| THE STORY ARC-
The structure of the three act play offers a great formula for creating a plot. In this format, the first act introduces your character. Then plot point 1 throws the character off balance to accomplish an objective.
Plot point 2 thrusts the character in a different direction, forcing inner change, pushing forward to a conclusion where the character is a new person or has learned some great truth through the experience.
The problem with this structure is that modern writers don't really get an act one. They have to starte with PP1 to keep action up and pull the reader into the story from the first page.
The story arc also shows that tention builds through the middle because it contains continual obstacles, stopping the main character from reaching his goal. This builds to the climax where by the character's personal change, through some inner strength they had never discovered, they are able to achieve what they had thought was impossible.
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HIGH STAKES-
The central conflict needs to be something HUGE!!!
Life and death,
Loss of Faith,
One Chance at Happiness,
Verge of Insanity,
Fulfillment of Dream-
IT MUST BE LIFE CHANGING!
A SINGLE DRAMATIC QUESTION-
Can you fill in the blank? My story is about…
This question should be hinted at on the first page and answered at the end.
It is the passion that takes you through the story- the heart of your story.
The best stories don’t merely recount some traumatic event but illustrate some great truth through that experience which gives the work the power to linger in the mind and change the reader’s perspective of the world.
Harriett Beecher Stowe- “A story can be more powerful than a sermon.”
THE BLACK MOMENT-
When all is lost and your character realizes there is no way they will make it they have hit the black moment. It is at the end of plot point 2 and just before climax.
Often the blacker the moment, the more potent the resolution.
Is yours black enough? Let all hope be lost before you start fixing things.
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW- sort of…
Collier tells a story of a teenage Martian living in the tunnels below the surface who decides to go joy riding in his dad’s flying saucer. After making a couple of passes around earth, he gets too close to the earth’s atmosphere and ends up crash landing.
He slunks away into the sewers, not knowing how he will make a living when he finds a sci-fi book someone has thrown down the gutter. Reading it’s bogus account of aliens, he decides that he can make a living writing so he proceeds to write the actual history of Mars.
A few weeks later he receives a rejection letter and marches into the editor’s office brandishing his green skin and six arms, “You rejected this because you said it wasn’t believable. You don’t understand, it really happened!”
The editor rolled her eyes, unaffected by the alien’s antics, “It doesn’t matter if it really happened. What matters is if the readers believe it.”
Most stories are based in fact but the fact that it really happened doesn’t make it a good story. Review the elements we’ve talked about and don’t be unwilling to consider making changes to heighten, clarify or enrich the story’s meaning and strength.
THE PLOT IS NOT THE STORY-
Have you ever had a boring person tell you about their vacation? Even though they have done incredible things, you don’t care!
If the Reader doesn’t care about your main character, there is no story. The greatest plot in the world is worthless with a flat or unlikeable character playing the lead.
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