The Great Divide

I’m talking about the divide that separates stories that people love versus stories that they could care less about. Let’s be honest, we’ve all read something that wasn’t technically great, that may have been plagued by misspellings or poor grammar or that broke “the rules” of story telling in some fundamental way. And yet, despite all of that, we read on eagerly, looking forward to the next scene and the next until we came to the end — and were more than likely disappointed that there wasn’t more to read. We’ve all probably also read a story that had perfect grammar, spelling and plot construction, and yet didn’t hold our interest. Perhaps, at some point, we put it down without finishing it, wondering why we should care.

What was the difference? Wouldn’t you have expected that the “perfect” story was the one that made you eager to turn the pages? Why was the supposedly poorly crafted story the one that you wanted to read?

There are many ways to answer that question, but I think a single word says it all. Emotion. Simply put, that poorly crafted story made you care. It touched you in some fundamental way that overrode any objection to *how* it was written.

So, what’s the point here? Mostly, this is a reminder to myself when I get bogged down in the details that what I really need to focus on is crossing that great divide and putting the passion that I have for the story into my writing. I can work on fixing the details later.