Here, gleaned from several decades of writing, experience doing my 27 novels, and the hundreds of books I've read on writing and storytelling, is the most concise guide to storytelling I can come up with. I've included some classic references at the end.
For each scene, and your overall
story, answer these seven questions. If you can’t answer all of them, your
story has a critical problem. If you can, you have the basis of a strong story.
1. What’s the Hero’s Goal?
The hero must want something
desperately (eg, to survive, to escape, win the girl or the contest, achieve his
destiny or save the world). What is his
goal, and why is he so driven to get
it? The real story doesn’t start until your hero forms this urgent and powerful
goal.
2. Who (or What) is the Opponent? The opponent must want to stop the hero just as strongly. Who is the opponent,
and why is he, she or it so determined to defeat the hero?
- The opponent can be a person (an enemy,
or even an ally who thinks the hero is wrong), or an animal, monster, a force
of nature (eg flood, fire), an organisation, or society itself.
- Constantly
ask yourself, How can things get worse?
and When is the worst time for them to get worse? Then make
it happen.
- If
the hero is having a good time, your readers aren’t.
- Character
is revealed by how the hero deals with adversity. The worse things get, the
better it is.
3. How Does the Hero Fight Back? The hero must do everything
possible to defend himself against the opponent, defeat it and achieve his
goal. The opponent must fight back,
just as strongly and cunningly, to defeat the hero.
- Show their struggle vividly and
dramatically, with progressively rising suspense until the climax.
- Any scene that does not directly contribute to this struggle
will come as an anti-climax.
4. What’s the Outcome?
Every scene must have an outcome (a
win or a loss), and so must the story.
- Most scene endings (even if they
seem like a win at the time) should result in the hero being in worse trouble.
- The story ending should resolve
the hero’s story goal, though not necessarily by achieving it. The ending can
be a hollow or even disastrous victory, a compromise, or an outright loss. Or
the hero may realise that he no longer wants the goal he so strove for.
- How is the hero changed at the
end, if he is? Note that some
characters (especially in series) never
change: eg James Bond, Stephanie Plum, Mr Bean.
5. What’s the Hero Feeling? Your readers can’t identify with the hero and worry about him
unless you show his hopes, dreams, fears, dreads and conflicts at every stage
of the story.
- Don’t name emotions and feelings (eg, ‘He felt guilty.’). Show them the way that character would think,
and in what he says and how he acts and reacts.
- Your readers need to know the hero’s
emotions (and how they’re changing) in every part of every scene.
6. Have you Shown, or
are you Boring your Readers by Telling? Telling is the author talking at the reader. Showing is the protagonist revealing what’s happening at each moment, in his own
words and actions, filtered through his own feelings, thus revealing his
character. Also:
- Have you shown the unique milieu, story world and setting
(how Harry Potter differs to The Lord
of the Rings, Casablanca, Gone With the Wind)? No reader wants a
clichéd version of another author’s story world. Show the specific details of
your world that make it unique.
- Have you created a number of memorable,
knee-to-the-groin images that bring the story alive?
- Are you constantly looking for
new twists to overturn clichéd characters, settings, dialogue, action scenes
and plots?
- Are your chapter beginnings and
endings dull and repetitive, or striking, original and compelling?
- Suspense is the lifeblood of
story. Never tell the reader anything
upfront when, by withholding it, you can create or heighten suspense.
- Every
interaction, between every character
(even friends and allies) should contain conflict. But not meaningless
conflict, or bickering – the conflict needs to be related to the hero’s goal: either furthering it or blocking it.
-
Do
you use the minimum number of viewpoint
characters needed to tell the story, and keep to a single viewpoint in
each scene? If you clog your story with lots of ill-chosen viewpoint characters,
and constantly shift viewpoints within scenes, you’ll confuse and annoy your
readers.
7. Are your Characters Extraordinary, or Ordinary?
The characters in most manuscripts
are weak, dull and forgettable. They fail from too little exaggeration, not too
much.
- Show your hero’s strengths,
humanity and flaws vividly; the
opponent should be equally strong (or preferably, stronger) and just as complex.
- Bring out your hero’s strongly
held attitudes, passions and beliefs. Have him rage, harangue, sneer, scream,
mock, be sarcastic etc … Give each character a unique voice.
- Don’t restrain your characters. Make
them larger and louder than life. Heighten their reactions, emotions, language
and imagery until they’re out of control. Have them say and do things that
ordinary people never do. That’s why we like to read about them.
Some Great Storytelling References.
Noah Lukeman, The
Plot Thickens. Terrific chapters on characterisation, suspense and conflict, a lot of stuff I’ve never thought of before.
Jerry Cleaver, Immediate
Fiction. No one has ever explained the craft of storytelling more clearly or simply. A fantastic book.
Don Maass,
The Fire in Fiction. Chapter by chapter, Maass goes through the problems his NY literary agency sees thousands of times a year in almost every submitted manuscript, and in many books that get published, and tells you what to do about them.
Elizabeth Lyon, Manuscript
Makeover. The best book on self-editing, in my view.
John Vorhaus,
The Comic Toolbox. Not just the best book on comic writing, but better than all the others put together.
