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Cause and Effect
Tell Your Story in the Right Order
A game of billiards begins with the cue ball striking the racked balls, which then scatter across the pool table. After that the players take turns trying to clear the table by pocketing another ball either stripes or solids, all while keeping the cue ball out of the pockets.
We all understand that the game must start somehow. Normally that happens when one player hits that cue ball to break the triangle of racked balls. And from then on, every time a ball hits another, that contact results in an effect.
One opening event causes things to splinter apart for the main character in your novel. After that, there’s a chain of events that are all linked and caused by the ones that precede them.
A story moves from choice to consequences, from stimulus to response, from cause to effect. This happens on the macro-level, as the results of each scene set the stage for the next, and on the micro-level, as every action and every line of dialogue affects what comes next.
- Cause: One ball strikes another.
- Effect: That ball rolls across the table.
An event’s effect on a character should be immediately evident to readers. Even if the character is trying to ignore or repress a response, they’ll be impacted somehow. They…
