Have you ever heard the saying that someone tells stories "like they're chasing rabbits"? A storyteller accused of this type of behavior is prone to add pointless details and unnecessary information rather than sticking to the facts of a story. To learn more about how to tell the perfect anecdote, watch this video.
Have you ever heard someone try to tell a story, but they end up rambling so much that by the end of the story you have no idea what the point even was? Those kinds of confusing stories can suck the air out of the room and can suck all interest from your writing. In this lesson, we’re going to cover how to keep your anecdotes focused and your writing fun and snappy.
Without focus, your readers might never get your point. One way to help convey what you mean is the manipulation of time. This is like having a fast-forward button for your story. You can zoom through the parts that don’t bring anything meaningful to the table, and you can slow down and take as much time as you need on the important parts. This cuts out unnecessary filler and dives deeper into the meat of the story’s conflict.
Another way to sharpen your focus is to make every object or location purposeful and connected to the plot. If your story has a scene that takes place in a laundromat, describe that laundromat and make it important. The things that surround your characters should be characters in their own way.
Focusing on one character will also help center your global focus. Any relationship with another character should develop the personality of the main character, helping to control the point of the story. If there’s only one character that you really need to worry about, the focus should stay on that person to keep your story from veering off into little side tales that don’t help resolve the main conflict.
When you’re done penning your masterpiece, go back and revise to make sure your story isn’t venturing off into any unproductive offshoots. Trim any overgrown branches away to keep your main story free of clutter.
Question
Besides sticking to the facts of a story, what else can you do to keep an anecdote from heading off in the wrong direction?
