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Developing Your Theme

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Steps 58 – 61

Developing Your Theme

~ Step 58 ~

Counterpoint

For every human quality, there is the opposite quality.  For example, greed is balanced    by generosity, denial is balanced by acceptance, and living in fantasy is balanced    by remaining grounded in fact.

What is the counterpoint to the message issue you selected?  List it and write a    brief description of how it is opposite to your message issue.

~ Step 59 ~

Counterpoint Illustrations

The Main Character will usually only exhibit the thematic topic, not the counterpoint,    as the story’s message revolves around whether the main character changes his ways    or not.

In contrast, the counterpoint must be equally represented through your other characters    to avoid making a one-sided moral argument.  It is the comparison between the two    that develops a thematic conflict that holds your readers’ interest.

For this step, list as many scenarios as you can easily devise in which other characters    employ the counterpoint quality.  Later, we’ll work them into a balanced thematic    argument.

~ Step 60 ~

Thematic Conclusion

At the end of the story, there is usually one moment at which the author makes his    or her own statement about which is the better side of the thematic conflict.

This moment should not be an attempt to prove which is better, as the proof has been    already created by the balance between them in the ongoing examples over the course    of the story.  Rather, this is the time the author confirms the conclusions the audience    has drawn for itself by showing how those characters who favored one side of the    conflict ultimately fare against the characters who favored the other.

Referring to your story synopsis and what you have developed already for your theme,    devise an event or situation for the end of your story that will provide a conclusion    to the thematic conflict by confirming whether the message or counterpoint came out    on top.

~ Step 61 ~

Revised Synopsis

Time to blend your enhanced thematic argument into your evolving novel.  For this    step, revise your existing story synopsis to incorporate the material you have recently    developed for your counterpoint and thematic conclusion.

 

 

Protagonist Personal

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Step 49

Protagonist Personal

Characters have dramatic functions, but the reader or audience needs to identify with them as real people.  A necessary but difficult task is to intertwine the personal and structural aspects of each character so that they blend seamlessly together and become interdependent in a unified person.

For your protagonist, what personal qualities or previous experiences have led them to become a protagonist in this particular story, the Prime Mover in the effort to achieve the goal?  Conversely, if your character by nature is wishy-washy, how does that affect their efforts when called upon by story circumstances to function as a protagonist?

By integrating all aspects of a character together, it will seem to be driven by real motivations, enacted in a truly human manner.

To further refine your protagonist, refer to the material you developed for that character including personal goal and moral issue.  If your protagonist is also your Main Character, consider what you developed there as well.

For this step, write a brief description of your protagonist’s overall nature, incorporating all of this material.

 

Identifying Your Antagonist

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Step 48

Identifying Your Antagonist

While the protagonist attempts to accomplish the goal, the antagonist seeks to thwart that effort, either preventing the achievement or by achieving it himself.

These efforts have nothing to do with whether the antagonist is a good guy or a bad guy. 　For example, in most James Bond films, the Villain is the protagonist, for it is he who initiates a plan, thereby driving the plot. 　Structurally, James Bond himself is an antagonist, since he tries to return things to the status quo.

So, who we cheer for and our moral prerogatives are really not involved in this choice.

Referring to your cast of characters, your plot synopsis and the refinement of your protagonist you wrote in the last step, pick one of your existing characters as your antagonist and describe how he, she, or it is focused on preventing the protagonist from achieving the story goal.

In the off chance that none of your characters can easily fulfill the role of antagonist, return to the character development steps and create a new character specifically for this task.

 

Does your plot end in Success or Failure?

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Step 44

Success or Failure?

A story without a clear indication of success or failure is a failure of a story.  You need to work out exactly how your readers will know the goal is achieved or not.

This might seem obvious in an action story, but may be much more difficult in a story about character growth.

Success and Failure don’t have to be binary choices; they can be matters of degree.  For example, the effort to bring back a treasure may fail, but the adventurers discover one large ruby that fell into their pack.  Or, someone seeking true love might find love but with someone who is rather annoying.

Whether either of these examples is a partial success or a partial failure depends largely on how you portray the characters’ attitudes to the imperfect achievement.

In this step, state whether your story ends in success or failure, and how that is measured.

Story Consequences

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Step 43

Story Consequences

A goal is what the characters chase, but what chases the characters?  The consequence doubles the dramatic tension in a story by providing a negative result if the goal is not achieved.

Consequences may be emotional or logistic, but the more intense they are, the greater the tension.  Often it provides greater depth if there are emotional consequences when there is an external goal, and external consequences if there is an emotional goal.

Your novel might be about avoiding the consequences or it might begin with the consequences already in place, and the goal is intended to end them.

If the consequences are intense enough, it can help provide motivation for characters that have no specific personal goals.

In this step, describe the consequences that will occur if the characters in your story fail to achieve the story’s goal.

Plot Requirements

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Step 42

Plot Requirements

The success or failure in achieving the goal is an important but short moment at the end of the story.  So how is interest maintained over the course of the story?  By the progress of the quest toward the goal.  This progress is measured by how many of the requirements have been met and how many remain.

Requirements can be logistic, such as needing to obtain five lost rubies that fit in the idol and unlock the door to the treasure.  Or, they can be passionate, such as needing to perform  enough selfless acts to win the heart of the princess.

The important thing is that the requirements are clear enough to be easily understood and measurable enough to be “marked off the list” as the story progresses.

In this step, list the requirements that need to be met in order for the story’s overall goal to be achieved.

Characters’ Personal Goals

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Step 41

Characters’ Personal Goals

Personal Goals are the motivating reasons your characters care about and/or participate in the effort to achieve or prevent the overall goal.  In other words, they see the main story goal as a means to an end, not as an end itself.

Although a personal goal for each character is not absolutely essential, at some point your readers are going to wonder what is driving each character to brave the trials and obstacles.  If you haven’t supplied a believable motivation, it will stand out as a story hole.

Referring to the descriptions you wrote about what your story would be like if told through the eyes of each of your characters and about their personal issues, describe what each of your characters might have for a personal goal that would lead them to participate in the effort to achieve the central story goal.

Developing Your Story’s Goal

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Step 40

Developing Your Story’s Goal

Some novice writers become so wrapped up in interesting events and bits of action that they forget to have a central unifying goal that gives purpose to all the other events that take place. This creates a plot without a core.

But determining your story’s goal can be difficult, especially if your story is character oriented, and not really about a Grand Quest.

For example, in the movie “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” all the characters are struggling with their relationships and not working toward an apparent common purpose. There is a goal, however, and it is to find happiness in a relationship.

This type of goal is called a “Collective Goal” since it is not about trying to achieve the same thing, but the same kind of thing.

So don’t try to force some external, singular purpose on your story if it isn’t appropriate. But do find the common purpose in which all your characters share a critical interest.

Referring to your story synopsis, have you included a Goal in which all the characters are involved?

If so, describe it below in as much detail as readily comes to mind.

If not, consider your subject matter and the activities in which your characters engage. What singular achievement would affect them all for better or worse?

Your Unique Genre

Write Your Novel Step By Step (shadow)Your Unique Genre

(Steps 32-35)

In these steps you’ll identify as many genres as you can that have elements you’d like to include in your novel. You’ll list these elements and then draw upon them to fashion a unique genre for your story that reflects familiar aspects of overused genre formulas yet creates an individual identity and feel for your novel.

Read Steps 32-35