Know What Works - Writing and Editing Advice by Greg Luti

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A key piece of writing and editing advice is to focus on what works strongest in your story. In “Know What Works,” Greg Luti explains why you should identify and strengthen your best scenes, characters, and lines instead of trying to make every single part of your manuscript equally good.

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Not Every Part of a Story is Equally Great

When I am editing someone’s novel or writing my own, there are parts of the novel that are a little bit better than others. I mean, let’s be real here, not all the parts are equally great. They can all be well-written or structured, but you should never expect every part of your story to be received the same way. Some are just better than others.

That is why a writer has a responsibility to understand the parts of the story that work. Know the lines that are written really well, and place them in parts of the story that matter. Know the characters that have a lot to say, and for the love of god, don’t kill them right away. As you develop your story, know what is working and not working, so you can then mold your story around the best parts.

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Don’t Kill Off Your Best Characters

I had a client who spoke to me about killing off one of the best characters in the book, a character that I personally loved, and he didn’t seem to have any problem with doing it. I had to explain to him that the character he is killing is important to the story world he is building, and seems to be someone who can certainly add to any conversation he is in. The character gives us something that no other character does in the story. We should not just kill the character as a way to shock the reader. Now, I have nothing against the elimination of characters in stories, but as a writer, you'd better understand what you are doing when you do that. Don’t just kill a character because you can.

If you know that the character can be used for multiple stories or perhaps is good enough to have their own story entirely, then don’t just go about getting rid of them. Know what works.

Also, you should not give yourself that much credit when writing characters. If you naturally write a certain character very easily and the dialogue just flows when that character is speaking, then perhaps the wise thing to do is to keep that character around, not get rid of them. You would never see a pitcher in baseball get rid of their best pitch, so you should not just get rid of the character you write with the best.

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How Do You Know What Works?

You may be asking yourself, “But how do I know what works?” The first thing you can do is to make sure that the important parts of the story, like the introduction, the ending, and the climax, have something great to offer the reader. If you are reading through them and you think, “Eh, that is okay,” then that is a problem. So if you are reading those parts to your story and are not impressed, then go to the other parts (the good parts), and look at them…

What do they say? Why do they stand out to you? Are they the most cohesive parts you have written in the story, making them the best? Is there a great dialogue that you wrote? Perhaps there is something else that makes you say, “Now, that is great!”

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Place Your Best Scenes Where They Matter Most

You should then look at that great scene and see where it fits in your overall story. If you are writing a story and the best scenes are not the introduction, the ending, the climax, or even the rising action, then you may be writing the wrong story.

That is not something you want to hear, but it is true. The best scenes should align with the overall message and point of the story, and if they do not, you must wonder if the scenes are wrong or possibly the message.

You can either keep the well-written scenes in your original story and try to improve the other scenes you wrote, which should be the best-written parts of the story, or you can create a new story with those scenes as the focus of it all.

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Focus on What Works — Even If It Changes Your Plan

Know what works, and focus on that as your story. That may mean you are not going to write the story you originally had in mind, but if the new story is better, then you should not be worried about the switch.

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