Let’s talk editing today. I’m in the final stages of publishing a prequel novella for my Cinderella books.

Note: The preorder will be up this week, and if you want to read it before it goes on sale, sign up for my newsletter—click on Free Story above. At the time of this writing, that free story is a Beauty and the Beast prequel short story, but I’ll be emailing my list soon about the Cinderella prequel novella, and you can get it then.

Also, watch Instagram this week for the cover reveal. It’s beautiful.

A crucial task during edits is to find missed opportunities. It’s hard for writers to read their own work and notice these missed opportunities, so when early readers and editors point out areas that could connect plot points or add resonance, authors are ever so grateful!

This week we read The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn. This story is similar to a previous one we read called The Magic Table, the Gold-Donkey, and the Club in the Sack, where three brothers go out into the world to find their fortune. But in this story, one brother travels farther than the others and gathers all the magical items himself.

There is a glaring missed opportunity in this story when the third brother comes across the magical tablecloth spread with food:

“And without inquiring who had brought the food, or who had cooked it, he approached the table, and ate with enjoyment until he had appeased his hunger.”

The bold section is a setup that opens a story loop that needs to be closed. Who spread out the table cloth? Why? Did the person intend for the brother to take the tablecloth? Was it a trap? Will they come back for it?

The storyteller has planted an idea that the reader expects will come back to haunt the brother. This is somewhat of a Chekhov’s gun problem.

“One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off. It’s wrong to make promises you don’t mean to keep.” Chekhov, letter to Aleksandr Semenovich Lazarev (pseudonym of A. S. Gruzinsky), 1 November 1889.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun

I labeled it as somewhat of a Chekhov’s gun problem, because the tablecloth does get used and is a key part of the story, but its owner and the explanation of how the cloth came to be in the forest is never brought back up again. The storyteller would have been better off to delete the references to “who” so the reader would not be wondering as well.

Writers direct a reader’s attention a bit like how a magician performs sleight of hand. Don’t call more attention to something if it’s unnecessary to the story.

Continuing our fairy tale….the brother goes on to use his magical items to take over the entire kingdom as a terrible despot. Now would be a great time for the original owner of the tablecloth to make an appearance. We kind of expect a reckoning, but can tell by how quickly we’re nearing the end of the story, that we’re running out of time.

We never find out who owned the tablecloth and none of the related questions get answered. We’re waiting for a twist ending that doesn’t happen. How disappointing.

Missed opportunity.

Finding (and fixing) your missed opportunities will strengthen your story.

It’s hard to find your missed opportunities yourself. It often takes a new reader to notice where things fall flat, seem to be missing something, or where a loose end is still waiting to be tied. This is one of the many reasons critique partners, editors, and beta readers are so valuable to authors!