Three ways to immediately improve your writing

by S.A. Spencer

Over two years ago, I read Jack Bickham’s Elements of Fiction – Scene and Structure. The concepts made a lot of sense then, but reading it again after writing almost 75% of the first draft of novel made me realize that although the principles were simple, they weren’t so easy to pull off.

Cause and effect. If you want an alien virus to change humans into pod people, (effect) you must have background (cause), to make it believable. And vice versa. You must build your plot so that any cause you put in has an effect in the story. If you go into detail describing a storm and don’t do anything with it, what’s the point? Soon your readers won’t trust you to wade through long descriptions worrying they won’t go anywhere and put the book down.

Stimulus and response. Cause and effect in the most immediate and smallest denominator of writing. John punched Harry in the face (stimulus). Blood gushed from Harry’s nose (response). Notice that stimulus and response are external and physical. What happens when this goes haywire? “You hit on my girlfriend,” John said (stimulus). Blood gushed from Harry’s nose. Something’s missing. Adding the correct response fixes it. “You hit on my girlfriend,” John said and punched Harry in the face (stimulus). Blood gushed from Harry’s nose (response).

Stimulus-internalization-response. Use the character’s thoughts when needed to explain how the stimulus relates to the response. For example, (stimulus): “Cheryl,” her boss said, “the raise you asked for came through.” (Response) “You’re kidding, I have the worst luck.” What? Let’s try that with internalization. (Stimulus): “Cheryl,” her boss said, “the raise you asked for came through.” (Internalization): She squeezed her temples with her fingers. In her hand was her resignation letter. She had signed a two-year contract with another company for a job with the same pay, but had more potential for advancement. (Response) “You’re kidding, I have the worst luck.” That makes more sense.

Review your writing and make sure you close the loop on cause and effect, and stimulus- internalization- response.