What Is The Point Of Your Story?

We're talking about another problem we see a lot with submissions. Authors without any point or purpose. The problem with this is that it gives the reader no purpose to want to keep turning the page. 

The problem again begins with authors who get a small glimmer of an idea for a story and just sit down and start writing. These are the authors who "let the characters talk to them." These are the pantsters of the world. As they write, the dump one scene after another on the page and just keep going until they get to a point where they write THE END. 

But for the readers, we have to just keep asking ourselves, "Why?" "What was the point of all of this?"

Before you even start writing, you need to know what the end goal of the story will be. What is the big "take-away" for the reader? What are they going to learn about themselves, or their perception of the world? 

Now, I know a lot of you claim you have this figured out. You tell me in those query letters that this is a "coming of age" story, or a "friends to lovers" story. Nope, this is just a structure. What is the big message.

Of course there are also a lot of you who say, "But Scott, my story is for entertainment purposes only." Again, even those stories have a purpose and reason for existing. Think of it this way...

• Ricky Bobby is there to make fun of those people who take NASCAR racing as the end-all-be-all of their existence.
• Blazing Saddles was there to show how ignorant the human race has become over time. 

So, with that said, before you type anything more in your story, ask yourself if there is a purpose. If you are more than three chapters in, you might want to consider stopping entirely and restarting. You also cannot go back and just make up a purpose after your story was written. Remember, that everything you do in the story, every character you create, every action they take has to lead to that take-away.