In part one of this series, we talked about how and why film editor Walter Murch’s famous Rule of Six works equally well for novelists. Now let’s break down each of the six rules:
Rule One: Emotion
Murch, in his book In the Blink of an Eye, encourages editors to ask: “How do you want the audience to feel?” That is the crux of this rule. It is all about invoking emotion in the audience or, in our case, reader. Choosing cuts to heighten that emotion and support the story through stronger emotion. Focusing on why the characters feel the way they do, thus letting the audience feel it too.
In writing, consider how each alteration will affect how your reader feels about the character. Can they relate more or less because of the change? Does the edit make the emotion clearer or murkier? Are the edits you are making enhancing the emotional tone of the story or stripping it away?
Emotion is the key to any storytelling. It is how stories unfold and resonate with readers. Your job as a writer/editor is to revise your manuscript in such as way as to wring out the most emotion in the story as possible, and to make changes that let your reader feel more. It’s all about access. Are you showing how your characters feel in a way that lets your reader slip inside their skin and experience the story with them? And are you keeping your emotional arc in mind as you make your cuts?
Murch put emotion at the top of his list for a reason: it is the primary concern for storytellers. Every scene you keep should enhance the emotion of the story and every cut should make it easier to feel that emotion.
Rule Two: Story
The second rule is all about story and how to serve that story. In editing, Murch urges editors to only make cuts that advance the story. Ask yourself whether your changes are helping the story in a meaningful way? Are you adding to the story arc or removing obstacles that are blocking the story from its logical path? Story is what your novel is about. It’s the reason you are writing. But it is not defined by what happens to the character. That is plot. Story is bigger than that. It is why what is happening matters to the character. It’s the meaning behind the events.
When editing for story, you will likely find yourself cutting as much as adding. Getting rid of those scenes, lines, actions that don’t propel the story forward and adding in bits that add depth of meaning. Watch your focus. Make sure you are editing with purpose: to strengthen your story and emotion, not to keep your favorite bits in no matter what. This type of editing takes discipline and objectivity. When in doubt, remove the scene/paragraph/line and see if the story works without it. If it does, keep the cut. If not, you can add it back in or revise it so that it fits.
Rule Three: Rhythm
Cutting for story and emotion will naturally create a rhythm or a pacing that sets the mood and tone for your novel. We covered this at length in our last blog series on Timing, Pacing & Tension so I won’t belabor it here.
When editing for rhythm, pay attention to your timing, duration, pacing, and tone. Do your cuts make rhythmic sense? Do they suit the overall pace and energy of your story? Does it feel forced or like an abrupt halt? Sometimes, if you are trying to create confusion, abrupt rhythm change can help, otherwise they are just that, abrupt, and disorienting to your reader. Murch referred to film editing as “visual music” with a rhythm of its own, “the music of the cut.” That holds true for novelists too. Listen for the rhythm in your story. It should ebb and flow, like music, sometimes rising in crescendo, and other times easing off to allow your reader to breathe.
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These next three rules are felt more heavily in film, but still have applications for fiction writers:
Rule Four: Eye Trace
Eye trace is how a film editor and director guides their audiences’ eyes on the screen. Controlling what the audience sees and when. It could be as simple as using motion on the screen to capture the audience’s attention and hold it through the action. Simply stated, eye trace is how your eye follows what is happening on screen and what you pay attention to as a direct result of how the scene was shot and cut. It is a form of manipulation or sleight of hand. If the editor wants you to pay attention to the left corner of the screen, she will direct the action to that space. This is particularly helpful when trying to insert hidden clues. While the editor directs your attention to another part of the screen, she can place a key bit of information in the opposite area or in the shadows, to keep it hidden until reviewing. This is why you can go back in some movies and see all the clues you missed the first time around. The editor and director used eye trace to their advantage.
Editors and directors use blocking, camera moves, color, lighting, and cuts to determine eye trace. Writers can do the same. Think about how you are presenting your scene and what you want your reader to focus on, then write the scene from that perspective, showing only what you want your reader to notice. You can slip in the other bits in between. It’s a lot like being a magician. You have to set up the prestige (the trick or illusion), cue the distraction (the eye trace—the bit that captures attention) and stealthily embed the clue or hidden bits where no one will notice.
Eye-tracing helps an audience follow a story. It’s the guide that keeps them on the right path. Of course, the alternate path is the one that contains extra information—the bonus reward of paying attention to the whole story, not just the main narrative thread that keeps us turning pages. Most of the time, readers miss clues because they are not contained within the main action, but hidden in exposition, where they are likely to be skimmed over. Eye trace explains that phenomenon. It’s why most people miss the twists and can’t finger the murderer until the end of a mystery or not at all.
When editing, ask yourself whether your version leads the reader through the action? Does your novel have movement? What are you highlighting to draw the reader’s attention? Could you do more to direct their attention, especially if you have hidden details you want to impart without notice? The biggest point is to figure out how you are directing focus in your story? And how are you using character focus to direct reader focus?
Rule Five: Two Dimensional Plane of Space
Life is three dimensional, unlike a printed page or a movie screen. So how do storytellers take a 3D world and make it come to life in 2D? One way filmmakers do it is by using the 180-degree rule. This rule says that when you have two characters in the same scene, you must maintain their positioning from right to left. For example, say you are watching two people having a stand-off in an alley. The protagonist is on the right and the villain is on the left. The protagonist should always remain on the right so the audience doesn’t get confused. The idea is to prevent the camera from making it appear that the characters are flipping back and forth, which can be disorienting. This is called the 180-degree rule because the director draws a line between the two characters (or just to the side of the characters) and keeps the camera to one side of the line. This ensures a clean shot without any “crossing of the line.”
This may seem like a film-specific rule, and, in many ways, it is. But writers can learn from it too. The whole point of the 180-degree rule is to minimize confusion in the audience. Writers will want to consider how they are placing their characters within scenes and make sure their readers can visualize where the characters are in that scene. How are they moving within the set? How do they get there? Where are they in relation to other characters? Think of it as blocking for your characters. Paying attention to space will help you create stronger visual settings and guide the movement of your characters within that space.
Rule Six: Three Dimensional Space
This rule focuses on knowing where things are within the space—props, people, objects, animals, etc. This is set design. For writers this means setting the stage so your readers can visualize the entire space. Not just showing where they are in relation to each other but what surrounds them.
Show your readers where objects are in relation to other objects. How far is your protagonist from the door when the villain is approaching? Where is the phone located in relation to your protagonist as she waits for a call? How close is the escape? How far is the safe zone? Ask yourself if your edits establish the physical space your characters are inhabiting or do they appear to be floating in space?
This rule also could apply to bad transitions, where a character was in one location and in the next paragraph is somewhere else entirely. You need some form of transition or break to guide that movement so you don’t lose your reader. This is called three-dimensional continuity.
A girl leaves a classroom, walks down the hall to her locker, then exits the school to jump on the bus for home. You may show how she moves from one place to another, but that’s not always necessary (or desired). You do, however, need to place your characters in a way your readers will understand.
The worst mistake is to have your character in one location (say on the bus) and the next line have her at some other random location (say an ice cream parlor) with no explanation how she ended up there. This breaks the continuity and pulls the reader out of the story. In film, editors use jump cuts to show transitions. They would show the bus, the exterior of the ice cream parlor and then have the character saying their line inside. You need to find a written version of that for your narrative to use as continuity transitions.
The next time you are editing your manuscript, consider using this Rule of Six to identify places to cut, add, and revise, starting with emotion, followed by story, rhythm, eye trace, and so forth. Each layer will strengthen your story and your reader’s experience of that story.