Wise words from ‘Moving On’

Words of wisdom from ‘Moving On’, by Sarah Ban Breathnach

In reality, the books we love, the ones that really change the reader’s life, are those that change the author’s life as well. Chances are your favorite wordsmith hasn’t got a clue what she’ll write about when she begins. That’s why she shows up for work every day; she is literally trying to figure out her life on the page. She thinks she’s writing about eliminating clutter, but the Book knows better, and its hidden agenda will only be revealed in the fullness of time as the writer and reader work together. As far as I see it, my job is to get the words down on the page so that they can create a mystical bridge over the troubled waters of the unexpressed for both of us. Let the pages accumulate and they become a pilgrimage back to your future, and mind. As Milan Kundera so candidly confessed, “To be a writer does not mean to preach a truth, it means to discover a truth.”

The Six Important Questions

Carolyn Joy Adams, in The Power to Write: A Writing Workshop in a Book, lists six important questions for every story.

1. What is the main theme of the story, the central conflict or problem your characters are confronted with?

2. Who is the story about?

3. When is the story taking place?

4. Where is the story set?

5. How did this story come to take place? What are the life events that have led up to the story’s opening scene?

6. Why do the characters want to take the actions they are taking?

These questions will help us, as writers, to determine if we’ve left out important information. As Carolyn Joy Adams states, “And when you can answer these six questions clearly for yourself, you undoubtedly will succeed in doing so for your readers, too.”

Happy Writing!