II. The Struggle
Now that you know who your character is and what problem he or she is faced with, it’s time to escalate things. Why is this problem difficult for your character and how will they tackle it? Let’s go back to our examples.
Basketball boy:
Our hero needs an A and he has no friends who are good enough at math to help him. Maybe one of his friends wants to cheat, but our hero can’t risk getting caught. The only person he can think to ask for help is: his ex girlfriend or his older sister who is mad at him for teasing her and her friends or his friend whom his ex girlfriend is dating or a girl he likes but is shy around…you get the picture. He needs to pick someone to ask for help that escalates the problem a bit for him. If his mom just so happens to be a math teacher and he asks her for help, that’s boring and not much of a story. Always escalate the conflict.
Lizard girl:
Our girl needs to earn money to buy a new lizard cage. Maybe she could offer to babysit for a neighbor, mow grandma’s lawn, walk her teacher’s dog, deliver newspapers for her friend who can’t do the route that day. And what if each time she tries to earn money, she is faced with a need greater than her own. While babysitting, she sees that the single mother of three is struggling to get by and volunteers to babysit for free. Grandma is family and taking money for something she’s always done out of love feels wrong. Her teacher’s dog gets loose and almost gets hit by a car, so guilt keeps her from accepting money for this job. And her friend is saving up to help pay her little brother’s hospital bills so she donated her pay to the cause. Now she’s done tons of work and hasn’t earned a dime!
Tagger boy:
Our hero is out with his tagging friends and they pile out of the car to tackle a new project. Torn between his two goals of making friends and not painting graffiti, he gets out of the car. One of his friends throws him a can of paint. They egg him on. They need to be fast. Hurry! He gives in and helps paint the wall.
In the next post, we’ll talk about how to end the story.
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