Writing Notes: Question Our Assumptions (QOA)

From time to time, I shall post errant thoughts about writing. These come at me from odd places, at odd times, and using the words of the immortal Ruth Stone, I reach out and snatch them by the tail. I hope you find these useful.

Question Our Assumptions (QOA):

As we write, we often reach for "fresh, new language" as a way to keep our stories from being stale, and yet there are other ways to enliven our stories without torturing language to wrest meaning onto the page.

One of these is what I call "question our assumptions." In any story, chapter, scene, paragraph, writers make story choices, but those choices are based upon assumptions, i.e., assumptions of gender, age, setting, social status, etc.

When a scene is not working, use QOA to test for fresh ideas.

For example: is the boy stuck in the tree really a boy? or is it a tomboy dressed in her brother's overalls? And go further! Maybe the girl has a brother who is her twin! And go even further! Maybe they're the surviving two of triplets, the third stillborn. Now we have a richness and depth and a range of possibilities we didn't have before. Just from questioning our assumption.

Another example: does the woman really sit down in the chair? or does that woman REFUSE to sit down? When your character confounds the expectations of the OTHER characters, your readers are also startled. What words come out of that woman's mouth now?

So when you find yourself annoyed or bored by what's falling on the page under your fingertips, QOA! Don't do it in your head. Make a physical list---on a scrap piece of paper, if you have nothing else---and see what you are assuming.

Maybe that really delicious line of dialogue didn't really come out of his mouth! it came out of hers!

Try it.