“When it comes to structure, you will often be surprised by how mathematical the work of great writers happens to be. Don’t worry. This math is a discovered thing. They didn’t set out to be this way: they found it as they worked their way through. In this way, they are different from architects. They are not bound by hard-and-fast rules. They are not crimped by law. The math comes through poetry. And the poetry, then, is suspended by the math.” (Colum McCann , Letters to a Young Writer)
WRITING EXERCISE: The Poetic Equation of Character
Key Techniques to Practice
Organic Structure through Emotional Geometry: Use emotional shifts and reversals as hidden architecture. The “math” is the internal symmetry of change, not external plot points. Character as the Equation and the Answer: Build a character whose emotional logic both generates and suspends the structure. Let their desires, contradictions, and shifts serve as the story’s framework. Poetic Precision: Language must resonate with emotional truth. Use repetition, rhythm, and image motifs not as ornament, but as the suspension cables that hold the structure in tension.
500-Word Prompt: “The Moment the Math Emerged”
Write a 500-word scene in which a character faces an unexpected emotional reversal—not a twist in events, but a shift in internal perspective that forces them to rethink their course of action. Begin in the middle of an emotionally charged moment (a confrontation, a confession, a negotiation, a stillness before flight). The character must discover a structure to their feelings as they navigate the moment: a pattern, a rhythm, a realization that creates the arc of the scene.
Avoid plotting in advance. Write toward surprise. Let the character find the math through their own evolving emotional logic. Make the shape of the scene reveal itself only at the end—like closing a circle you didn’t know you were drawing.
Evaluation Criteria
Success Looks Like:
The scene reveals a clear emotional arc that emerges naturally and completes itself. The character’s internal transformation structures the scene—there’s a before, a turning, and an after. The language reflects that transformation through rhythm, image, or motif. Surprise comes from within, not from external events or gimmicks.
Weak Response:
The scene feels static or overdetermined, with no internal change. The shift is logical but emotionally unearned. Language is functional but not resonant. The structure feels imposed or formulaic rather than discovered.
Follow-up Questions for Workshopping/Revision
Where does the character’s emotional logic shift? What image or line might serve as the keystone of the structure? Is the end emotionally inevitable, or merely convenient? What rhythm emerges in the character’s thoughts or dialogue, and how does it reinforce or suspend meaning? Where could repetition or echoing add tensile strength to the emotional architecture?
Recommended Reading
“People Like That Are the Only People Here” by Lorrie Moore
Moore structures the story around the protagonist’s resistance and reluctant transformation, using poetic motifs—breast milk, mothers, and loss—to generate and suspend the emotional weight of the story. The math is invisible until the end, but inevitable in retrospect.
Strong vs. Weak Example Snapshot
Strong: A woman at her estranged father’s bedside begins furious, determined not to forgive. As she watches his fingers twitch in sleep, she recalls the rhythm of his piano playing. The memory enters the narration in fragments, off-rhythm, until it aligns—she hums a tune unconsciously. The scene ends not with forgiveness, but with her holding his hand to steady his pulse, the same way he once taught her to find tempo.
Weak: A man receives a letter from his ex and decides not to reply. He rereads it and changes his mind. The change lacks emotional texture, no internal logic drives the shift. Language is explanatory: “He realized he still loved her.” No poetry, no pattern, no structure revealed.
Complete this in one sitting. Write toward the unknown. Let the math emerge.
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