WHAT

this is what will make the bulk of your story.

WHAT is what makes your story a story. Without asking WHAT, what you're writing is a dictionary, a texbook, or a restaurant menu. Without WHAT, you're not even writing a story.

WHAT comes after the characters and before the plot. what WHAT consists of is three things. THEY ARE NOT simply beginning, middle, and end.

1) WHAT is your character doing and when is he doing it. This is where you introduce the initial problem that the character wil eventually overcome. You establish setting and ease in some minor details about the character's background and/where he is.

2) WHAT is your character doing to solve the problem. This is where you introduce the rival force (whatever or whoever is keeping your character from solving the problem), maybe it's an a*****e accountant, an evil alien race, or hostile elves. Whatever your story may be about, this makes the bulk of it. You'll probably introduce supporting characters, maybe develop a few subplots.  

3) WHAT did/does your character do to solve the problem. This is the climax, where all past endeavors come to a point, all subplots and main plots collide to form the final event in which your character faces the problem and solves it. Then you can have a happy ending, the horribly bad ending, or my personal favorite, the ending that raises an unanswerable question.

If you ask yourself these questions when you write your story, it will help you stay focus on the task the main character needs to accomplish and will allow you to sort of keep the flow/pace of it in check.

Comments

Mary Steffen

Posted 10 Years Ago I could not find the chapter of when or where of the previous chapter! So I skipped over to this one. I would fill in the blanks and I will look at this chapter again for reference.

Dylan1994

Posted 10 Years Ago For some reason, clicking on where says the following "We couldn't find this account" and it won't let me view it.

Andre Lamy

Posted 12 Years Ago I'm like nancy S i just write what comes to my mind and then go back to fill in the blanks. i usually write the actions and basic dialogue then go back and beef it up.

spiritwind

Posted 12 Years Ago very good

Sammie0014

Posted 12 Years Ago "Hostile Elves" :') I just love that!

Catonia06

Posted 14 Years Ago I think I've tried to run before I could walk :/ This made me realize I really need to check my setting an awful lot...

Paradoxical

Posted 14 Years Ago that... actually helps me. plus it made me laugh. "an evil alien race..."

Nancy S.

Posted 14 Years Ago hmmmm, love the unanswerable question, but love a happy ending, too. I agree with all of this, and in fact, it's not as easy as it looks here in your nicely condensed wording. I lay out this ground work now, but when I first began writing, I would write by the seat of my pants first and then go back during the proofread to find the answers to the questions. I also find that this is so important, not only for the story, but for marketing the story if you want to get published. hey, how about a class on query letters for your work, and synopses... they are even harder than writing the book!! I'm enjoying the lessons. thanks.