Take Off Your Pants!

Simply put, a story is a character arc—a personality making a progression from an emotional or psychological Point A to an emotional or psychological Point B. Story is all about internal growth, not external events. It’s a character’s struggle to shed old behaviors or beliefs that have held him back from becoming his “true self”—the person he was a

In the overall story, your character has his external goal. In this chapter, he has a more immediate, less motivating, but still important goal. He believes (and maybe he’s right) that by achieving his in-chapter goal, he’ll get one step closer to achieving his external goal. In each scene within each chapter, he has an even more immediate, but sti

The inciting event is almost always closely tied to your character’s external goal.

They’re vying to determine the main character’s fate—whether he remains cursed or not. The external goal is control over the main character’s reality.

In order for a flaw to feel compelling, it has to provide an obvious obstacle to your character’s growth. It has to hold him back in some meaningful way, keeping him trapped in an uncomfortable state.

Who wants the same external goal, but can reveal an opposite or cautionary aspect to the protagonist and to the reader? Whose different approach to attaining the same goal will serve as an “alternate reality” to your main character and to the reader?

The kind of theme I’m talking about is simply a unifying concept. What outlook on the world, or on human behavior, are you trying to explore?

soemthing

Story itself is a particular thing—a very specific something that we recognize by instinct.