STORYSPACE: Number of Boxes
So it’s the writers’ dilemma: Are five too many? Are three enough? (a ’70s Sunsweet Prunes commercial) When do the boxes stop stacking up, tumbling over and breaking open to reveal more?
It should stop when the story has been told, but with a format such as this with Storyspace, there’s really a lot more opportunity to wander, add, tweak, offer examples, reveal by episode. But there must be more (cripes, I just looked up to watch a few seconds of TV and went looking for "Save" — a Storyspace habit that’s spilling over to other areas of my life evidently) As I said, there must be more of an indication when enough is enough.
I think my characters have purpose, made decisions, have rounded themselves out to be believable, likeable in their vulnerabilities, deserving of a reader’s interest. There are trickier things to learn in Storyspace, but I don’t necessarily feel that I need take advantage of every program option unless it makes the story sing more sweetly.
Maybe I just need a day away from it. I’m near to 225 Writing Spaces now, but I really need to know that the only way Storyspace is driving the story is by offering opportunities, not by simply providing a zillion boxes to fill and stack up. Yes, it’s that much fun.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology