SCBWIWWA15: The So-What Factor with Jen Rofé, Writing Intensive

We spent the morning of Friday, April 17, 2015, with agent Jen Rofé learning how to
play the “so what” game. Jen told us that whenever she reads books, queries, or
manuscripts or watches movies or television, she is constantly asking the
question, “So what?” For a story to stand out, there must be a good answer (or
many) to the “so what” question after every single plot point. Jen walked us
through a scene-by-scene “so what” analysis of Dirty Dancing, Flora &
Ulysses, The Hunger Games, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She also
looked at the picture books Rosie and Rex and Blue on Blue.

“You must always give
your character hard choices, or else ‘so what?'”