Photo by paolo candelo on Unsplash
In most of the posts during this 75-day writing challenge, I’ve been exploring how to develop a story idea. We begin with the initial spark of an idea, the genesis of which we may remember or not. For Mick Heron who wrote Slow Horses, it was a door he passed on his daily commute. What was special about this door? He never saw anyone enter or exit it. (This reminds me of the doors in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. If you haven’t read these, I highly recommend them.)
We never know when something will grab hold of us and not let go until we bring it to fruition in the form of a story. Whatever the immediate cause, this idea is a response to our life’s experiences as well as the stories we’ve read or watched that we want to be in conversation with.
As we mull over the idea, we may begin to see a world and people there engaged in activity. In some cases, we are flooded with details that may end up in the story or not. From all of that material, a person in a place with a problem begins to emerge. This is our premise.
As we tease out why this premise is important enough to write a story about through the five (or more) whys, we begin to home in on the story’s essence and uncover themes that are critical to us. This is what is essential to us about the story idea. It could be almost anything, but it is the one thing we must express through the story for it to work for us. As I have written before, the story’s essence is not the story itself, but it's a fractal of the entire narrative, encapsulating its meaning to us as the writer.
We use all of this to explore and expand the premise elements as I’ve done with my Wreck of the Ten Sail idea. I’ve shared parts of this process to help you see how I’m thinking about story development: asking questions and checking the answers against the essence. I still have more to explore to feel ready for the next stage, but I want to begin to point to these next steps.
With a well developed protagonist, world, and problem, it makes sense to turn toward the interactions between them. This is not only what the protagonist will do once they encounter the problem in the place, but also the general shape of the action in the story. There are several ways to approach this task, but what I find useful at this stage is to consider the external conflict between the protagonist and the primary force of antagonism and the activity they engage in.
It’s useful to consider this in very abstract terms at first: the protagonist and the source of the problem. Is the external conflict between the protagonist and the (1) environment, (2) another individual or group, or (3) society or government?
With this in mind, we consider the type of activity that will be involved in the conflict, again, in abstract terms.
Is it a fight between two forces?
Is it about a deadline (time certain) or ticking clock (time is running out)?
Is it a chase? Is the protagonist chasing or being chased?
Is it a trap from which the protagonist must escape?
Is it a race to arrive somewhere or obtain something?
In a future post, I’ll break down these ideas and provide examples.
This post is part of a 75-day writing challenge and experiment. From September 9 through November 22, I'll be posting daily thoughts on writing, storytelling, and creativity based on recent readings or reflections. While my intention was to keep them very short—250 to 400 words—I've found that this range doesn't give me enough space to cover these topics adequately. I aim to keep them brief enough to be read quickly, but they will often be longer than 400 words.
At the end of the challenge, I will organize and revise the material with intention. For now, the object is to explore and share.