So when I travel to schools I do a lot of writing instruction with kids and what I try and emphasize is this, is that – and I’m talking about fiction writing because I think there are very good ways to teach expository writing and argumentation but I’m talking about fiction writing.
And so what I try to teach are the basic essentials of story, that story starts with a character and we do some character development workshops where you actually try and develop an individual character and not just an archetype. It’s not a fuzzy dog or a mean parent but we try and actually think about what that character is like because I think that’s the — for me, that’s the essence of writing is starting with a protagonist that we care about.
So once we develop a protagonist that we care about, then we think about what’s in the way. The story will come from having some obstruction to what that person wants so we start by saying what is it your character wants more than anything in the world, more than anything in the world, so it’s not just I want to stay home from school that day because a lot of the problems that we all have with creating stories, they don’t really matter.
They’re just an adventure. So if you say what does your character want more than anything in the world, my character more than anything in the world wants a dog because her other dog died and she wants to feel the love of a dog, that’s a real – even though it’s a story we’ve all read, it’s real and then you say what’s in the way? What’s preventing her?
Well her parents are moving and they can’t have a dog. Her dad just lost his job and they had to move to an apartment and they don’t allow dogs so then now you have the traditional storytelling of problem resolution but it starts with character. That’s my particular beat on it is you have to have a character that you love, that you care about and know what they’re longing for and what’s in their way and then that will result in your story, in your plot.
Because then you can get to not just what’s in the way but what – so what happens when they try? Well, complications ensue and that becomes a plot. A plot is what happens when you try to do something that you want to do and other things block you. And then you come to a resolution and the resolution comes back to the original question – what does your character want more than anything in the world and what’s in their way?
Well, it doesn’t – they don’t have to get it but it has to resolve. An ending is about a resolution so it can be happy or unhappy or satisfying. It can never be unsatisfying. You know, it has to – even if it’s unhappy, even if the character doesn’t get what they want, it has to satisfy your need to have read that story. So that’s the basic plot structure that I teach.
