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Overheard my neighbor's grandkid explain why my plot had no tension
Was out watering plants yesterday and caught my neighbor's 14 year old nephew critiquing a movie. He said something like "if they just talked for 5 seconds there'd be no story." Made me realize my first draft has everyone avoiding the obvious conversations just to stretch the word count. I went back and cut a whole chapter where two characters circled each other for 2,000 words. Has anyone else found a random comment from a kid that totally changed how you write?
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charlie2692d ago
Ha, yeah I had a similar gut check from my 12 year old cousin who asked why the main character didn't just check their phone. I was sitting there with a whole subplot about a missed voicemail and a lost letter and he just looked at me like I was nuts. Made me realize I was basically writing like people in 1998 instead of 2025. Cut almost 4000 words of characters being dumb about technology.
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seth_allen2d ago
Kid asked me why my fantasy town square didn't have a Starbucks. Totally deflated my whole "gritty tavern market scene" vibe, but he was right. Sometimes you just need to admit people buy overpriced lattes even in made up worlds.
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