Each story has a beginning, a middle and an end. In this section we're going to discuss how every memorable, well-constructed story evolves through each of the three sections of a book. This steady, logical evolution is the basic framework of any strong novel and will form the structure of the formatted outline you'll begin in the next section. This framework is what will make up the invisible, unshakable foundation of your story. If you learn to see this structure in other novels, it will be easier to construct in your own.
DAYS 14-15
The preliminary outline you completed on page 8 stated your novel's basic premise, conflicts and issues that need to be resolved. The plot sketch further detailed these points. Now it's time to complete your story evolution with the help of Worksheet 13. This worksheet is broken down into three parts (beginning, middle and end), so you can take a logical and detailed approach to weaving your plot threads through your book from start to finish.
Keep your plot sketch in mind as you fill out the story evolution worksheet. By the time you complete this worksheet, your plot threads should be firmly enmeshed with the story evolution framework.
Story evolution is a process of brainstorming and therefore it tends to be anything but linear. Work through the story evolution worksheet in whatever way you choose.
The beginning
Plots, subplots, characters, goals and conflicts are introduced at the beginning of a story. Your goal is to pull the reader in with an exciting opening, then begin setting up the basis for the rest of the book. Depending on the length and complexity of your story, the beginning generally amounts to about the first 50 pages.
The start of your story is where you introduce your main characters' attributes and motivations. The qualities you give your characters are what makes the reader care about them. Your characters' behaviour, reactions and introspection, as well as their ever-evolving goals, draw sympathy and interest from the reader. The main characters in your story don't have to be the moral equivalent of Snow White, either. Even character flaws and sins can draw the reader's sympathy.
Don't be afraid to get inside your characters – revealing their most heinous thoughts and secrets along with their most noble ones – in order to create compassion in your readers. It's important to think about your characters' conflicts, motivations, intentions and weaknesses right from the start. As the outlining process grows more intense, your insights into your characters will deepen, and your finished manuscript will be much the better for it.
Conflict
Your reader needs to be assured from your very first sentence that something suspenseful and exciting is happening or about to happen. Conflict is the root of everything exciting and suspenseful in your story.
Conflict can be internal or external. Each of your main characters should have internal conflicts – opposing desires, beliefs or motivations. External conflict can (and should) occur between characters, but characters can conflict with other things as well (such as fate). A solid plot gives all main characters (including the villain) internal and external conflicts.
Be sure to lay the groundwork for conflict in the beginning section of your outline.
Keep the following tips in mind when building opportunities for action and suspense into the beginning of your story:
1 Keep the reader on edge with baffling contrasts in characters, setting and dialogue. If you put two seemingly opposed characters in play together, you'll intrigue your readers and they will stick around to figure out why.
2 Take advantage of pacing, especially as you move toward and through the middle of your story. Don't rush in to pick up the story threads. Keep the reader guessing.
Draw out scenes involving rescues and explanations. Offer the reader unsatisfactory alternatives to problems. Alternate suspense and action within your outline, even if just by giving yourself stage directions for accomplishing this.
3 Carefully construct mood by using description, dialogue, introspection and action.
4 Use foreshadowing. Foreshadowing shouldn't answer the crucial questions of a story but, instead, create possibilities or uncertainties that will evoke mild or extreme tension in the reader.
Conflict, suspense and motivation will be the driving forces behind your story. Lay the groundwork for them in your outline, and they will reach their full potential in your story.
Now that we've reviewed the fundamentals of writing a good beginning, let's discuss the first section of the story evolution worksheet:
1 Conflict is introduced
Most writers have been advised to begin each story with a bang. There's a good reason for that. You want to hook your reader as early as possible. Detail here what will happen in your first scene, and briefly describe how the conflict you introduce at this point will dominate your story through each section. Also, hint at looming conflicts. As your beginning progresses, you'll want to fully introduce the villain.
2 Story goal is introduced
The story goal is your dominant plot thread. You will introduce it at the beginning of the book. Review your plot sketch worksheet from your preliminary outline (Worksheet 4), then describe the story goal and how it will push your story forward through each section.
3 Characters are outfitted for their tasks
The character sketches you have created as part of your preliminary outline will help you continue to think about who your main characters are and how they're involved in achieving the story's goal.
Your characters should be designed with the resolution of the story goal in mind. They should have strengths they themselves aren't aware of at the beginning of the story – strengths that evolve steadily throughout the course of the book as the characters face adversity.
They also should have internal and/or external weaknesses that hinder their progress. Detail these things in this section.
As you think about the first 50 or so pages that set up the premise of your book, continue to expand on the three points we've just covered. These points will help you come up with everything you need to keep your audience reading voraciously.
The middle
If you haven't already, review the plot sketch worksheet (Worksheet 4) you began while creating your preliminary outline. The middle is usually the largest portion of any book. In this section, plots, subplots and conflicts work together to create a tug-of-war between the story goal and the opposition. Essentially, the action in the middle section of a book revolves around the main characters confronting the opposition, though most of the time this opposition is hidden from or unseen by the lead characters.
Your main characters must grow throughout this section of the book. Therefore, each of the events that take place within this section will require multiple scenes to work in and work out. In other words, you will be planning multiple scenes for each pull in the tug-of-war between your main characters and their opposition. The longer your book, the more complex this tug-of-war will be.
Here's how the story evolution worksheet can help you to plan out the middle of your book:
1 Characters design short-term goals to reach the story goal
For each main character, introduce short-term goals that will assist that character in reaching the story goal. Give a brief description of each goal and how each character is attempting to reach it. Use your plot sketch (Worksheet 4) as a springboard for this section.
2 Quest to reach the story goal begins
In this section the characters put their first short-term goals into action. Sketch out what they go through during this time.
3 First short-term goals are thwarted
The first short-term goal proves impossible. What events take place to make this failure come about?
4 Characters react with disappointment
Characters react differently to disappointment, and these reactions show the kind of people they are. Provide insight into each major character's reactions.
5 Stakes of the conflict are raised
Giving up the quest to reach the story goal is never really an option, though the characters may wish they could. In every exciting story with worthy heroes, something always happens to make it impossible to concede defeat. Inevitably, the stakes are raised and a new danger is introduced. Detail the new danger and its effect on all subplots.
6 Characters react to the conflict
In this section describe each main character's initial reaction to the new danger or problem.
7 Characters revise old or design new short-term goals
Though the initial reaction to the danger is usually one that's far from calm and logical, this must be a temporary reaction. Eventually, each main character will need to devise a new short-term goal to lead him/her closer to reaching the story goal. Briefly describe each character's plan of action.
8 Quest to reach the story goal is continued
The characters put their new short-term goals in action. In this section, sketch out what they go through during this time.
9 Short-term goals are again thwarted
The new short-term goals prove as impossible as the first. What events took place to make this failure come about?
10 Characters react with disappointment
Character reactions will run the gamut here, but each character will be tiring of the battle a little more each time he/she fails.
11 Stakes of the conflict are raised
Remember that each time something happens, it must create ever more dire consequences if the characters don't act quickly.
12 Characters react to the conflict
Show marked growth in the characters. Make the readers empathise with them. At this stage you can repeat steps 7-10 as many times as necessary to accommodate your story's length and complexity. Steps 11 and 12 aren't repeated here because the cycle becomes more dramatic with each repetition, thus allowing the last half of the middle portion of your book to be even tenser and your characters more desperate.
13 Downtime begins
The last section of the middle portion of the story begins with the downtime, which precedes the black moment. Your characters are coming to feel they have nothing left to hold on to. Detail these feelings.
14 Characters revise old or design new short-term goals
Your characters are going to make their next decisions out of sheer desperation. From this point on, they seem to lose much of their confidence – or, worse, they're feeling a reckless sense of bravado that may have tragic consequences. What are their new goals and how do they plan to reach them?
15 The quest to reach the story goal continues, but instability abounds
Though your characters are ploughing ahead bravely, each step is taken with deep uncertainty. How does this action unfold?
16 The black moment begins
The worst possible failure has now come to pass. The short-term goals made in desperation are thwarted, and the stakes are raised to fever pitch as the worst of all possible conflicts is unveiled. Describe it in detail.
17 The characters react to the black moment
Characters react to this major conflict with a sense of finality. Never will there be a moment when the outcome is more in question than in this concluding section of the middle of the book.
The end
At the end of a book, all plots, subplots and conflicts are resolved. In the last few chapters, the characters are finally given a well-deserved break from their recent crisis. Here's how it takes shape through the story evolution worksheet:
1 A pivotal, life-changing event occurs Something crucial must happen in the first part of the end section – something that will change the lives of the characters irrevocably.
2 Characters modify short-term goals one last time
Whatever the life-altering experience the characters face, the desperation that drove them only a few chapters earlier is completely gone. They've never had such clarity of purpose as they do at this moment, and they revise their goals with the kind of determination that convinces the reader they can't possibly fail.
3 The showdown begins
The main characters and opposition come face to face. It's in these moments of confrontation that the main characters move to accomplish the story goal.
4 The opposition is vanquished and the conflict ends
You know the showdown that follows the moment of clarity very well.
5 The story goal is achieved
That which all the characters have been striving for has come to pass and this will affect everything. Detail the consequences of victory.
6 Characters react to the resolution of the plot and subplots
In this section, release is given to the characters who have worked so hard to achieve the story goal. Describe their reactions.
7 Characters revise their life goals
At this point the main characters have learned what they're capable of. Now their life goals are revised.
8 Possible re-emergence of the conflict or opposition
At the end of a book it's possible for the conflict or opposition to re-emerge – just when you and the characters thought it was safe.
Using a story evolution worksheet to plot the course of your story helps you to:
(1) see a snapshot of the highlights of your story; (2) pinpoint with accuracy precisely where potential problems are within the story; (3) make the weak areas of your story more solid; (4) avoid sagging, uninteresting middles; and (5) avoid repetition in your stories.
Once you've learned to see the framework of a story, you'll never look at a book the same way again. What was invisible has become visible, even stark. As an author yourself, you now hold the key to creating the strongest framework for your novels.
