What’s the Point of Your Story?

Seriously, it’s so often not clear. Here’s a guide to making your point.

It shouldn’t surprise any writer to hear that a story has to have a point. But so often we go off the rails during the course of writing and end up with a menagerie of ideas that can leave an editor scratching her head, trying to figure out what the point is. (That assumes you have an editor. If not, then it’s the reader you inflict your meanderings on.)

So what’s the point? Broadly: What is the point of any non-fiction story?

A good or great article informs, enlightens, and entertains. And it must be about something. And that something has to be crystal clear, stated high up — well before readers might start wondering, you know, what’s the point?

Specifically: What’s the point of this story?

If I’m any good at this editing and mentoring thing, I should be able to state clearly what this very article is all about, and why you should read it. So here’s a succinct nutgraph for this article:

Any great article will have a concrete and compelling point, an important or informative or entertaining takeaway made clear to the reader early and reinforced often. There’s a proven method to getting it right, and several tools at your disposal. Here’s how to do it.

Most important: What’s the point of your story?

Sometimes you’ll know exactly what the point of your story is. Other times you might think you do, or be unsure, or waver as you research and write. Before I explain how to make sure any given story is successfully making its point, let’s look at the story elements — the tools — you have to work with.

• Headline and subtitle (a complementary pair)
• Lede (first graph or delayed after a setup)
• Nutgraph (truly the point of your story is made clear here; can be the lede, but typically it’s lower down — but not too low!)
• Subheads (these are the bones of the story; write them like mini headlines, short and compelling)
• Quotes and details (the flesh on the bones, addressing among other things the who, what, when, where, why and how)
• A strong throughline (references to the point, carried through each section, to remind readers what it’s all about)
• A satisfying ending (ideally surprising or informative, perhaps circling back to the lede or some other key element of the story — no summaries, please!)

The best writers leverage all these elements of non-fiction article writing — storytelling — for the specific effect of making a point, not a bunch of points. Let’s sharpen our pencils and understand how exactly to do this…

Before you write

Before you start writing in earnest, do this: Write the headline, subtitle, lede and nutgraph. Don’t worry if you don’t have it all figured out. Just take a stab at these elements. You can always change them (and probably will). Do worry if you can’t accomplish this simple task (more research or brainstorming is needed).

Now, stop there and ask yourself: Will people want to read this? I shelve a lot of story ideas at that point. I probably write one of four straight away, circle back to others after a day or a week or more, and leave a significant number never written. Opening the idea file a day or a week later can be revealing. Sometimes I go, “Wow, this is a great story idea; why didn’t I write it already?” and sometimes I realize the idea is stupid, or underdeveloped, or the angle is dry or off the mark. Occasionally fresh news will provide the hook on which to hang an old idea, because now there’s a point to it.

When you’ve finished a draft and you think all the elements are in place, it’s time to make sure you have a top-notch, perfectly constructed piece.

After your draft is done

Put the draft aside. Close the file and engage your brain and body with unrelated tasks. Let it simmer overnight, at least. Come back to it with fresh eyes and read it not for typos but as a reader might — if it’s got 4 minutes worth of words, read it in 4 minutes. Does it sing? Are you ecstatic with the result? If not, you have work to do.

An even better approach: Set the story aside. But after some hours or days, instead of coming back to it, sit back, close your eyes, and think hard about what you really want the story to say. In a fresh document, write that fresh, pithy, concrete statement out in one or two sentences. Don’t worry about how it fits or does not fit into the story. Think of it as a mission statement that you could’ve used to write this story. Also write down what you might dream up as a fitting headline over that mission statement.

Do not try to align any of this with what you’ve already penned. That is the point. Think fresh.

Then pull the draft back up and see if it aligns with your fresh thoughts. You will often find it does not. You got so buried in the forest of the story you lost track of the trees. Here’s what you’re looking for: The elements bulleted above should all reflect and support your freshly articulated mission statement and headline. This doesn’t mean you repeat yourself in each element; rather, they all complement one another — coherent parts of a whole.

Imagine if you stripped the story of all its words except the key elements (the bulleted items above, the tools). You should be left with a very, very short but lucid and meaningful “article” with a clear takeaway. As I’ve advised before in the Writer’s Guide, any story can be told in a 1,500-word article, a full-length book, or a 140-character social media post. Skim over your draft and key in on those primary structural elements: Do they tell a story? If so, you’re onto something. If not, re-read this guide.

One last step: Once you’re satisfied with the structure, get granular. Make sure every thought, every sentence — every word — supports the point and the main elements. You might need to add some words, but more likely you can use this self-editing step to remove words, often a lot of them. Look for tangential thoughts, and rework them to be relevant or take them out. Make sure you haven’t meandered, offered up TMI, or otherwise wavered unnecessarily from the point of your story.

Cheers, Rob

PS: Here are three articles from the Writer’s Guide archives that offer additional advice on story structure and self-editing:

• 3–30–3: Three Rules of Engaging Writing
• How to Slash 25% of the Words From Your Story, and Why
• Fundamental Elements of a Good Article

This article first published in my Writer’s Guide newsletter on Substack, where you can subscribe to get weekly articles like this in your inbox and learn about my coaching and mentoring services.