Writing Notes: The Shape of Story
by Christina WodtkeÂ
Start with Conflicted Characters
The character needs a goal, a motivation and a conflict.
The goal can be alien to your audience,
but the motivation must be shared by them, and
the conflict creates struggles that increase engagement.
Paint a Picture
Details transport you into the story.
The world disappears and you have a story play in your head.
Even though there are no literal pictures.
But be careful—Too many details and the story gets bogged down.
Make the Protagonist Suffer
“Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them - in order that the reader may see what they are made of.” (Kurt Vonnegut, How to Write a Great Story)
And when it can’t get any worse, make it worse before it gets better
The two key moments that create the peak of excitement in a story is the darkness before the dawn, and the dawn.Â
The climax is the moment when the protagonist is either rescued or rescues themself.
In older tales, we saw a lot of Deux ex Machina (the hand of god) rescuing the hero. A hero could be rescued by luck, a partner, another hero…but modern audiences strongly prefer stories where the protagonist helps themself.
Resolution is Boring, Keep it Short
Interest grows with every additional conflict, but once the hero figures out the solution, our fascination collapses.
Don’t natter on while the audience’s mind is drifting.
Also Consider:
You need a good inciting incident to move your protagonist to action.
A setting is more than a place, it’s a situation and a moment in time. A vivid place has details.
Modern audiences prefer “return home changed” to “return home the same.”
EXAMPLES: ARCHETYPAL PLOTS ALONG THE ARC
Boy Meets Girl
Internal conflict is always satisfactory (e.g., she believes love interferes with his career, he believes love interferes with his beer.)
The crises usually revolves around betrayal — lying, cheating — and the climax shows it was a misunderstanding or we get atonement.
The struggle is always about them being separated.
The resolution is about binding them more tightly together than ever.
The Quest
You seek a things, and find yourself.
Return home changed and don’t pass go.
Common elements include companions, a mentor, great losses and extreme character arcs.
The Underdog
Even though they do not have a shot in hell, the underdog wants something. They want it so bad.
Common elements include an enemy who blocks their path, and a coach who helps them forward.
In this case, they do not return home changed but rather move into a new life that fits their changed self.
Coming of Age
Naive person has the world teaches them a hard lesson, and they become a better person for it.
Struggle revolve around life sucking and then sucking more.
The hero grows and becomes better because of it, and via new understandings becomes competent.
In some tragedies, the world breaks them.
They can return home changed, but more often they move to a new life they have earned.
More Examples. Justice & Pursuit:
Weaving Multiple Plots:
Weaving multiple plots together to make subplots can further increase tension.
Multiple plots woven together makes the whole story not only unique but very compelling.
