Over at FICTION UNIVERSITY, Janice Hardy had a guest post by Shanna Swendson. It showed up on the blog on May 25, but I just saw it.
While I thought I had thoroughly considered this question before, I had only given a few seconds attention to this. This only led to a couple of sentence fragments that didn’t lead anywhere. At best, I had given a token effort and received exactly what that effort merited.
ONE KEY QUESTION TO ASK BEFORE YOU START WRITING invited me to reconsider both the question and the answers.
I realized that an abbreviated form of this would also be useful for short story writing. These tidbits deserve respect, too. Knowing the “WHY” can help me reshape the how into something exquisite.
I also realized that it is never too late to take this step. When I get stuck, I could return to it… If I have it already done. If not, it is a perfect exercise to pull me back into the story and the delight I envisioned.
Nifty tool! I can’t wait to use it.