Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Setting Expectations in Writing



I blog about writing and writers. This post has a writing message, I promise.

The Girl Scouts of America set me up recently. When the girl came to the door, I asked if they had a new flavor this year. We had already purchased a box of Thin Mints from another girl who came by earlier. The second Scout smiled at me. “Mango Crème,” she said. And I bought a box.

This is the first time in my history as a loyal cookie buyer (and eater) that I am throwing out a partially eaten box.
The Thin Mints were—as expected—thin and minty. Those little wafers of deliciousness are heavenly. But the Mango crèmes? They don’t taste like mango. They don’t taste like cream. Don't get me wrong--they don’t taste horrible—just a meh indiscriminate sweetness.
I thought it was just me and left the box for the rest of the family to try. The new cookie variety got three mehs for lack of mango flavor. Scanning the ingredient list, my family was right. There is no mango in the mango crèmes. There is natural whole food concentrate of cranberry, pomegranate, orange, grape, strawberry and shitake mushrooms—no mango.

What does this have to do with writing?

I’ve read—and written—manuscripts with great beginnings and endings that somehow still fell flat. And it wasn’t just the lack of a creamy middle.
Why do I think some of these manuscripts failed?

Yes, the beginning and ending may have been great—separately. But the ending didn’t bring the beginning to a satisfying close. When I read/wrote the beginning, I expected X. But the delivery brought Y. It was a great ending—for a different story.
The great beginning set up expectations that weren’t delivered. I promised mango and delivered some other tropical sweetness (see!?) Books--and cookies--aren't a game of horseshoes. It isn't good enough to be close. They need to deliver what is expected.

In some cases, the solution for me isn’t to rewrite the ending.  In the ending, I had delivered what I wanted. As Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music—“let’s start at the very beginning—a very good place to start.” 
The good news is that I don’t have to discard either beginning or ending. I just have to write a new beginning and ending for each because I have two different stories frankensteined together that need to be dissected to work.

So, I’m heading to the rubbish bin to toss the cookie box. It was a good investment after all. I expected a delicious mango cookie and instead I got a jolt reminding me of good writing technique. I’d say that’s good value.

If you want to participate in a very informal and unscientific poll on favorite cookie varieties—leave me a comment sharing yours!

14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks, Carter. Carbs and writing are a great combo any time of day.

      Delete
  2. This is such an excellent post. Great analogy and such an important post.

    We don't have the exotic flavors of Girl Guide cookies (we call the group Girl Guides here, but they're the same as Girl Scouts) here in Canada, so I can't speak for favorite flavors of that particular type of cookie. In regular life, my favorite cookie would have to involve either ginger or chocolate, or both.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My husband makes exquisite ginger cookies with crystallized ginger. Yum, thinking about them! Don't know why we usually limit them to the winter holiday cooking months...have to get on that.

      Delete
  3. LOL! A terrific analogy, Wendy. (Like Beth, we didn't have any exotic flavors here either, and I went with my old stand-by, Samoas.) :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like the chocolate, but ixnay on the coconut. Love coconut flavor, just not the actual stuff (it's a textural quirk!)

      Delete
  4. What a great way to relate life to writing/story structure. Excellent example. And a good ending to this story/post, as your Frankenstein story will be morphed into two separate stories. Yay! They are both saved.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am hopeful. Right now both "book patients" are in cardiac arrest.

      Delete
  5. I love this post! And - Yup. I've written the occasional Frankenstein story. Starts as one thing, morphs into something else, and ends up with a dead guys arm sewn on..... Even lightning can't bring those things to life!

    My favorite Girl Scout cookies are shortbread and thin mints! Yum.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I shouldn't be reading these so close to dinner. Everything sounds good. Thanks for coming by, Genevieve!

      Delete
  6. Dang it. I'm about to pick up my daughters stack of cookies, and guess which ones I ordered extra of this year?

    My husband isn't going to be pleased, seeing as he is from a tropical island...

    Thanks for the warning and the advice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Miranda! They're not bad cookies--they are tropical flavored. Just not mango flavored.

      Delete
  7. I enjoyed your post, Wendy! Isn't it funny how a story can get away from us? It's like we can't keep up with our own creativity!

    I love Thin Mints- but have used restraint for several years. All this cookie talk could send me hunting for a neglected box! :)

    Carrie Brown

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have to keep our "extra" box of Thin Mints in the freezer or they'd be snarfed up in no time!

      Delete