Article: Story Flow

As you further develop your writing skills, you need to know that there is something called the "flow" of a story. The flow of the words on the page can help create a mood for the reader without you having to spell it out specifically. Short, punchy sentences packed with verbs heighten the feeling of anxiety or action, while longer sentences full of adjectives may give a calmer, more relaxed feeling. Are the words you have put down on the page the right ones? Do they work together to tell the story, or can they be awkward, not fitting together quite right? How do we, as the writer, know whether the story flows well or not?

The single best piece of advice I can give you for being able to tell whether your work flows well or not is to read it out loud. Hearing the words gives you a sense of how they actually flow. Any time you stumble reading something out loud, mark it and continue on because you know that you need to go back and re-look at that passage. There is probably something that can be done to make it better. I realize that, at first, reading your work out loud will be uncomfortable, but it is a very important step to make sure that everything "sounds" right in your story.

I don't embarrass easily, but when starting out writing, any time I read my work out loud (or heard someone else read it) I would turn bright red and wish the floor would open up so I could sink through it. When I was writing Misfit McCabe, I took a writing class and the structure of the class was that we had to bring in two typewritten pages each week and hand them in, and the class reader would then proceed to read everyone's work one at a time, and then the class would discuss it and provide the feedback. When I realized that I had to sit in a class of strangers and hear my work read out loud by someone else, I was mortified. What if I wasn't a very good writer? What if what I wrote sounded stupid? I was the youngest person in the class - what if I was just too young?

When it came my turn and the reader started reading my two pages, I couldn't lift my eyes from my desk and I felt like my face was so bright red, I could have replaced Rudolph at the front of Santa's sleigh to lead the way. I managed to survive and the teacher liked my work and provided some positive comments and gave me one or two pointers where I might make it even better. After the class, one of the other students asked me if I saw the teacher's face when my pages were being read, and of course I had to say "no". Week after week, it got a little easier to hear my work being read by someone else, and after that first week, I was able to read my own work (while by myself) without blushing.

Why am I sharing one of the moments in my life when I felt the most embarrassed? Because I want you to know that even though it may feel weird to read your work out loud, to hear the words you have written, that it will get easier with time and it's very important to do. If you have someone who can read the words out loud while you follow along with a printed copy, it's even better. The reason is that when someone else reads it, they don't know the story and they will stumble over words that you as the writer know in advance and can unconsciously tweak so that they don't sound awkward to you. It's just another way to help you make your work better.

I have caught more mistakes in my writing by the simple method of reading the words out loud. Before I sent the book to a test reader group, I sat at my computer and read every single word in the book out loud once again, to make sure that I had taken care of all of those areas where the words might not be quite right.

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Copyright 2008 © LK Gardner-Griffie
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