TECH: The Earthquake Test
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writercisesoriginal posting: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 18:35:02 JST
MZB (Marian Zimmer Bradley) mentioned in an interview "the earthquake test" as one of her ways of judging stories.
The earthquake test turns out to be simple. She merely stops at points during the story and asks herself - "If an earthquake happened right now and killed all of the characters, would I care?" If the answer is no, the story gets rejected.
It's an interesting test. I assume when she mentioned stopping, she meant at the "natural" breaks in the story - transitions, scene changes, etc. At those points, the reader can easily set the story aside unless the writer has made them care enough about the characters to want to find out what happens next.
You might want to test your own stories this way. At the transitions, ask if you have made at least one character really interesting and involving to your readers. Would you care if an earthquake happened right now and killed all of your characters?
If not - *sigh* revision time!
MZB (Marian Zimmer Bradley) mentioned in an interview "the earthquake test" as one of her ways of judging stories.
The earthquake test turns out to be simple. She merely stops at points during the story and asks herself - "If an earthquake happened right now and killed all of the characters, would I care?" If the answer is no, the story gets rejected.
It's an interesting test. I assume when she mentioned stopping, she meant at the "natural" breaks in the story - transitions, scene changes, etc. At those points, the reader can easily set the story aside unless the writer has made them care enough about the characters to want to find out what happens next.
You might want to test your own stories this way. At the transitions, ask if you have made at least one character really interesting and involving to your readers. Would you care if an earthquake happened right now and killed all of your characters?
If not - *sigh* revision time!
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