A dramatic question is something like, “Is he going to make it?” or, “Is she going to get the man of her dreams?” By putting your protagonist’s fate in doubt, you make the reader ask, What happens next? To create suspense, set up a dramatic question. To further develop your protagonist, use other character archetypes like the villain, the protagonist’s opposite, or the fool, a sidekick character that reveals the protagonist’s softer side. Victor Frankl said, “A human being is a deciding being.” Your protagonist must make a decision to get herself into whatever mess she gets into in your story, and likewise, she must come to a crisis point and decide to get herself out of the mess. The essential ingredient for every protagonist is that they must make decisions. Stories are about protagonists, and if you don’t have a good protagonist, you won’t have a good story. You might have a few clues about where your city is buried beforehand, but you don’t know what it will look like until it’s unearthed.Īll that’s to say, get digging! 2. You are like an archeologist digging an ancient city out of the clay. You can do that once you know you have a story to tell in the first place. If you’re writing a novel, try to write it in one season (three months).ĭon’t worry too much about plotting or outlining beforehand. Write the first draft of your story in as short a time as possible. If you’re writing a short story, try to write it in one sitting. Wait! Need a story idea? We’ve got you covered. I hope it makes writing your story a little easier, but more than that, I hope it challenges you to step deeper into your own exploration of how to write a story. The following ten steps are a distillation of everything I’ve learned about writing a good story. I’ve read books and blog posts on writing, taken classes, asked dozens of authors, and, of course, written stories myself. Since I started The Write Practice a few years ago, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this question, how to write a good story. In this article, you’ll learn ten secrets about how to write a story, and more importantly, how to write a story that’s good.Įverything I Know About How to Write a Story Then, I found out a normal Pixar film takes six years to develop, and most of that time is spent on the story.

I used to wonder how Pixar came out with such great movies, year after year. Writing isn’t easy, and writing a good story is even harder.

Writing a film