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Elements Of A Successful Story

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.

1. 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.

2. 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).

3. 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.

4. 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.