writermag.com http://www.writermag.com/Articles/2012/04/5 ways into a story.aspx

5 ways into a storyWhere do we get our stories? How do we start with the first flicker of an image, or a string of words, ora What if?, and turn those ephemera into a fully realized universe that we, and our readers, can enter?This article will explore five ways into a storycharacter, voice, situation, image and messageandthe advantages and challenges of each approach, from chasing those initial and often elusive thoughts,to understanding their role in the developing story, and then using what seems to be working well to finda natural end. The steps are numbered, but I recommend starting with the section that interests youmost.1. Find the character. All roads lead to character. No matter how plot-driven and action-packed youenvision your story to be, readers wont stick around without a sense of connection to at least one ofyour characters.The advantage: When you start with a character, you can find inspiration everywhere, in the never-ending parade of passing faces and bodies and movements, the way strangers reveal themselves juststanding in line at the grocery store. Characters may also be inspired by people you actually know. But Ithink some of the best potential for a new character comes from observing people you dont knowmore room for the imagination to take over.The fact that a character can speak, or at least think, means you can ask her anything: What is yourpast? What are your circumstances now? Who was the first person to break your heart? What is yourdeepest secret? Im not advocating for knowing the entire history of a character before you write oneline, but if youre fascinated by a character and yet struggling to find the story, these kinds of questionscan lead you there.The challenge: Sometimes you get so engaged with writing about a characterbehavior, physicaltraits, memories, etc.that you end up with a character study, not a story.When this happens, take heart. Very likely the material youve written so far has helped reveal to youwhat this characters current concerns are, and these will drive the story. But dont try to shoehorn abunch of background into a story just because you cant bear to part with it.Instead, consider turning to a fresh page, or a new document on your screen, and writing (or rewriting)the most significant moment of the story in a scene. Dont worry about where this moment needs to goin the story, or how youll get to itthe act of writing it will show you the possibilities. If there are severalsignificant moments, write them as well, and dont worry about how theyll fit together. E.L. Doctorowsaid, Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but youcan make the whole trip that way. This approach probably works for short stories, too.2. Listen to voice. It may seem strange to talk about a characters voice independently of thecharacter itself, but Im just going on my own experience as to what can trigger a story for me. Often itmay be just a few words overheard (yes, Im a champion eavesdropperyouve been warned). Ormaybe a story someone told me, or a memory that has not crossed my mind in years, or a news item,and then a phrase threads into my mind and I cant let it go. I dont know anything beyond the words, so Ihave to ask: Who is saying (or thinking) this? And why? These first words, and the desire tounderstand their significance, will drive me to write my way to an answer.The advantage: As with potential characters, voice is everywhereall you have to do is listen. I have

never actually stolen an overheard conversation (or one Ive actually participated in) for a story, but Ihave gotten a lot of mileage out of listening closely to the natural rhythms of conversation. Listening tohow people talknot just what they sayis the best way to discover a characters voice.Voice has to do with the finessing of languagethe choice and order of words, the way they arepronounced. Voice can take you a long way into a story. And that is where the potential difficulty lies.The challenge: Just because youve nailed the low-country cadence of your character doesnt meanshe has something interesting to say. You might think if you just focus on how she talks and thinks, thestory will follow. But voice is just one way to access characteraction has to do the hard work ofrevealing it. The living, breathing character shows herself through what she does, not just how she talks.If you feel youre losing momentum because your character is all talk and no walk, put your character ina situation.3. Get into a situation. Think of situation as a precursor to plot. In writing workshops, students oftenget confused when they talk about plot. They think of plot as a freestanding structure into whichcharacters can be inserted. What theyre really talking about is a situation, not plot, as plot develops outof the particular motivations of characters who find themselves in a situation.A situation is about what can happen, while a plot is about why it happens. This idea is presented verywell in On Writing Short Stories, edited by Tom Bailey, a book I love to teach from. He references E.M.Forsters Aspects of the Novel in his essay Character, Plot, Setting and Time: Forster writes thatThe king died and the queen died is a story, whereas the king died and the queen died of grief [is] aplot. The difference is ... that in a story we say and then? and in a plot we ask why? Students initially also find this distinction confusing, because weve come to think of story as theproduct of our efforts. So I ask them to substitute situation for story and then it makes more sense. Asituation is about events happening in a certain time and place. A plot is what links those eventsbeyond their chronology, developing out of the motivations of the characters involved.The advantage: Questions like What if some kids go into a wardrobe and find another world? orHow do I get readers to sympathize with a man who is unfaithful to his wife and shirks theconsequences? will lead you to a situation. You might feel as if youre setting up a problem or anequation to solveyou start with considering the central concerns of your story rather than trying to findthem. The solution to the problem leads you to an ending.Think of Chekhovs gun on the wall: If youve put it there in Act One, it has to fire by Act Three. Theunfaithful husband I just mentioned was my main character in The Music You Never Hear, and in thatstory, he makes love with his dying wifes 19-year-old caretaker as his wife lies in the next room. Theyoung woman is poor and black; he is white and older and respected in the 1950s Southern communitywhere they liveon opposite sides of town, of course. The encounter produces a sona secret he willsuccessfully keep, but not without unexpected costs.I cared about Ned, Dobi, and the son they produced. The question I started with was whether otherreaders would sympathize with Ned, in spite of his cowardice. And I knew I had to answer it: Anysympathy would come not from his redemption, but from his realization that in trying to be good withinthe confines of his life, he had failed himself and his son. The question, or problem, showed me whatwas required of the ending.The challenge: For those of you who always start with character or voice, a situational entry pointmight feel awkward or inauthentic. You might feel that youre moving puppets around rather thanpeople. If thats the case, go back to those interview questions that help you gain a betterunderstanding of your characters. You might find that the material you generate will also bring greaterdepth to the situation you started with.

For those who tend to be more readily engaged by situations, the challenge is in giving your charactersthe room to move around on their own, even surprise you, rather than trying to shoehorn them into apredetermined path.4. Follow the image. A few years ago, I had a nightmare: I was a child swimming with my father in alake, and he was a few feet away from me, paddling along on his back. Then it seemed I was seeinghim from above, and I saw that a huge snake had wrapped itself around him. I woke up with a screamfighting its way out of my throat.At the time, I was concerned about my fathers health, and the dream was a natural extension of that.But those images wouldnt leave methe idyllic moment followed by horror. I began to write from thepoint of view of a character who had had this dream. I didnt know anything except that she was female,and younger than I was. I focused first on letting her describe the images. In the process, questionspresented themselves to me: Does she have siblings? What is her relationship with her father? Whatabout her mother? And what ultimately happens to the father? I discovered that she was an only child, adevoted daughter, and she was grievingand from these realizations, eventually came a publishedstory I called Lowells Lines.The advantage: Image doesnt constrain you to a character immediately, and yet, image is powerful.Kodak has about the most perceptive tagline in the history of the world on this matter: A picture isworth a thousand words. The way image is observed and described can carry huge significance in astory. If a character is away from home and standing outside one night, looking up at the stars, and thesky looks differentthe stars are brighter, or barely visible, or a favorite constellation cant be foundthese details carry meaning, and lead us to greater understanding of the central concerns of the story.The challenge: Image isnt the story. Vivid and even resonant description, just as with perfectlyrendered voice, cant stand alone. For those with visual minds, the desire to convey what is seen in thewriters mind can crowd out the action that readers care about. There may be an impulse to describeeverything, whether it has significance to the main character or not. It might be hard to simply say alamp on a small table, because you want the reader to see the Queen Anne table that you see. But ithas to matter to the character for you to go furtherhe or she should reasonably be able to identify thetable as a Queen Anne. If not, youve let your desire for detail overwhelm that characters knowledgeand priorities.5. Send a message. People have gotten the idea over time that art shouldnt serve the base aims ofsending a message. There is that famous Samuel Goldwyn quote, If you have a message, send atelegramor these days, maybe an e-mail.But Orwell did message pretty well with 1984. In Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life,Anne Lamott talks about the moral point of view, suggesting we should allow, and perhaps evenencourage, our deepest beliefs to inform those of our characters. Francine Prose takes the oppositeposition in Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want toWrite Them. She quotes Chekhov: To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be asobjective as a chemist. Written like a true doctor.So what to do? Try starting with message anyway. Any way into a story is fair game.The advantage: When you start with a purpose, you have a built-in guide for picking and choosingwhat is necessary to include. Once, a good friend told me about the pregnant daughter of a woman sheknew. The girl was 13. I have two young daughters, and I exploded on the phone. Who allowed this tohappen to her? I yelled. She has been raped! Are they pressing charges? My friend was shocked bythe ferocity of my reaction, as was I. And I knew that I had to write about how I feltthat our societysexualizes girls from their earliest years, and that even with laws against sex with minors, many people

still think that if the sex is consensual it isnt exactly rape.I went through many revisions before my story, which had initially been fueled by rage, was finallyfinished. I dont know if the purpose that originally drove me to write comes through in the story at all, butit did its most important work simply by getting me to write.The challenge: There is greater risk in starting with message, because in trying to serve your purposeyou might end up with a soapbox, rather than a story. When Lamott and Prose talk about the role ofmessage in story, I agree with them both simultaneously. It may be that Lamott has more power overme in my first frenzied drafts. And Prose takes over when its time to revise, to make cool-headeddecisions about what is working and what isnt. Your primary aim should be to make a good story. Buta message can get you started.I hope these different steps have given you a broader range of entry points into stories than youvepreviously considered. They may not be the only ways story ideas might present themselves to you, butthey are the main triggers for me. All of them will have done their work by the time a story feels finished.But youll start with a single thing that opens a door into a room that you have to both invent anddiscover.

5 ways into a story