"So what?" Lessons learned from Shani's coaching

Shani and I explored storytelling for writing reviews, and he thinks the way news writers craft stories applies in all contexts. It's based on one simple question: So what?

I love this principle; it forces me to find the real why, which is always more interesting. And it makes

writing more fun. While I did talk radio, we asked "Why does this matter?" Listeners have 30 seconds before they change the channel, so I better be compelling. It's the same in writing.

Shani also helped me grasp the difference between elegance and evocativeness—he quickly noticed I like lessons in their simplest form, so he broke it down as such:

1. Elegance is rhythm.

2. Evocativeness is drama.

He says that in his courses, but hearing these comparisons without the details was a good reminder of what they are, and that it's my duty to extract drama from any story. If I'm not doing that, then it's disservice to readers—and it's less interesting writing without it.

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