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| This is Neil Gaiman and his advice to writers |
DONALD
MAASS WRITE TIP 82
Computer
crash! House fire! Your WIP is gone, all backups fried. Write why your story
matters, give that passage to your MC.
As I race up to the classroom, I hear Mrs Morgan, the
school secretary, throw her vase of flowers into the bin and bang on the window
to warn the teacher supervising the Infants’ playtime. She screams, “She's on
Hughill Road – pass the word.” Why does this matter? Because life is short and
if we’re not force feeding our faces with facts Mrs Baron will make sure we’ll
all be wishing our lives were a whole lot shorter. And, this is soooo much fun. Twenty seconds and flight of
stairs later, I slide down the corridor of the Junior Department. From every
room there’s the flurry of tidying paper. As the teacher’s heads appear at
their doors they shout, “Is it true? Did you see Mrs Baron?” What are they
thinking? The Headscreecher’s been sighted on the road to school - I can’t stop
and chat! I throw myself towards 6 SK’s door, and I shout, “Hey! Sir Learns-a-lot! The
bloody Baron’s back!”
What would YOUR MC say was the reason why your story matters?
That question will take some thought. But off the top of my head she'd give two things right away. 1) Everyone has magic hanging around inside themselves. 2) Be confident in who you are because in the end your the only one left.
ReplyDeleteHi Summer
DeleteI believe everyone has a touch of the magical about them too :) Your second piece of advice is very profound and true.
What a great question to ask. I recently downloaded a list of questions to ask while writing and this is another good one.
ReplyDeleteHi Medeia
DeleteI found Donald Maass' extended his original list of questions in his Tweets. I added them to my things-to-consider-while-writing list ;)