Reasonable Association

Related to sequencing is what we might call “reasonable association.” I touched on this in my blog about the “character on the board.”

This is about creating a world that has its own internal logic. If a fifth grader is writing historical fiction about colonial America, it should go without saying that cell phones are out and building might be pretty drafty in winter time. Sadly, it often does need saying. This a matter of imagining a world different from the one the child lives in, and the pieces have to fit together.

You say your character is a rabbit who lives underground but catches the school bus each morning? Okay. Now you have to imagine that world. Is there a staircase to the warren? An elevator? Where does the rabbit do homework? You say the kids on the bus make fun of your rabbit? Interesting. Why? Because the rabbit lives in a hole in the ground? Because he or she is the only rabbit or because the rabbit has big ears?

The details of the story must make sense when set side by side with each other.