The tiny words that make stories work

Look at the snippet from Furia again.

What word begins the sentence we restored?

I joined the defense to make a protective wall in front of Roxana as the blond Royal captain got ready to shoot. She glanced over at her coach, then at me. At one meter and fifty-five centimeters, I was the shortest person on my team. She'd try to send it over my head. I was her only opening. So I jumped, and the ball hit me right in the face.

Stars exploded in my eyes as I fell hard on the ground, where I stayed, catching my breath.

"Hassan, do you need a sub?" Coach Alicia called from the sidelines.

Furia(2020)

The sentence begins with a connecting word: so.

What about the snippet from Walk Two Moons?

In the woods, I climbed an oak, singing my mother's song: Oh, don't fall in love with a sailor boy, a sailor boy, a sailor boy—I climbed higher and higher. Don't fall in love with a sailor boy—

Then the branch I stepped on snapped, and I grabbed out at another, but it was dead and came away in my hands. I fell down, down, as if I were in slow motion. I saw leaves. I knew I was falling.

Walk Two Moons(1994)

The sentence also begins with a connector: then.

And the snippet from The Three Snake Leaves?

The king of a nearby country was a powerful ruler, and at that time he was waging war. The young man enlisted in his army and soon found himself at the front where a great battle was being fought. The bullets flew like hail, the danger was hideous, and his comrades were falling dead all around. When the general himself fell dead, the last of the troops were going to flee, but the young man took his place and yelled: "We won't be defeated! Follow me, and God save the king!"

The men followed him as he led the charge, and they soon had the enemy on the run. When the king heard of the young man's part in the victory, he promoted him to field marshal, gave him gold and treasure, and bestowed on him the highest honours in the kingdom.

The Three Snake Leaves(2012)

Yep, another connector: when.

In the lesson on connectors and complex meaning we talk about words like 'so', 'then', and 'when', plus other phrases and punctation that connect ideas.

These little connectors are easy to overlook, but they are key to creating cause and effect relationships.

You don't need to use connectors every single time you want to show a cause and effect relationship.

Often, where writers feel the audience can put two and two together, they will simply describe events and let the reader infer the relationship.

We'll talk more about this idea later in this lesson.

Let's look at some ways in which tiny connectors can be used to convey cause and effect relationships both big and small.

Change, cause & effect

The tiny words that make stories work