Saturday, April 18, 2015

SCBWIWWA15: The So-What Factor with Jen Rofé, Writing Intensive


We spent the morning of Friday, April 17, 2015, with agent Jen Rofé learning how to play the “so what” game. Jen told us that whenever she reads books, queries, or manuscripts or watches movies or television, she is constantly asking the question, “So what?” For a story to stand out, there must be a good answer (or many) to the “so what” question after every single plot point. Jen walked us through a scene-by-scene “so what” analysis of Dirty Dancing, Flora & Ulysses, The Hunger Games, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She also looked at the picture books Rosie and Rex and Blue on Blue.

My favorite quote of the session?
"You must always give your character hard choices, or else 'so what?'"
Then, attendees volunteered to summarize their works-in-progress aloud while Jen “so what”ed them every step of the way. Way to go, brave participants! I can’t wait to read all of your books. J




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