Post by Jenny
My gardening efforts this
summer have been some of the worst in recent memory, but I’m at least trying to
keep the veggies and flowers in the pots alive. The other day as I was
watering, a quick movement near the bottom of the tomato pot caught my eye. I
leaned down for a closer look—as writers, we should always get a closer
look—and saw a spider darting away. A moment later, she emerged, and I immediately
identified what had drawn her back out.
A baby grasshopper,
pistachio-green and cute as a Disney character, was caught in her web. He
struggled, his tiny kicking legs snared by strands of silk, as the spider again
approached, attacked, retreated.
I called my sons over to
witness this little bit of nature drama being played out in our back yard. It
held their interest for a few moments, and then they returned to tossing the
football with their dad. And still, I watched.
Approach, attack, retreat.
The grasshopper fought on, even as his efforts tangled him more tightly in her
web. After a while, I began to wonder why I was still watching. I had other
things on my list that were more important and/or served in a chilled glass, so
why didn’t I attend to them?
The answer is that I wanted
to see how it would end. Would the grasshopper defy the odds and break free? Would
another critter come along and complicate matters? Would the spider wear him
down and bundle him off to her lair? (That is eventually what happened.)
I realized that these tiny
creatures were demonstrating the essence of good storytelling: keep the audience wanting
to know what happens next. I want a book--whether it’s a sweeping epic weaving together intricate
storylines or a stark tale of villain and victim--to catch me in its web and hold me there for the duration.
As a writer, I’m realizing
that this means cutting out the window-dressing—the scenes that go nowhere, the
unnecessary dialogue, the superfluous descriptions. Simple concept, right? But
simple, alas, is rarely as easy as it sounds.
What helps you get to the
essence of your storytelling?
2 comments:
What helps me get to the essence of my storytelling is reading blog posts like this! I struggle to "cut to the chase" and I tend to get off on tangents that don't tie into the main struggle. So reading this post is just the reminder I need, just when I need it.
I was spellbound by the spider drama, so I think you managed to keep to the essence in this "story" -- thanks for the post.
Thanks, Lynn :-)
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