What's Missing?

By: Allison Cohen

            Ever since I was young, I’ve enjoyed writing. It has always been a passion of mine, as I’m sure it will be for years to come. One of the biggest problems that I face while writing, is once I’ve finished working on something, I read it over and I feel as though nothing has really happened. The story has progressed, but there is not real change. The characters have gained nothing, the problem remains relatively unresolved, or some other something that makes my stories feel incomplete to me. After reading it over, I always seem to be asking myself “What’s missing?” or “What really happened?”

 I struggled with this problem for years, and more recently I have found a way to help fix it. As the author, I feel like maybe I’m to close to the story, and that it could be useful for someone else should look over it- someone who can take a step back and be more critical about my work. Sometimes I will have a friend read it over, but they don’t always know exactly what the issue with it is exactly. Other times, I will tell a friend the beginning of one of my stories, but I’ll tell it as if it was really happening to someone else I know. I won’t tell them the whole story, and I’ll ask them to guess what happened. I’ll ask them how they think my “friend” had been affected by a certain event that I had written about but couldn’t quite complete. Hearing what other people thought would happen or could happen gave me clear, realistic idea’s as to how I could alter my story.

Sometimes when you’re writing, you become very attached and maybe a little near-sighted when it comes to your own work. Having others read your work over can always be helpful, as well as reading other author’s work. I also find that sometimes I can gain inspiration from other short stories or novels (And no, not plagiarism- I’m talking about a root to an idea that you expand on yourself). Sometimes, digging deeper into a small comment a minor character in a book made, or a certain gesture or tick can set you off on a writing rampage, and result in a great story.

J.K. Rowling, who is my favorite author, said that “You have to resign yourself to the fact that you waste a lot of trees before you write anything you really like, and that's just the way it is. It's like learning an instrument, you've got to be prepared for hitting wrong notes occasionally, or quite a lot, ‘cause I wrote an awful lot before I wrote anything I was really happy with. And read a lot. Reading really helps. Read anything you can get your hands on. I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can.