Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, gave writers one of the most useful diagnostic tools in storytelling.
They said that if you can connect your scenes with “and then,” you’ve got a list. If you can connect them with “therefore” or “but,” you’ve got a story.
This sounds simple. It is simple. And it will save your draft.
Here’s what “and then” looks like in a romance: They meet at a coffee shop, AND THEN they run into each other at a bookstore, AND THEN they have dinner, AND THEN they kiss, AND THEN her ex shows up, AND THEN they fight, AND THEN they make up. Things happen. They happen in order. But nothing causes anything else. The dinner doesn’t lead to the kiss — the kiss just happens next. The ex doesn’t appear because of anything the characters did — he just shows up because the plot needed a complication. Each scene is a bead on a string with no causal thread running through it.
Of course, this schtick always makes me think of Dude, Where’s My Car? You’re welcome!
Now here’s “therefore/but”: They meet at a coffee shop, and she’s rude to him because she’s having the worst day of her life, THEREFORE he thinks she’s not interested. BUT he keeps seeing her in the neighborhood and realizes the rudeness was a mask, THEREFORE he finds an excuse to talk to her again. She’s disarmed by his persistence, THEREFORE she agrees to dinner despite her wound telling her not to. The dinner goes well — too well — and she panics, THEREFORE she cancels their next plan. BUT he shows up anyway with takeout because he’s paying attention, THEREFORE she has to decide whether to let him in or slam the door.
Feel the difference? Every scene in the second version exists because of the scene before it. Remove any one of them, and the chain breaks. The reader feels the momentum because each moment creates the conditions for the next.
This principle applies at every level of your story.
Scene to scene: Does this scene create the conditions for the next one?
Section to section: Does what happens between Hook and First Plot Point create the conditions for what happens between First Plot Point and First Pinch Point?
Beat to beat: Does the Midpoint’s emotional reality create the conditions for the Dark Night’s emotional reality?
When writers and editors talk about “pacing problems” or “the sagging middle,” they’re usually describing a section where the causal chain breaks. The scenes are individually fine, but they’re connected by “and then” instead of “therefore” or “but.” The reader stops feeling pulled forward because nothing is pulling — events are just lining up.
There’s a subtlety worth noting: “but” is as important as “therefore.” If every connection is “therefore,” the story moves in a straight line without resistance. “But” introduces the complication, the reversal, the wound pushing back against the desire. The rhythm of a well-sequenced romance alternates between “therefore” (because she trusted him, she shared something vulnerable) and “but” (but the vulnerability activated her wound, therefore she pulled away). That alternation IS the push-pull. It’s causation creating tension.
Today’s Exercise:
Take the scenes you’ve brainstormed over the last two weeks, first half and second half, and test the connections between them.
Step one: Lay out your scenes in your best guess of the order. Rough is fine. You’re not committing to anything yet.
Step two: Between each pair of adjacent scenes, write “therefore,” “but,” or “and then.” Be honest. If you’re reaching for a causal connection that isn’t really there, write “and then.”
Step three: Look at your “and then” connections. These are the weak links. For each one, ask: what would have to change — in one or both scenes — to make this connection causal? Sometimes the fix is reordering. Sometimes it’s adding a scene between them. Sometimes it’s realizing one of the scenes doesn’t belong in this position (or in this book).
Step four: Look at your “therefore/but” ratio. If it’s all “therefore” with no “but,” your story doesn’t have enough resistance. If it’s all “but” with no “therefore,” your story doesn’t have enough forward momentum. You want a rhythm — forward motion interrupted by complication, complication creating new forward motion.
You don’t need to fix everything today. You need to SEE it. Wednesday and Thursday, you’ll sequence each half with these connections in mind. Today, you’re diagnosing which connections are causal and which are just chronological.
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— Tasha