Another revealing way to check a narrative is to track its tangents. Tangents are areas where the narrative appears to swerve off topic or appears to linger too long on something that seems incidental or insignificant. Tangents, however, can be where one of the most compelling aspects of the narrative resides. This possibility is overlooked more often than creative writing teachers or books on creative writing acknowledge. So, pause and enter a state of curiosity before hitting the delete key.
