Four Elements of The Perfect Story

Complete Characters

People (myself included), often make the mistake of saying that you need “relatable” characters. Being able to see yourself in a character is VITAL to enjoying a good story… that said, you don’t have to be a serial killer to appreciate Hannibal Lecter – you just have to be able to understand him.

Hannibal’s brilliant mind (in Red Dragon especially, but also in the film Silence of the Lambs), leads him to make horrible conclusions on society as a whole, and to do horrible things… but given his past and the way his mind works, we can understand how he functions. The scary thing about him comes when we see parts of our own mindset wrapped up inside him.

He is well-crafted. He is complete.

Structure

In screenplays, there exists a perfectly defined pre-determined structure. The average screenplay is about 110 pages (this has changed over time, but is basically universally agreed upon). It contains a beginning of about 27 pages, a middle of about 56 pages and an end of about 27 pages.

Well, in novels, it isn’t that simple. That said, books without structure are obvious to almost everyone. Characters often find themselves stumbling across things - purely by chance - that resolve difficult plotlines. They go pages and pages without doing anything ultimately relevant to the book.

Note: On the subject of relevance, let’s say the main character breaks her car and then fixes it… well, if it had never broken, we would be left exactly we are. Or, let’s say they get lost in the woods and find their way out… if they hadn’t gotten lost, again, we would be left where we are.

The structure is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING when it comes to your readers completing your story or book. It is the guiding light. When we put down our book and think, “I wonder if Jimmy will be able to tell Sally how he feels”, that is the structure keeping us involved. Something should always be left unresolved until the final pages. At any given moment, we should be able to put down the book, and be in the middle of something that needs to be resolved.

Surprise!

The structure is the guiding leash that pulls us along. That said, if Frodo must destroy the ring of power, and everything goes as planned, we have an incredibly boring story. He sneaks in without trouble, plops the ring in the fire, and everyone is saved. Hurray!

…

Except the path is too direct. When things are too easy, it’s hard for us to get invested in the wonderful characters that exist, or in the beautiful theme that is laid out before us. We need to have our emotions toyed with. We need the possibility of failure. We need Surprise.

Don’t imagine that surprise is the opposite of structure. It is NOT. Surprise allows you to shift your story (See Story at the bottom of the Theme section). This means, new things happen. New opportunities present themselves. Still, the overall structure remains.

Imagine that you’ve created a maze for your readers. The maze leads to a wonderful, riveting conclusion that you’ve had planned for quite some time. Your structure is the maze as a whole. When you introduce surprise, you are simply shifting a wall in the maze; your character can no longer go the way that your reader imagined... but that’s okay because, when you shift a wall, another way opens. Regardless of how many walls you shift, eventually, the path will lead to the center.

Theme

Hansel and Gretel shouldn’t have gone into a stranger’s house. That is why they’re eaten.  That’s the theme of the story. That’s why it exists. That’s what the story, at its core, is about.

This doesn’t mean that the perfect story must always have a MORAL (though there is nothing inherently wrong with a moral). It does, however, need a message. It is quite likely that ALL of your favorite books have a message. Good books that seemingly have no message, typically have an atypical message; eg. “There’s no meaning to the universe. Everything is random and pointless.”

Don’t confuse STORY and THEME.

Your story is what happens: Hansel and Gretel leave a trail of breadcrumbs. The birds eat the breadcrumbs and they get lost. They see a house of candy. A woman invites them inside. She turns out to be a witch. They get eaten.

The Theme is WHY the story exists.

You should always have a general theme in your mind when writing a book – even on page one.

Two Types Of Stories

There are many types of stories, and many different genres for stories to fit into… yet, as long-time readers of my blog know, I’m not a huge fan of writing for a genre. Genre writing can feel like a cage, and I want to write what I feel without worrying if the science fiction, fantasy or romance communities will accept my book when I’m done. That said, there are two distinctions among story types that I DO find immensely helpful. For those looking to begin a new work, simply knowing which of the two you want it to be can help guide your writing forward.

--The Idea Story--

An idea story, simply, is a story that is centered around a premise. It is the classic “what if” story.

What if a man who was raised in the jungle is brought into civilized society?

Tarzan/George of the Jungle

What if a travel journalist winds up on an island where every inhabitant is just an inch tall?

Gulliver’s Travels

What if a man creates a living being from the parts of dead people?

Frankenstein

What if a completely normal boy finds out that he is an important figure in another world, and is brought to a school of witchcraft and wizardry?

Harry Potter

One can often begin these kinds of stories without a clear character in mind. The circumstances of the plot will drive the person forward - and that allows us to figure out their personalities based on how they respond to the various stimuli around them. As the story progresses, their individuality begins to shine through.

If we can identify something as an idea story, that doesn’t mean it can’t contain good characters. It only means that the scenario of the story is the thing that initially brings readers into the story. Wouldn’t you want to see how a military assassin might get on, completely out of place, in a small town in Mississippi? Why not?

--The Character Story--

Character stories are important because of their insight into human psychology. They thrive when we, the readers, see mirrors of our own inner joys and sorrows. They are also extremely hard to explain as “what if” stories.

If you were forced to describe Catcher in the Rye as a “what if” story, how might you go about it?

Perhaps: "What if, after being expelled, a boy decides that, instead of coming home, he would like to meander around a town, smoking and drinking as he ponders the complexities of human existence?"

It becomes painfully obvious when phrased like this, that this kind of story has no innate goal.

Tarzan must conquer his inner animal so he can conquer Jane’s heart. Harry Potter must survive in a completely different world, despite the fact that evil beings constantly seek his destruction. What must Holden Caulfield do? Really, he has two choices - both of them deceptively simple. The first is to remain away from his family. The second is to face his parents and his sister Phoebe.

The storyline of Catcher in the Rye doesn’t depend on any kind of action. It lies in Holden’s ability to come to terms with himself - to either fully convince himself that his way of living is just, or accept his failures as his own and move on.

Here are a few character stories for your consideration:

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Ulysses by James Joyce

There are, of course, events that happen in character stories that move the plot forward - but they are oftentimes more abstract. The Great Gatsby for example, really only has three direct plot points: when Gatsby and Daisy meet again for the first time, when Daisy hits someone with Gatsby’s car and when Gatsby is murdered.

Everything else is emotional drama - such as when we, the readers, find out that Daisy Buchanan lied about her relationship with Tom Buchanan, and that, despite everything she’s said, she still loves him. In this moment, the plot has not directly moved forward. Gatsby’s actions have not changed. He still stands by Daisy - and yet, our emotions HAVE changed. We feel for Gatsby when he hears this news. We weep for the beautiful man that, despite everything, still only wants to make Daisy’s life better.

--A Brief Note on Hybrids--

There are no hybrids. Yes, there are idea stories that have complex characters, but there is a fundamental difference between these two types of stories. They are opposites in a way. My novel, Tiny Instruments, takes place in a complex Sci-Fi world, but human weakness and strength is what moves the plot forward. There are occasionally driving forces in the plot (as there are in any plot), but the focus always returns to the mind of Timothy Cottard and his own inability to understand humanity (and whether or not he is a part of it). Lord of the Rings is an idea story. Despite complex characters, it is the need to stop Sauron and destroy the ring of power that gives value to everything the characters do.

--Why it Matters--

Knowing what kind of story you have allows you to figure out WHAT TO FOCUS ON in your writing.

If I were going to write the opening chapters of a book about Jamangi, the board game that forces people to play and risk their lives until it’s over, I would give only the most rudimentary character information. Just enough to get a sense of who this person is - and then I would go bring in the board game. Even if I only give 4 pages of setup before I introduce the game, that’s probably just fine. I would set up the events to bring out the different sides of the characters.

If I were going to write a book that focuses on the tendency of people to undervalue their family, I would create a character and put her in a situation that allows her to figure those tendencies out for herself, and hopefully, to overcome them.

So... which type is your story?

On Story Focus

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

-E.L. Doctorow

Consider the following segment:

Jack shot an angry look at Jessica. Suddenly, he blamed her for ruining his life. Seeing her looking so smug after saying something so hurtful made him want to slap her… but he wasn’t that type of man. Instead, he took his anger out on the vase - her grandmother’s vase, something that he knew was valuable to her. She could see him moving for it, but he was too quick. Before either of them knew it, it was shattered, and there was no going back.

What’s wrong here? The scene I’ve written doesn’t lack for emotional drama. The events are interesting, and they connect in a way that makes sense… Most people, when asked what is wrong with this scene will say essentially the same thing: “I just wasn’t able to connect to it.” A lot of readers will cite the situation, saying that a man capable of such cruelty is not a character that they can easily relate to… perhaps, but the root cause of this feeling of disconnection is something more subtle.

It’s about story focus. I realized while working with a client recently that there is one piece of advice I give above all others. Chances are, if you’ve worked with me at some point in the past, you’ve probably heard me say it at least once. Avoid having your story become a collection of events.

There are several ways you can accomplish this. One way is to shift how you confer information to the reader. Simply describing something is great when it comes to informing the reader, but it lacks emotional depth. Jack felt blood rush to his clenched fists is far stronger than Jack was angry.

Another way to make a scene more exciting is to bring out our other senses. Most writers never get beyond what a character feels and what he or she sees, but those are only two of our senses. You should make it a common practice in your writing to look for ways to add in the others.

An even more important thing to remember is that the goal of a story is to communicate something (or many things). In The Great Gatsby, for example, it is to show the corrupt, consumerist nature of America, and to show that modern people live their lives in a way that tramples on the best souls among us.

So, if the goal of a story is to show something, why should it be any different in a scene? What am I trying to communicate in the earlier scene? Is the point that Jack felt hurt and wanted to lash out at Jessica? Absolutely not. That is simply what happened. The point of a scene shouldn’t be to show the events themselves. If it is, it lacks the story focus that we as readers constantly need to put our trust in the author. We have a need, at all times, to know that the author is going somewhere.

Here is the same scene written again. This time, the point is to make us get a sense of Jack’s inner struggle between his desire to treat women respectfully, and his seething hatred of his wife--

Jack tried to calm himself. He wanted so badly to love his wife again the way he once did… but something in Jessica’s eyes - her complete lack of remorse - pushed him over the edge. Every curve that he once loved, every crevice that he once kissed, disgusted him now. Standing there with that sickening smirk on her face, he saw the cause of every bit of pain he’d felt those last seventeen years.

“You bitch!” he shouted, stepping forward.

She wasn’t smirking then… he felt powerful. For once, he felt like he was in control. He raised his hand in the air, ready to strike… But as he did, he felt sick. It wasn’t because he thought she didn’t deserve it. Christ almighty, she deserved much worse! But he couldn’t let himself become that type of man. After spotting her grandmother’s vase, he switched his target. She read his intentions in a moment, but it was too late. Before she had time to say a word, the shards of that once beautiful piece of pottery lined the hardwood floor. The pieces mimicked the remnants of their relationship. There was nothing left for either of them anymore but pain.

...

You can’t accomplish something if you don’t know what you’re supposed to accomplish. View your scenes like building a house. You may know what you want your house (your story) to look like - and that’s fantastic - but you have to use solid bricks to get there.

Writing Prompt

Write 50-100 words on exactly what you want to show in your piece, and then write it out in 500 words. Remember the advice of E.L. Doctorow, and be sure to incorporate multiple senses!