Five Steps to Creating an Irresistible
Novel, Memoir, Screenplay or Short Story!
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… steps that must be taken before writing word one
1
THE WHAT (What would happen if…)
We begin with a simple “what if” — note that this is the only time we’ll be talking about the
surface of the story until we get to the last step, the “when.” The “what if” is a starting point,
and it will change and evolve as we move forward.!
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What does a “what if” look like? How about:!
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“What would happen if the idealistic son of a ruthless Mafia Don vows to leave the family
business?” — “The Godfather”!
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“What would happen if two teenagers fell madly in love and their parents forbade them to ever
see each other again? — “Romeo and Juliet”!
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A “what if” is never neutral. It always revolves around something unexpected that throws a
monkey wrench into someone’s well-laid plans.!
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That’s because the basis of every “what if” question is that something out of the ordinary
happens — think: Surprise! — and the protagonist has no choice but to deal with it.!
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But it’s not just a surprise — because even a surprise can be neutral if, in the end, it doesn’t
have a consequence. So the “surprise” you’re looking for is something that will have a specific
(and often unwanted) consequence on something that the protagonist clearly wants. For
instance, Romeo and Juliet want to get married, have lots of kids, and live happily ever after (I
know, as if! — even under the best of circumstances). But when they learn that their parents are
mortal enemies? Well that sure throws a monkey wrench into their well-laid plans. That’s what
a good “what if” does: It upends something that mattered to the protagonist, and forces him or
her to do something about it.
2
THE WHO
Remember, a story is not about the plot. Story is about how the plot affects the protagonist.
Story is internal, not external.!
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So if your story is only about something that happens externally (think: the plot), it’ll be
uninvolving, because it’ll just be a bunch of things that happen.!
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A huge — and heartbreakingly common — mistake that writers make is that once they’ve
formulated the external “what if” of their story, they begin to write. !
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It doesn’t work out well. Why? Because all stories are character driven. The plot, while crucial,
always comes second.
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And it doesn’t matter what genre you’re writing in, either — literary fiction, potboiler, or
somewhere in between. The events of your story will get their meaning and emotional weight
based on only one thing: how they affect your protagonist, in pursuit of his or her goal.!
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For a more in-depth, detailed discussion of how to put your reader in your protagonist’s skin,
you might want to read my blog post from Writer Unboxed: 6 Ways to Make Sure Your Reader’s
Brain Syncs With Your Protagonist’s Brain — writerunboxed.com/2013/07/11/6-ways-to-makesure-your-readers-brain-syncs-with-your-protagonists-brain/
3
THE WHY (Why will what happens matter to your protagonist?)
Now that you have your “what if” question, and a general idea of who your protagonist is, the
next question is: Why will the events in this story matter to her? This is one of the most
important — and most overlooked — steps to creating a story. It’s where the vast majority of
writers go wrong.!
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Keep in mind that a story is really about how the protagonist changes internally as she navigates
the story question. Well, how she changes is inextricably tied to what the events in the story
mean to her. Which means you need to know that before you begin creating your plot.!
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All protagonists come into the story already wanting something, and with a misbelief that they
must overcome in order to get it. Think of this as the two “preexisting conditions” your
protagonist has that predate the plot. Overcoming (or not overcoming) this misbelief is what the
story is actually about.!
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The writer’s job is to then create a plot geared to force the protagonist toward this specific
internal change. You don’t design a plot by randomly throwing hurdles in her way just to see
what she’ll do, or because the Hero’s Journey tells you to, or because they’re “objectively”
exciting. You choose escalating hurdles specifically designed to force her to take specific chances
that she’d really rather not, in order to get what she wants. That’s what delivers the big payoff
— think: the “aha” moment — at the end.!
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So start by asking: What does your protagonist come into the story already wanting (even if
she’s not aware of it yet?) Why? What misconception, misbelief, or fear will she have to
overcome to get it? Again, why?!
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To be very clear: It’s clearing up this misbelief that your story revolves around. That’s what the
story is actually about — i.e., what the protagonist must learn internally in order to solve the
story problem. This is the story’s third rail, the live wire — the internal quandary/struggle that
every external event must touch on in order to get juice and move the story forward.
4
THE WORLDVIEW (The lens through which your protagonist sees
and evaluates everything that happens)
This is the absolute most important step of all. What we’ve talked about up to this point is the
context — the surface — now, we’re digging down to where the real story lives and breathes.
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Think of it as the “journey to the center of your protagonist’s worldview.” This is the most
crucial of the five elements, the lynchpin that holds everything else together — without it your
story will remain generic, shallow, and uninvolving.!
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And to be very clear, this isn’t her entire “what I believe about everything, ever” worldview. But
her worldview relating to the things that will happen in the story. Think of it as the very specific
lens through which she’ll evaluate the meaning of everything.!
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We know that a story isn’t about the plot, it’s about how the plot affects the protagonist. And
digging even deeper still: A story is not about how the plot affects the protagonist at random, or
affects her on the surface. The plot is constructed to affect her in a specific way, to force her to solve
a particular internal misbelief that’s holding her back.!
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That’s what’s wrong with external story structure models. They deal with the plot as though the
protagonist were a rat set loose in an already constructed maze. Not so. The maze itself is
constructed to put the protagonist to a very specific internal test.!
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I can’t say this strongly enough. So, let me turn to TS Eliot and Proust for help.!
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TS Eliot: “The end of our exploring will be to arrive at where we started, and to know the place
for the first time.”!
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Proust: “The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having
new eyes.”!
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Think about that for a minute. Story is about an inner change. And you can’t construct a plot
that will force your protagonist to earn new eyes unless she begins seeing things through old
eyes. She can’t see something she already knows for the first time (meaning really see it), if you
don’t know how she saw it to begin with.!
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If you don’t know what her specific worldview is going in — and, as important, what created it
— how will you know how she’ll react to anything? Or what things mean to her? Or what it is
you need to construct a plot to force her to realize?!
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The answer is simple: You won’t. Which means that chances are you’ll just write a bunch of
things that happen.!
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Before you write word one, you must craft your character’s backstory. Not, mind you, a birth-todeath encyclopedic bio. That can be as paralyzing as knowing nothing. Here’s the secret: You’re
only looking for information that affects the story you’re telling. If a story is about a problem,
then what you’re looking for is the root of the problem that will kick into gear on page one.
First, you want to pinpoint two things:!
1. The specific event that knocked your protagonist’s worldview out of alignment,
creating the misbelief that drives the inner action. !
2. The event that triggered her desire for the goal itself, which tells us what it really
means to her. !
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Next, the trick is to trace how those two competing forces shaped her life up to the moment
when the story begins. Not trace them in general, but in scene form.!
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If you do this first, your first draft won’t be one of those meandering, romping collections of
things that happen, but the first draft of an actual story. So chances are you won’t have to do as
much rewriting later.!
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And believe it or not, working out a story’s inner logic is the fun part — even if you’re a panster.
You can write like crazy, and not have to worry a whit about how “well” you’re writing. You can
test out myriad scenarios as you can dig deep into how and where your protagonist’s
worldview got skewed. Because you know darn well that from the instant her misbelief took
root, there have been specific signs she’s misread, and facts she’s misinterpreted, things she’s
done that have made achieving her goal that much more difficult. And, voila! You have her “old
eyes.”!
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Here’s the brilliant part: This will give you potent, specific, and revealing grist for the mill, not
only in terms of how your protagonist sees the world, but the specific memories, ideas, and
fantasies she’ll have as she navigates the plot. And, as important, you’ll know the key players
too — the people in her past who, for better or worse, helped facilitate that worldview. Chances
are good they’ll play a part in the novel too, and now you’ll know when and why they’re at
cross-purposes with your protagonist, what they’re hiding from each other, and when they’re
woefully misreading about each other.!
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In other words, you’ll have created the clay from which you can build your story.!
5
THE WHEN (Tick, Tick, Tick)
It’s kind of ironic, but the last step leads us back to the very beginning of the story….!
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The question is, when does your story start? The answer is: At the worst possible moment … for
your protagonist.!
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We know a story is about what happens when the protagonist’s expectations aren’t met, but a
good premise doesn’t just break expectations on any old average day; it tends to throw that
monkey wrench into something that really, really matters to the protagonist at the exact moment
when it can wreak the most havoc.!
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In other words, something specific that’s about to change everything. Something that brings
with it a rapidly approaching deadline. ‘Cause every story needs a ticking clock, something the
protagonist must deal with now, or else.!
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Remember we come to story for something we try to avoid in real life: conflict. Conflict is the
only thing that spurs change — otherwise we wait to deal with those tough choices tomorrow,
which basically translates to a week from never. Stories are about when tomorrow becomes
today.!
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Speaking of which, have you written yet today? Kick “a week from never” to the curb and get
cracking. Here’s to the power of story — yours!
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