Writer's Workshop: A Simple Four-Part Story Model · 2:03pm Apr 18th, 2016
Quick update for you guys. I've been crazy busy recently, but I thought I'd share a simple model I created for one of my clients that can help you understand how stories work. It's a quick little thing that looks like this:
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the solution?
3. At the start of the story, why can't the characters do the solution?
4. At the end of the story, why can the characters do the solution?
It's as easy as that. The whole point of a story is to show us how characters learn and change over the course of it. This model shows that, whether it's a Change or a Steadfast story. So for example, when I wrote "Twilight's Star," I basically tried to fit it into this model, with the following answers:
1. The problem is that Rarity keeps fighting to figure out a cure, when
2. The solution is to slow down, listen to Twilight, and let her recover on her own.
3. Rarity can't slow down because she feels like she needs to be on top of things. She has to have all the answers.
4. At the end, she realizes just how little that's helped and how badly Twilight needs her.
So... there you go. That's that. Knowing this, whenever I write a scene, it either needs to demonstrate 3 (that Rarity hasn't figured out the solution yet) or 4 (that Rarity's starting to figure it out). Now let's look at a Steadfast story. (Spoilers for Saturday's episode.)
1. The problem is neither Spike nor Ember can get the staff alone.
2. The solution is for the two of them to work together to get through the challenges.
3. At the start, Ember thinks she has to follow the rules and expectations of her people.
4. Ember eventually realizes that she can still be strong and be Spike's friend; in fact, she can't be strong without it.
Spike may be the Main Character, but he stays Steadfast and teaches Ember the lesson. It's Ember who learns the magic of friendship from Spike, and ultimately, that's what helps her prove her strength to her father.
All right, one last twist to the formula. Suppose the story ends with Failure instead of Success. In that case, we need to reverse the formula.
3*. At the start of the story, why can the characters do the solution?
4*. At the end of the story, why can't the characters do the solution anymore?
So let's look at another one of my stories, "The Queen Beckons."
1. Twilight's problem is that she feels rejected by Celestia. She wants to feel loved by somepony.
2. The solution is to do Selene's bidding and free her from the moon. Then she'll have earned Selene's love.
3*. At the start, Twilight keeps a single-minded focus on solving the problems in front of her.
4*. At the end, she realizes all the heartache's she's caused, crumbling her resolve to keep working.
See why this is a Failure? Ultimately, Twilight decides not to finish her plan to free Selene because she's changed. Here's another one, this time where the Main Character stays Steadfast:
1. The problem of "Ticket Master" is that Twilight can't decide which friend deserves her extra ticket because each appeals to her emotions.
2. The solution would be to sit down, think logically, and pick the best reason.
3*. At the start, Twilight's friends pressure her to make a decision. As long as they kept the pressure on, she'd eventually crack.
4*. When they see how much stress they're putting her through, they take the pressure off and decide the ticket isn't worth her suffering.
Again, it's clear why this ends up being a Failure. Twilight never picks a friend because they change instead of her. Because they let off of her right when she's at her breaking point, nopony gets a ticket. (Until they all do, but shut up, I'm making a point.) This ends up being a Good thing, but that's why I explained the difference between Good/Bad and Failure/Success in Less than a Tragedy.
Anyways, I hope this has been helpful to you. Can you describe your own story in this four-part model? Or have you forgotten to make your plot follow naturally from the change in your characters?
Ooh! This is good!
I will have to apply these questions to my new story when I get to writing today.
There's a sequence used in much of the MLP episodes that goes roughly like this:
1) Twilight perceives a problem
2) Twilight attempts to solve the perceived problem and fails.
3) Twilight learns either:
3a) That was not a problem in the first place
3b) That was a different problem
4) Problem is resolved, lesson is learned, end credits.
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Yup, this is a pretty common story structure. I call it the "Monkey's Paw" formula. (I really need to start my "Formula Breakers" series sometime.) It's also kind of what I was talking about in How Characters are Blind. So long as the characters think they're solving a different problem, or if they're solving a problem but with the wrong method, they won't make any progress. It's only when they change gears and try something new will they fix what's wrong.