One Day in relation to "the rule"

In a writing class I recently took, my teacher was giving a lesson on writing in the moment. His big idea was that the action of an event is more captivating than the build up or the aftermath. He said the key question you have to ask yourself when deciding the position of the story is what makes this moment unlike any other?

Does this idea apply to David Nicholls? He shows us Dexter and Emma on June 15^th of every year. If each June 15^th they share is unlike any other day, then is the book all that believable?

Now I’m sitting here trying to think of a chapter that showed an insignificant day in the life of Dexter or Emma. There were some. However, even the seemingly insignificant moments served their purpose as a representation in a year in the life of the character. When Emma’s life was particularly monotonous in the time when she lacked the confidence to pursue her dreams, we’d catch a snapshot of her waitressing at a Tex-Mex restaurant, or dating some guy whom she could hardly stand to converse with. The moments we saw were lack luster, just as her life was in general over those years. This goes to show that even insignificant moments can be build a theme or character development.

Were these moments unlike any other? Yes. They were because they were moments of action. Even the mundane chapters stood on their own, instead of being build ups to the more monumental moments. This proves that a moment, no matter how ordinary, can be unlike any other as long as it is a moment of action and builds toward the theme.

So, viewers, my verdict is that my teacher’s advice does apply to Nicholls. By thinking that it wouldn’t, I was misinterpreting the advice to begin with. I thought that the teacher meant that when writing, you must pick a monumental moment that grabs the reader. Instead, he meant that you should take a moment and make it monumental through literary techniques such as motifs, character development, or an underlying theme. (Nicholls doesn’t use many motifs, but they are a fantastic devise so I had to throw them in there.) Sometimes, the specific day-by-day snapshots are the ones that stick with a reader, because they are unique yet relatable.

I have decided that I would like to alter my teacher’s words a little bit; the key question you must ask yourself when deciding the position of a story is how can I show that this moment is unlike any other?