Mar

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Necessary Things

March 29, 2007 |

[-writing fiction-]

by contributor, Russ Kremer

In Elements of Style we’re warned that unnecessary words are as useless as extra parts on a machine. While food processors come with a multitude of dubious attachments and socket sets contain sizes we mostly lose and never miss, remote controls don’t have buttons that don’t work and the handles and knobs on almost everything else serve some purpose.

Unnecessary words don’t add anything. Consider: he stood on a round circle; she shouted loudly. On a larger scale, unneeded scenes add nothing to a story except the time it takes the reader to wade through them.

That’s why they’re a problem. It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with them, or that the writing is poor. We should get rid of them because they don’t add to the story but instead, divert attention. They detract. They dilute what’s there, what you need to say, and weaken your attempt to weave a spell.

I’ve developed — but not invented — a process that gives me a clear-cut way to see what scenes should stay and which need to go.

I use index cards, sometimes colored ones if I’m in that sort of mood.

I read through my draft and make a card for each scene, much like a movie-maker might do. Each card lists at the top its place in the story (Chapter Three, scene two), where it occurs (Chester’s apartment), when it takes place, and who’s there. Below that I list each important plot point that is introduced, resolved, or moved along.

For the purposes of this breakdown I consider a “scene” to be any time I’d need to move the “camera” and shoot from a new place. Most of my scenes have two to five plot points (Chester decides to have a party; Theft of Lotty’s laundry; Chester dances with Sheila), so there’s plenty of room. A few times I’ve had to use more than one card, but usually after something is introduced or concluded, my characters want to move anyway, and the story moves to the next place. And, onto the next card.

Once I’ve created my cards I study them, one by one. I ask myself what would be lost without this scene. If I remove the card, what happens to my story?

If, when I remove a card from the stack, the whole story unravels, it has to be left in. If the story holds together just fine without that scene card then I have to admit it isn’t necessary. It isn’t adding anything critical and isn’t doing its part to move the story along. If it isn’t pulling its weight, my story doesn’t need it.

Frequently, the scene includes something which needs to be brought out. It’s important, but does it need to be here? While it’s true that suspense is necessary, many things can be explained immediately after they’re introduced (”Where were you last night?” “With Joe, at his house”) and don’t benefit by being postponed to a later time.

If I would need to make whole-scale changes without a scene, it passes my test of being a working part of the story. If removing it just means I need to mention elsewhere that Ann has a crush on Bill, I can think about where else I could mention that. But, if it doesn’t affect the story at all, I need to either remove it or else use that scene to bring up something the story does need.

My greatest obstacle to removing scenes is my defense that they expose something about the character that’s necessary or interesting. I have to recognize when I’m making that argument and discover if it’s just an excuse. Most things that reveal character can be moved to other, established and necessary scenes. Often, they can be left out entirely. If the author knows the character and how he or she will react, it will permeate the whole story and shouldn’t have to be explicitly stated. If Frank is afraid of spiders, we don’t always need a chapter of backstory to show how that’s come about. Sometimes it’s better just to have him react to spiders once or twice, so the reader gets the idea.

Is this a perfect way to see what to delete? Nope. It’s easy though, and does let me see how the story unfolds. I get a pretty good idea of what adds to the story and what’s simply there, plus I get to use index cards, which I love. And at the end, I know what’s on those index cards and in my story are all necessary things.

© 2005 - 2007 Russ Kremer all rights reserved

Check out another of Russ’s writing articles, What’s Missing?

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About the author: Russ lives and writes in LA. He has had several works of short fiction and non-fiction published. He is a yearly participant and winner of NaNoWriMo where he’s well-known by newbies as a guy who knows a lot about writing. He began the “older, but not the official, NaNoEdMo website” - a group for all year ’round editing support, writerly exchanges and feedback which can be found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nanoedmo/.
Russ’s website: half-dozen.net. Russ’s blog: crenallated flotsam

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Originally published in the October 2005 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: collecting

also posted in: Writing - technique, craft, tips , Essays - Contributors , How-to ... , The Original PCQ, 05-06 , Craft , Contributors , Process

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