Many writers and literary analysts have said that the power
of stories lie not in the events, but the meaning we make of the events.
Historians can spew facts and dates, or “factoids” and
statistics, but what sticks with us is the meaning they make of these chains,
and how they, in fact, make them into chains rather than disparate thingamajigs.
In fiction, the meaning comes from how the characters react
emotionally to the events, and what changes their reactions bring to them.
One
book coach defined it as “because of that.” This happened and then
that happened (events, plot) and, because of that (emotions and mental
reactions), a meaningful change took place.
When revising, we need to pay attention not so much to the sequence
of events or how logical and perfectly strung together they are, but to the emotions
they evoke in us.
