BASIC ELEMENTS OF STORY

EXERCISE: WHAT ARE THE BASIC STORY ELEMENTS TO YOUR IDEA?

Did you come up with an idea you liked during Week 1? If so, take a moment to fill out as much as you can about the basic elements to your story:

1. Who are your Characters? Why is he/she/it compelling?

2. Where does the story take place?

3. What's the problem? Does the character want something? Are they feeling something? What are they experiencing?

4. What's the inciting incident? What kicks off the story?

5. How does the story escalate? What are the events, the things that happen in order to raise the tension in the story?

6. What's the pinnacle point of the story?

7. How is the story resolved?

If you don't have an idea yet, try the post-it exercise in the next section.

If you have an idea but can't answer all these questions, don't worry! These are the creative pieces we need to invent by doing the creative work. A great way of coming up with the solutions is by asking yourself these specific questions. This will put your mind into work and you'll start to come up with the solutions. New ideas and pieces to the puzzle will pop up during the day. Capture them in your journal. Continue with your creative practice and you'll make progress on your story.

HOW TO MAKE AN AWESOME MAIN IDEA

EXERCISE: WHAT'S THE FEELING IN YOUR STORY?

Do you have a strong feeling or emotion to your story? If so, write it down. Describe it. Find reference, photos, movies, music that capture that feeling. All of this will help you generate ideas and shape your story.

If you don't have a strong feeling in your story, here are some things you can do:

1. Revisit memories in your childhood.
2. Watch kids. It's easy to do if you have kids already! Empathize with them. See the world through their eyes.
3. Research on the internet. Try searching in Youtube as well.
4. Try morning journaling. See what feelings come out.

If you have a strong feeling in your story, start collecting reference. When I feel inspired, I like to work as quickly as possible, so I'll download lots of images that capture that feeling. I'll make doodles. Whatever inspires me. Try to make the most of inspiration when it hits you. Capture as much of it as you can.

When my energy runs low, I'll start to organize all the things I've collected. Here, I'll use DROPBOX. I love the cloud because everything is stored in ONE place and EASILY accessible on my phone, tablet, laptop or home desktop.

ORGANIZATION TIPS:

1. Create a folder and title it with the name of your idea
2. Create these folders:

Character Reference
Location Reference
Manuscript
Dummies
Scans

You can add more folders as you need them. I've found that I'm better at organizing when I start early. It's usually a huge pain but with a little structure, it helps a lot in finding things later on.

Here's a screenshot of my folder for "OUT."

The "IT FACTOR"

WHAT'S THE "IT FACTOR" IN YOUR STORY?

There a lot of books that come out every season. You'll want to differentiate your story somehow. You want to make your book extra special. What makes your character, your story unique? What makes it yours- only something you can make? Try not to over think it but feel it. Don't force it. Search for it.

For example, there are a lot of ninja books out on the market now. I didn't know ninja was going to be such a popular theme when I made Ninja! Now looking back, a boy pretending to be a ninja isn't the most original concept. BUT the way I executed the story made it stand out.

The It-Factor for Ninja! was Maxwell as a character. This isn't just any kid. Maxwell is inventive, imaginative and mischievous. The world changes around him when he's in his ninja fantasy. A dragon awakens when Maxwell is in "ninja mode."

You don't have to have the "It-Factor" figured out right now but keep it in the back of your mind. Ruminate on it.

REVISIONS

REVISION CASE STUDY: OUT!

I’d thought I’d share some of the revisions I made while developing "OUT." I'll share the story behind the first dummy in this week's newsletter. Included below, I’ve broken out the major elements of the story. You’ll see what was working and what wasn’t. Hopefully this gives you an idea of how a story can change over the course of development.

Version 1:BREAKOUT

CHARACTERS: Prison animals: A Rhino, an Elephant, an Orangutan and a cast of Penguins
PLACE: Prison
INCITING INCIDENT: Inmates decide to break out and include you (the reader) in the process
ESCALATION: Being caught!
RESOLUTION: You are stuck in prison with the animals because you helped them breakout.
MAIN CONCEPT: Prison animals breaking out and interaction with reader.
IT FACTOR: Goofy characters make for a silly and fun adventure.

REVISION: There were concerns over prison being appropriate for a kids book.

DOWNLOAD BREAKOUT DUMMY

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Version 2: OUT!

CHARACTERS: Baby
PLACE: Nursery
INCITING INCIDENT: The mobile starts speaking to the baby
ESCALATION: The baby escapes in her mind?
RESOLUTION: ?
MAIN CONCEPT: Baby wants out of the crib and escapes with fantasy
IT FACTOR: Another character entertains the baby? I didn't know what it should be but I knew I needed another character.

REVISION: This is a developing idea that had promise but needed a lot more creative work.

DOWNLOAD OUT THUMBNAILS PAGE1
DOWNLOAD OUT THUMBNAILS PAGE2

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Version 3: OUT!

CHARACTERS: Baby + Family Dog.
PLACE: Nursery, study, downstairs, outside & baby's room again.
INCITING INCIDENT: Baby and Dog are separated when Baby is put to sleep.
ESCALATION: Baby escapes crib. Dog is responsible for making sure the baby is safe.
RESOLUTION: After a long night of adventure, dog falls asleep with baby inside the crib.
MAIN CONCEPT: Friendship story between two characters who are similar. They both can't talk and are both put into confinement.
IT FACTOR: A baby and a dog, who doesn't love that?!

DOWNLOAD OUT REVISED DUMMY_2013

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As you can see, there were many more revisions to "OUT" before the story was final. I'll share more revisions with you in the coming weeks.

YOUR REVISIONS

Don't worry about your revisions for now. Just know that your story will probably change through the creative process. We'll start our story workshop in just two weeks!