati instead. Talk about disorienting (not to mention that you’ve packed all the wrong clothes). The good news is that because you already have a map—something we’ll develop in more depth in chapter 5 —you know just where those changes need to be.
This will please your readers immensely. Since their implicit belief is that everything in a story is there on a need-to-know basis, the last thing you want is for them to continually trip over all the unnecessary info cluttering up your otherwise splendid story.
CHAPTER 2 : CHECKPOINT
Do you know what the point of your story is? What do you want people to walk away thinking about? How do you want to change how they see the world?
Do you know what your story says about human nature? Stories are our way of making sense of the world, so each and every one tells us something about what it means to be human, whether the author does it on purpose or not. What is
your
story saying?
Do the protagonist’s inner issue, the theme, and the plot work together to answer the story question? How can you tell? Ask yourself: Is my theme reflected in the way the world treats my protagonist? Does each plot twist and turn force my protagonist to deal with his inner issue, the thing that’s holding him back?
Do the plot and theme stick to the story question? Remember, the story question will always be in the back of your reader’s mind, and it is the responsibility of each theme-laced event to keep it there.
Can you sum up what your story is about in a short paragraph? One way to begin is to ask yourself how your theme shapes your plot. Put yourself through the paces just as we did with
Gone with the Wind
. It may be painful, but it’ll pay off big time in the end.
MOST OF US WERE BROUGHT UP to believe that reason and emotion are polar opposites—with reason as the stalwart white hat and emotion as the sulky black hat. And let’s not even discuss which gender was said to wear which hat. Reason, it was thought, sees the world as it is, while that irrational scamp, emotion,
Focus, anyone? How’s that for a mini-outline! We’ve taken the theme—survival driven by gumption—harnessed it to Scarlett’s issue, and then run them both through the hurdles the plot lays out for her. By synthesizing the theme, Scarlett’s internal issue, and the plot, we’ve boiled a 1,024-page book down to its essence. In one (albeit long) sentence, we’ve provided enough of the big picture to give a clear idea of what the book is about.
Harnessing Focus: How to Keep Your Story on Track
While clearly this is a very handy method for defining what, exactly, your story is about once it’s written, it can be even more helpful before you begin writing—or at whatever stage your story is at right now. It’snever too late or too early, and it always helps. Knowing what the focus of your story is allows you to do for your story what your cognitive unconscious does for you: filter out everything extraneous, everything that doesn’t matter. You can use it to test each proposed twist, turn, and character reaction for story relevance.
This isn’t to say that once you begin writing you might not change your mind about the theme, the story question, or that the story might not unfold in a completely different direction than you anticipated. But—and here’s another reason why figuring these things out first makes all the difference—if it
does
change, you’ll recognize it and be able to adjust the narrative accordingly. How? Because you’ve mapped out where the story was headed, you can now use the same map to rechart your story’s course. Don’t forget: when a story shifts focus halfway through, it not only means it’s now heading in a different direction; it also means that everything leading up to that spot has to shift as well. Otherwise, it’s like boarding a plane bound for New York City that lands in Cincinnati instead. Talk about disorienting (not to mention that you’ve packed all the wrong clothes). The good news is that because you already have a map—something we’ll develop in more depth in chapter 5 —you know just where those changes need to be.
This will please your readers immensely. Since their implicit belief is that everything in a story is there on a need-to-know basis, the last thing you want is for them to continually trip over all the unnecessary info cluttering up your otherwise splendid story.
CHAPTER 2 : CHECKPOINT
Do you know what the point of your story is? What do you want people to walk away thinking about? How do you want to change how they see the world?
Do you know what your story says about human nature? Stories are our way of making sense of the world, so each and every one tells us something about what it means to be human, whether the author does it on purpose or not. What is
your
story saying?
Do the protagonist’s inner issue, the theme, and the plot work together to answer the story question? How can you tell? Ask yourself: Is my theme reflected in the way the world treats my protagonist? Does each plot twist and turn force my protagonist to deal with his inner issue, the thing that’s holding him back?
Do the plot and theme stick to the story question? Remember, the story question will always be in the back of your reader’s mind, and it is the responsibility of each theme-laced event to keep it there.
Can you sum up what your story is about in a short paragraph? One way to begin is to ask yourself how your theme shapes your plot. Put yourself through the paces just as we did with
Gone with the Wind
. It may be painful, but it’ll pay off big time in the end.
MOST OF US WERE BROUGHT UP to believe that reason and emotion are polar opposites—with reason as the stalwart white hat and emotion as the sulky black hat. And let’s not even discuss which gender was said to wear which hat. Reason, it was thought, sees the world as it is, while that irrational scamp, emotion,
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