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The Element of Surprise

I learned years ago from a friend who taught theater and improv to kids that once you are done telling a story, if you simply add: "And then I found five dollars," your narrative is immediately more interesting.


It's the element of surprise.

Image: rabbit in magician's hat


The twist that either changes what your audience thought they understood or takes everything in a whole 'nother direction.


You can also change your emphasis:


And THEN I found five dollars!

And then I found five dollars!

And then I FOUND five dollars!

And then I found FIVE dollars!

And then I found five DOLLARS!


(Sidebar here: once, just once, I DID find five dollars crumpled on the sidewalk a few blocks from our home. Imagine, if you can, my pounding heart, my power walk steps, my full body strength flinging open the front door, my exuberant shrieking of this narrative for realsies! One of the happiest moments of my life, lemme tell ya.)


Even if you are not a writer of fiction, the lesson here is to interrogate your sentences and paragraphs. Do they add anything new, or do they restate the obvious or the already said? Have you dropped in a lazy cliché or are your details new, shiny, resonant? In short, is your writing predictable or fresh?


Take memoir, for example. This genre is characterized by a first person account from the point of view of the main character—the living, breathing human/writer who experienced the experiences. (We can argue literal truth versus emotional truth another time.)


Readers know the story, the ending, from the moment they begin reading. The ending, the outcome, is fixed. But good memoirs are unique. The details, voice, connection, emotion can only come from one writer on the planet. You.


Just my $0.02! 😉



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