The Rule of Six is a list of the six most important types of cuts a film editor should make, according to famed film editor Walter Murch in his book, In the Blink of an Eye. Though written for film editors, his suggestions make sense for novelists too.
A story hinges on the inciting incident—the event that pushes a protagonist outside of her status quo and forces her to move in a new direction. The inciting incident presents a choice: to stay and deal with the new circumstances or to move beyond what’s comfortable to go after what the protagonist really wants, facing new challenges along the way. It really isn’t a choice since it wouldn’t be much of a story if the protagonist stayed where she was. Thus, the inciting incident starts the journey.
The point of any story is to engage the audience or reader. It’s why the hook is so important; it’s the part of the story that grabs the readers’ attention and makes them want to know what happens next. But the ultimate goal is to make your readers’ care about what they are reading or watching.
In this world of quarantine and social distancing, the only escape we have left is story-based. Whether you choose to open a book, lose yourself in a movie, or tackle the latest video game story mode, it is the story that draws us in and lets us forget about our worries for a while.
The past few blogs we’ve focused on complications, tension and raising the stakes. Now we’re going to look at how that plays out by breaking down a fairy tale. We’ll begin with Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
The story typically starts out with the bears discovering their porridge is too hot and deciding to go for a walk, leaving their home unoccupied. I say typically starts out because there are many versions of this tale, each with its own quirks and variances. But let’s work with this opening as the hook. Talking bears who live in a house and eat porridge. Check. I want to read that.
This blog examines the types of stakes you can use to raise tension to its highest levels.
A good place to begin is with some questions:
What happens if the protagonist fails?
What is at stake? Personally? Publicly? Morally?
Why can’t your protagonist just walk away?
Tension is a key element in storytelling. It’s that strain and uncertainty that hooks the reader. What’s making that creaking sound? Will the hero save the world? Can the kidnapped boy escape before the villain returns? Will the heroine ever recover from the spell the witch cast or is she doomed forever?
Putting your characters in peril pulls your reader into the story and makes it interesting. When there’s no tension, stories can feel flat or boring. But how do you add tension to a story?
Exposition is the part that holds stories together, the bit that introduces information the reader needs to know to understand the plot. It’s the detail that cannot be contained within dialogue or action. Exposition is why a story makes sense.
Context is everything in stories and in life. In the last blog, we explored the relationship between context and complication. This time, we’re going to examine the ways to establish context within your story.
There are two ways in which context affects story—the context of the plot (or event, in the case of nonfiction) and the context of character.
Context is the foundation for everything. It colors perception and fact. It changes minds and tugs on emotion. Without context, a story is nothing more than an anecdote floating in space.
Context provides the background, backstory, setting and structure that holds the details of a story together and gives the reader the framework necessary to understand. Without this, the reader cannot know how to feel.
The first part of this two-part series covered the importance of complications and how to test whether the complications you are are adding are within the framework of your story. In this blog, we’re going to look at the different kinds of complications typically found in stories.
There are many ways to add complications in your story. In a romance novel, it might be rival or obstacle that keeps the two main characters apart. In a mystery, it could be a serial killer or a lack of clues. In SciFi, it might be an alien invasion or a dystopian world that oppresses its citizens. The list is limited only by your imagination.
I don’t know many people who don’t lean in when they hear that phrase. “It’s complicated.” Two words that hold the power to intrigue and pique curiosity. They make us click to find out more. They prompt questions and promise a bevy of details. “It’s complicated” might not be a great way to live, but it sure is a good way to tell a story.
Complications make stories. As writers, we understand this. It’s why we cram complications into our stories and keep shoving until our characters can’t take it anymore…and then we add more.