In, Out and Up

 
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If you find yourself struggling with where to go next in your story, after that initial rush of idea and enthusiasm, here are three directions to consider.  (I’ve learned this tip from Robert McKee in his book, STORY.)

  1. Outward. Lots of stories begin small. An intimate scene, involving one or two characters or just the main character going about their day. This is a useful way to start, allowing us to get to know the person with whom we will spend much of the story. But as events unfold and the protagonist begins to act upon desire, pull back the camera (in your imagination) to consider the greater world around. Whatever your protagonist does has an effect on the people around. And if it doesn’t, it should! The next good story idea may well come when you imagine how another character’s life is being disturbed or touched by the actions of the protagonist, and the action that other character might take in response (positive or negative). Depending on what type of story you are telling, this widening of the circle can stretch to family members, neighbours on a street, colleagues in a workplace, a whole town, a country, even the world. Spread the effect gradually and keep it spreading, as widely as is appropriate, and this way you will be sure not to miss any important and potentially inspiring turning points in the story.

  2. Inward.  There are some stories, however, where a widening outward into the larger world isn’t  logical or relevant, and works against the plot. In this case the only direction to go is deep, and by deep I mean in. Because of the inciting incident (positive or negative) that has unbalanced the life of your protagonist, a solution needs to be found. At first this problem might seem fairly easily overcome, but as the story progresses, your job as the storyteller is to push harder inward - emotionally, psychologically, physically, morally - until the reader gets to the buried stuff. The dark secrets, the hidden truths (hidden even to the protagonist), the triggers. You can achieve this by driving the actions and their effects right into the centre of the characters’ intimate relationships and inner lives, their worst fears and strongest desires. Their weak spots, what they can’t bear to lose. Increase the pressure, force the toughest moral dilemmas by threatening what they most love. Dive in. 

  3. Upward. A final direction to ponder when developing your story lies in the more abstract area of symbols and imagery. Consciously or unconsciously, you will have started your story with certain locations, objects, and characters that initially represent only themselves. As the story progresses, the meaning of these aspects can be lifted from the particular to the universal, from the specific to the archetypal. This will happen naturally as you revisit these aspects and they begin to accrue meaning. For instance, the first time you show me a particular woman begging on a street, she is purely herself – something a character has happened to notice in passing, perhaps. But should the writer continue to turn my eye toward a myriad cast of indigent people, in a number of locations, this archetype soon becomes a symbol for the state of the universe, greater than the specific world of this one story. In this way you can expand your story’s relevance to a wider meaning and consequently, perhaps, a wider audience.