I’m imagining your faces now. “What in the *world,*” you say, “do rubber duckies have to do with writing? Or reading?”
That’s a great question! 🙂 First, let me assure you that no ducks, real or rubber, were harmed in the writing of this article. Second, this is not an article about bathtime or babies. Third, this is a writing post, thought the general idea is actually applicable to life in many ways. Fourth, a rubber ducky falls under the “writing tools” category in a very special way (when it isn’t applying to other life situations).
A rubber ducky, in the non-bathtime way, is a person who lets you bounce ideas off them. The “bouncing” explains the rubber. As for ducky… I have no idea. Maybe it just sounds like more fun, or maybe it falls better from the tongue.
Let’s make up some FAQs about rubber duckies. 😉
Q. Why do I want a rubber ducky?
A. Rubber duckies help you think through sticky writing problems, provide randomly generated [fill in the blank] choices, provide a check for “would character X really behave like this?”, and solve a lot of other writing problems.
Q. Oh, so, I should choose a more experienced writer for a rubber ducky?
A. If you have a more experienced writer for a rubber ducky, count yourself blessed! But no, your ducky doesn’t have to be any kind of writer at all. It’s frequently helpful if they’ve read some of your stuff (or listened to you talk about it ad nauseum), but sometimes even that isn’t required. Your rubber ducky might be a complete non-writer who knows nothing about your story.
Q. Wait, I’m getting really confused. If my ducky doesn’t have to be experienced OR informed, how do they help me?
A. And now we’re back to the “rubber” part. A good ducky bounces ideas BACK to you, so you can hear how they sound from another perspective. By restating your problem or idea and/or by trying to anticipate your next step or how it links with your other stuff, they can help you find plot holes, logic mistakes, character anomalies, and so forth. Because you have to simplify your problem for your poor ducky to even follow your explanation, it forces you to boil everything down to the essence, and mistakes are less able to hide in the minimalist forest.
Q. So all my ducky has to do is repeat back what I said?
A. That might be enough. A really GOOD ducky, though, will follow up by asking you questions. I don’t know what questions, because it totally depends on your ducky, your story problem, and what you proposed as a question or solution. But they might ask how that would affect plotline A or what character B would think or how clue C fits in now. And that might spark your brain into the next answer and the next answer and the… where’s my notebook to write this all down? Or it might bounce your answer right back in your face so you realize that if you change THAT, it’s totally going to break THIS thing over here, so you’d better not do it!
Q. You’ve sold me! Where can I get a ducky of my own? A really good, top-quality one, please.
A. Alas, they are not found in stores, not even online. But look around, and you might already have one you can use. Pick a test question and start bouncing it off potential duckies. Make a note of who gives the most useful responses (which doesn’t necessarily mean they know the answers, just that they make YOUR brain start moving in the right direction). There, now you have a starting-level rubber ducky, all your own. As for the really good, top-quality ones, they’re always homemade. Take your level 1 ducky and train them to level up!
Happy duck hunting (don’t harm any real ducks, please),
M. C. Lee
© 2019 M. C. Lee LLC. All rights reserved.
