MAKING YOUR STORY’S IMPACT MORE COMPELLING
Skill-Building Craft Notes:
Story Structures can include a Beat Sheet, which in turn guides your ability to pace your story.
Did you know that not all writers include beats that let the story rest, or even know what they mean?
The phrase “Letting a story rest” doesn’t necessarily mean putting your novel on a shelf and ‘letting it rest’ until you make another revision, but it might.
Phrasing such as letting the story rest or letting a story breathe means allowing the reader to feel the full weight of what just happened in the preceding scene.
If we race from one big scene to the next without making time and space for readers to digest what’s happened in the story, we may lose impact.
| Do you feel like it’s time to have For well-deserved R & R? Well, so does your story. |
Step-by-Step How to Let Your Story Rest:
- Create the spine of your story, the beat structure.
- A better way to describe this is to use the structure as a tool.
- It’ll help determine whether your writing project aligns with expected genre conventions.
- Include beats that involve results, ramifications, reflections, or the preceding beats.
- Conduct a strength test to verify that your story spine is structurally sound.
- Did you know that racing from one beat to the next without letting your story rest (or breathe) may flatten your story arcs?
- When we add too much to a scene, the overall impact isn’t maximized.
When you’re done writing or rewriting, take that earned break.
