Story Building (Part I): the foundation

It’s time to write, folks.

I don’t know where you’re at in your writing journey—if you’re well on your way, in the middle, or just poking around. I realize this blog is directed a bit more toward people who have a project, but I want to give some time to those who are just starting.

Flannery O’Connor said, “I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one.”

Change

Daniel Schwabauer, creator of the One Year Adventure Novel, describes stories as something that centers around a change. A ring comes into the hands of Frodo. By the end, Frodo destroys the ring. Louie Zamperini is an Olympian. At the end, he’s a broken yet unbroken prisoner of war who overcame brutality and found forgiveness in Christ. Because of that forgiveness, he forgave his war camp captors. Tim Thornton is an embittered young man who feels owed yet ends up giving everything for the man that hates him most.

To quote Mr. S., you can’t have a story without change.

Main Character

Of course, you must have someone for the change to revolve around. Picking a main character starts with the basics:

Gender, appearance, likes, dislikes, fears, addictions, personality, etc.

But perhaps the most important aspect of a main character (MC) is what he or she wants. It reveals who the inner man is. This is what the hero achieves, fails to achieve, or sacrifices in order to fulfill the story goal.

Story Goal

The story goal is what the audience wants. This is what your story revolves around. It isn’t necessarily the thing that the MC wants. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, in Lionel of Angrasté: Assassin of Love, Lionel wants to kill his country’s prince. However, the readers want him to find emotional healing and the courage to love again. In The Prisoner of Zenda, Rudolph Rassendyll wants to marry Princess Flavia. But, as much as we love him and want his happiness, we would rather that Rudolph stays true to his honor and free the hostage king.

There are times when the story goal and MC’s desire are the same. In Unbroken, both Zamperini and us want him to get home safe.

Ideals

Daniel Schwabauer teaches that, despite what many say, truth is not relative. There needs to be absolute moral standards. The hero fights for good (even when he is flawed) and the villain is evil (even when he has some admirable traits).

It’s what I’ve mentioned in times past—good overcomes evil, love overpowers hate, and darkness never crushes true light. It’s how you can have resolution and satisfaction in the ending of a story, even if it’s not “happily-ever-after.”

(If you don’t want spoilers, skip to “Sacrifice”).

Take War Horse as an example. If Emily’s grandfather had kept Joey, we would have known that Albert and Joey had found each other and that they made it. That’s what mattered ultimately, even if they couldn’t stay together. Even war could not tear apart a true friendship.

Though Miraz dies in Prince Caspian (the movie), it’s not his death that brings satisfaction. Fulfillment comes when Caspian spares his uncle’s underserved life and says, yes, he is a Telmarine. But not one like his uncle. Sometimes, true courage is showing mercy.

Sacrifice

What your hero is willing to sacrifice to get the story goal is the price that the goal is worth. If he has to trade Ol’ One Eye two bottles of whiskey and a keg of gun powder to get the treasure and a lifetime supply of riches…well, big whoop.

But if he battles pirates, fights sharks, hacks through jungles, and catches malaria, that treasure will hold a lot more weight.

Respect your MC, but don’t give it to him easy. Because if a story goal or inner desire was easy to achieve, no one would read. No one would call him a hero. No one would want to find out, “Will he make it?” There would be no questions if it was easy. And that’s why it won’t be.

Conflict

Imagine adding gasoline to a spark. The fire would grow—probably explode. Conflict does the same for your story. It feeds the flames and drives the story.

Conflict means putting obstacles in the way of the MC getting what he wants. It means throwing hyenas, thieves, kidnappers, storms, and bombs in his path. It means turning his friends against him. It forces him to choose between the half-frozen river at his back or the Medieval cannibals with bows and arrows at his front. It means crushing his heart by ripping away the only hope he has left. It means making him sacrifice. Conflict is what keeps your reader reading.

It doesn’t have to be violence. It can be an argument. It can be the tension of not knowing who to trust. It can be mean school girls, or being stuck on the outside of the clique.

Conflict can come from the villain sending assassins, a natural disaster like a tsunami, or the MC’s self-battling between his desire and what he knows is more important. Conflict is continually interfering with the MC getting the story goal—it can even be his own selfish desire driving him away from that goal.

Conflict needs to drive every chapter, paragraph, and sentence. If things go too easy for too long, your audience will find something else to read.

Questions to Consider:

1.      What change will your story revolve around?

2.      Who is your Main Character? Who are his friends? His enemies?

3.      What does the MC want? What do the readers want? If the MC and the readers don’t want the same thing, how will you change that before the end of the story?

4.      What absolute does your MC adhere to? Bravery? Love? Humility? What will you throw at him to test his beliefs and the worthiness of his standards? How can the villain wield that test?

5.      How much is your MC willing to pay to hold onto his ideal? Will he sacrifice his own desires for it?

6.      What’s going to try stopping the hero from getting to the end?

For the next few weeks, I’m going to dig into these aspects of story a bit deeper.

Before I end, I want to thank Mr. Daniel Schwabauer for teaching these principles. He showed me what a story is and how to write one. To find out more, I highly recommend that you check out his One Year Adventure Novel from Clear Water Press. Though geared toward high school students, even adults have used the program. I can’t praise it enough.

In the meantime, have fun crafting the beginnings of your story. Comment below and tell me what you’ve started, what your new ideas are, or where you need help. I can’t wait to hear from you! :)

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“Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” – Gene Fowler

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