Lesson learned from a critique group: ‘why’ is the magic question for storytellers

Today’s re-blog from Roz Morris ends with these words:

“For a storyteller, questions are more useful than answers.”

It begins with the words right below what I’m typing…

The middle is the really good part :-)

Nail Your Novel

The year was 1992ish, and it was my first time at the critique class. A member read some uncertain opening chapters and asked the group for guidance on where to develop it next. One of the other members began to play the role of analyst and asked what statements he wanted to make with the story, and what answers and conclusions he wished to present.

I hadn’t been writing long, so I kept quiet. Even so, this line of questioning struck me as mistaken. Weren’t questions more potent in stories than answers and statements? And if you were going to present conclusions, or lead the reader to deduce them, didn’t you have to write the story to discover them?

Questions are everything for a creative writer, aren’t they? They are open doors. Possibilities. A beckoning finger; a calling voice. Questions are the very essence of mystery, which is the current…

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