Story elements, August 19, 2012
I’m not feeling inspired this week to present something
about the male point of view in romance. I’d like to talk about writing in
general. I’m going to steal an idea I learned from my MBA program and apply it
to writing. It’s called span of control. The theory goes, in management, you
should have no more than six people working for you directly if you want
optimum results. I’ve seen this number in various texts as little as three and
as high as ten. This doesn’t mean 100s or 1000s can’t work for you, but that
you must establish layers of control. Each of your managers can also have six
people directly reporting to them.
In writing, perhaps we should not have more than six main or
memorable characters during a normal book, or six main ideas in the book. Perhaps
this can apply to chapters and scenes where six elements (including twists) are
introduced. Doing this should optimize the number of readers or optimize the
chance they ‘get’ your story or won’t put the book down. This probably applies to
back cover ideas as well. A cover would be too busy with more than six things
going on.
The human mind is most efficient when handling six issues, the
mind tends to break down (or spin wheels) when stretched with more than six problems,
and isn’t used to its potential when under six.
For reference: This whole idea started in a seat of the
pants sort of way during World War 1 when General Sir Ian Hamilton asserted, “the
average human brain finds its effective scope in handling three to six other
brains.” Since then much research has gone into proving the theory. Many modern
books on management and psychology assert a range of six to ten rather than
three to six.
So who is your average reader? Isn’t clarity the clarion
call of editors everywhere? Perhaps because they know that a mass market is achieved
by applying principles an average reader would enjoy and understand.
If you’re in a pitch session with an agent or editor and
they worry if you have too many elements, you could spring “span of control” on
them OR not mention more than six ideas supporting your manuscript.
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