Every story is its own puzzle that needs to be solved by the writer. There are a countless number of pieces, enough to make up many puzzles, but only the select few of the pieces will fit. The writer needs to explore every avenue for every element and test its placement in the story to find which decisions are the right ones. In every story, however, there are elements that serve the same purpose no matter what, even if they are tailored to your specific story.
At the core of a story, there is a character who faces a dilemma, and has an intention. The dilemma is a choice the character needs to make between two equally unfavourable outcomes, and the intention is the character’s internal plan that drives them to solve their problem. These two are in relation to each other. The dilemma the character faces sets the character’s intention and shapes their actions and choices to solve their problems. Their intention is created by the dilemma, and the dilemma gives their intention purpose.
To sculpt a story full of complexion, think of all ways to make your character’s dilemma as difficult as possible. Don’t settle for easy choices, and make each side of the dilemma complicate the other side as the story unfolds, until the character can no longer sit and ponder about their choice. Time has run out for them, and their most difficult decision has come knocking.
Character flaws are traits that harm the character, whether consciously or not, and can get in the way of their intention. Flaws can be moral, meaning the character is negatively affecting other people, or they can be psychological, which means the character is negatively affecting themselves.
Psychological flaws are found internally, so often times the character can be unaware of its existence, unwilling to acknowledge it, or unable to change. As an example, a flaw could be a character’s addiction to drugs or alcohol. They might know that they are harming themselves, but they are so deep in addiction that they can’t control it. Or another example could be a lie that a character believes. Maybe a character convinces themselves they’ve done nothing wrong to escape the pain of a mistake they made.
Conflict is the heart and soul of a story. It’s important because it causes your character to struggle through their intention and raises the stakes of the story. When there isn’t enough of it, the audience is at risk of losing interest. There are two types of conflict. Internal and external. External conflict is personal between your character and other people, as well as between your character and extra-personal forces (nature, institutions, etc.).
Internal conflict is within the character themselves. This is what sets the character on a journey to heal themselves emotionally which changes who they are on a fundamental level. When a character fights through conflict, it changes them and develops their character. Without conflict, there is no story. The character would have a straight, peaceful path towards their goal, without any dilemma. To continually challenge and develop your character, raise the stakes, and make your story more complex, choose conflicts that make your character struggle with the dilemma, and give your character flaws that disrupt their intention. As you can start to see, this is all starting to connect. Stories can be seen as math. It all adds up.
The story’s climax is everything in your story coming together. This is the most important part of any story. You need to nail it. This critical point is when your character finally fights through their conflicts, hopefully resolves their flaws, and makes their impossible choice with their dilemma. Their choice fundamentally changes who they are, psychologically and emotionally. Their beliefs, the way they act, and how they feel inside has been transformed. They are different from the person from the beginning of the story, and there is no turning back.
The last element is structural. Pacing is the rhythm of your story unfolding. A great story flows through fast and slow-paced sequences, but it can’t feel episodic. If your story feels like a children’s rollercoaster, it’s going to feel predictable and boring; but if you catch the audience off guard, like a sucker punch, it’s going to surprise them every time. You’d think with an analogy like that, they wouldn’t like it, but audiences love being caught off guard, and they can’t get enough of it.
Your story shouldn’t be a constant action ride, nor should it be a calm, slow breeze. Neither of those are bad, but if they aren’t played off each other, you start to reach diminishing returns. Action starts to feel dull if it goes on too long, and people start to get antsy if characters are sitting around talking too much. Find the perfect mix between both. Examine how the rhythm changes when you introduce a certain conflict, expose a character flaw, or complicate their dilemma.