Elements Of A Successful Story
by Crawford Kilian
If
your novel or short story is going to work, it's going to need all the
right components. Used without imagination or sensitivity, those
elements may produce only formula fiction. But, like a good cook with
the right materials and a good recipe, you can also create some pleasant
surprises.
Many writers, like many good cooks, don't need to
think consciously about what they're throwing in the pot. But as an
apprentice you should probably think about how your story matches up
with the following suggestions. They all have to do, essentially, with
bringing your characters and readers from a state of ignorance to a
state of awareness: Can our heroine find happiness as a journalist? We
don't know, but we'll find out. Can our hero found a family dynasty in
the Nevada wilderness? We don't know, but we'll find out.
In the opening...
Show
us your main characters, or at least foreshadow them: We might see your
heroine's mother getting married, for example. Or we might see a crime
committed which will bring in your hero to investigate.
Show one
or more characters under some kind of appropriate stress. For example,
if the hero must perform well under enemy fire in the climax, show him
being shot at in Chapter One--and performing badly. If the heroine must
resist temptation at the end, show her (or someone else) succumbing to
temptation in the beginning.
Show us who's the ``good guy,''
who's the ``bad guy.'' That is, in whom should we make an emotional
investment? Whose side are we on? Even if the hero is morally repugnant
(a hired killer, for example), he should display some trait or attitude
we can admire and identify with. The villain can be likable but set on a
course we must disapprove.
Show what's at stake. Editors and
readers want to know this right away. (That's why the blurb on the
jacket usually tells us: ``Only one person can save the West/defend the
Galactic Empire/defeat the vampires...'')What does the hero stand to
gain or lose? What will follow if the villain wins?
Establish the setting--where and when the story takes place.
Establish
the area of conflict . If the setting is the Nanaimo coal mines at the
turn of the century, the area of conflict may be relations between
miners and owners, or within a family of miners, or within a single
miner's personality.
Foreshadow the ending. If the hero dies in a blizzard at the end, a few flakes of snow may fall in the first chapter.
Set the tone of the story: solemn or excited, humorous or tragic.
In the body of the story...
Tell
your story in scenes, not in exposition. A scene contains a purpose, an
obstacle or conflict, and a resolution that tells us something new
about the characters and their circumstances.
Develop your
characters through action and dialogue. Show us, don't tell us, what's
going on and why (not He was loud and rude, but ``Get outa my way, you
jerk!'' he bellowed.).
Include all the elements you need for your
conclusion. If everything depends on killing the victim with a shotgun,
show us the shotgun long before it goes off.
Give your
characters adequate motivation for their actions and words. Drama is
people doing amazing things for very good reasons. Melodrama is people
doing amazing things for bad or nonexistent reasons.
Develop the
plot as a series of increasingly serious problems. (The heroine escapes
the villain in Chapter 5 by fleeing into the snowy mountains; now in
Chapter 6 she risks death in an avalanche.) Establish suspense by making
solution of the problems uncertain (How will the heroine escape the
avalanche and avoid freezing to death in Chapter Seven?).
Make solutions of the problems appropriate to the characters (Good thing she took Outward Bound training in Chapter One).
In the conclusion...
Present
a final, crucial conflict when everything gained so far is in danger
and could be lost by a single word or deed: this is the climax, which
reveals something to your readers (and perhaps to your characters) which
has been implicit from the outset but not obvious or predictable.
Throughout
the story...Remember that nothing in a story happens at random . Why is
the heroine's name Sophia? Why is she blind? Why is her dog a black
Lab? The easy answer is that you're the God of your novel and that's the
way you want things. But if you have a conscious reason for these
elements, the story gains in interest because it carries more meaning:
For example, ``Sophia'' means ``wisdom'' and the name can provide a cue
to the reader.
Use image, metaphor and simile with a conscious purpose, not just because a phrase ``sounds good.''
Maintain consistent style, tone, and point of view.
Know
the conventions of the form you're working in, and break them only when
you have a good reason to. For example, if it's conventional for the
private eye to be an aggressive, hard-drinking single man, you're going
to shake up the reader if your private eye is a yogurt-loving, shy
mother of three school-age children. You'll shake up the reader even
more if she goes around pistol-whipping people; as a private eye, her
behavior will still depend on her personality and limitations.
Except from "Advice on Novel Writing by Crawford Kilian."
Also See:
- A Writer's Guide to Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction and Fantasy
- Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
About the Author
To learn more about him at Wikipedia.
Crawford Kilian Books at Amazon
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