Self-Editing with the Content vs Function Principle

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I’ve adapted one of the key pedagogic tools I used to teach college writing to fiction writing and it’s the one tool I use when trying to gain as much objectivity as possible when self-editing.¹ Let’s face it, even immensely accomplished writers have to face that gap between what you want to be on the page and what actually is on the page. This is where the distinction of content versus function can really help you identify the areas of your writing that are boring readers, and why. 

First things first: what am I talking about when I say content versus function? When we think about communication in general, language always works on two levels. It delivers content and function. It says something and it does something. If we’re sitting at the dinner table and I say “could you please pass me the salt”, the content is what I said and the function is a request for assistance. If someone tells you “hello” the content is “hello” and the function is a greeting. You get the gist.

In my experience writers are very comfortable thinking critically about the content of their work, but they often struggle with the function. Hopefully this article can help you with that distinction. 

The 12 Functions In a Piece of Fiction

When you’re writing fiction, you are doing 12 things that fit into 3 categories:

Category one is providing information. So when writing, your words are either providing information about

• The setting/world

• About the problem/obstacle or conflict characters are facing

• About the character(s)

• About the personal stakes for the character(s)

• About the non-personal consequences of the problem or worsening of problem

• About the goal or plan your characters have

Category two is goal-oriented character activity, so your words establish that 

• A Character pursues a goal to solve problem, 

• Either without opposition or against opposition

• A Character accomplishes a goal

• A Character fails to accomplish a goal (which usually causes another problem, so we’re back to the above with information about a problem/obstacle)

Category three is plot questions. These are the big picture plot outcomes your readers want an answer to. Like “will XYZ catch the killer” in a murder mystery or “will character A and B get together” and such. So in terms of function your writing either

• raises a plot question, or 

• resolves a plot question. 

That’s it. These are the functions that every piece of fiction consists of. Very short or highly experimental pieces will not necessarily have all 12, but every novel or short story can be analyzed in terms of these functions. 

But wait, you might be thinking: what about [insert some other function fiction could fulfill]? The key reason I identified and chose these rather than any other possible ones, is because they are necessary for reader engagement. They make up the stuff of story that makes us want to read. 

Using the 12 Functions of Fiction to Self-Edit

I suggest applying this tool to either a scene or a chapter that you feel isn’t working or that your beta readers told you isn’t working. If you like to revise on printed paper, have a pen ready to jot things in the margins. If you revise on your computer, use the comment function. 

Go paragraph by paragraph and note down when a paragraph performs one of these functions and which function. If you’ve got multiple characters or conflicts or other things in a paragraph, distinguish them by labeling it as “provides information about character A” vs “character B”. Do not embellish in any way by adding content. “Don’t say “provides info about the time she went to the temple” nope. Omit content entirely. We’re just looking at function. If multiple paragraphs in a row perform the same function, just leave the label the first time the function is performed and don’t add another label until your content performs a different function. If a paragraph performs two different functions, do label the individual instances. If you feel your words are doing something that is not on the list of 12 things, don’t label it. We’re just sticking to these 12 functions. 

Once you finish this process for your scene or chapter, there are three common things you might find. 

• It’s pretty easy to spot when you have hundreds of words that are performing only one function. This impacts pacing and can disengage the reader even if you feel the content itself is interesting. For example, in a book I read recently a character was traveling through a magical forest and he encountered some interesting stuff. There was something like a potentially magical lake, a magical bird, some food he was able to grab and so on. It was quite beautiful, but the section felt like it really dragged. And when I looked back over it, I realized that all it was doing was providing information about the setting and a tiny bit of character info. Stuff like this can be pretty hard to spot when you’re just looking at the content because on the content level, each thing the character encounters is different, but when you look at the function, it’s repetitive and gets tedious. I find that character backstories and world-building commonly fall into this trap, though not exclusively. 

• Secondly, you might find that even if you’re cycling through several functions, spending too much time in the “providing information” category without switching to the “goal-oriented activity” category can make your story feel stalled. The interplay between information providing and goal pursuit is what gives a story its sense of progress. Just like you need two legs to walk, the back and forth between those two categories of function is necessary for reader engagement. 

• Thirdly, it’s easy to miss when your scenes are only accomplishing one or two things if you’re judging them on their content. But when you assess them through the lens of function, you can more quickly spot if they’re actually carrying their weight. 

These three aren’t the only diagnoses you can spot with this tool, but I do find them to be the most common. In general, watch out for too few functions and for the same category of function predominating. 

For an extended discussion on this topic, including a breakdown of one of my favorite scenes that packs 11 functions into just 6 pages, listen to the full episode on the Writer’s Toolbox podcast!

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1. The original first year writing tool was developed by Kenneth Bruffee in his Short Course in Writing—Composition, Collaborative Learning, and Constructive Reading.