In a recent post, Janice Hardy suggests three questions that can help you get to the heart of your story. In this context, “story” differs from plot. Your plot is the specific series of events that occur, but the story is what causes those events to happen as they do. In other words, story is the big picture that can be told in many ways across many different forms and genres.
To find her way into her story, Hardy asks three questions:
- What does the protagonist want? “This is the reason the character is there and the book exists in the first place,” she explains. “The want drives the external plot and allows the protagonist to face the lessons they need to learn to for their internal character arc. If the protagonist didn’t want this, there would be no story.” And if you can’t answer this question, you may have trouble driving your plot forward. Your protagonist may have weak goals or no goals at all. Without goals, there are no obstacles and limited conflict.
- Why does it matter? Motivation creates reader empathy for your protagonist. “If you don’t know why your protagonist needs to solve their problem or why it matters to them, odds are good the story will lack tension and narrative drive, because the protagonist has no agency or reason to try to solve any of the plot’s problems,” Hardy says.
- How will the protagonist’s life change forever if they don’t get it? “If there are no life-altering consequences to not getting what they want, why spend an entire book on this part of the character’s life?” Hardy asks. “If your protagonist can pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start over another day if they fail, then your stakes aren’t high enough.” The stakes don’t need to be life or death. Your hero can lose his confidence, reputation, belief in himself, or his ideals. “The key is that failing changes the character for the worse,” Hardy explains. In fact, if the death of your hero is the only thing at stake, that might not be enough, she adds.
