Plot

The plot is the dramatic question that drives the reader through the book. The readers want to know the answers to these dramatic questions.

Take Lord of the Rings, for example. One dramatic question really driving the story forward is, does Frodo (or even the Fellowship) successfully destroy the One Ring in the fires from which it came? Or in the Twilight books. Readers want to know what is going to happen with the big love triangle going on.

As a writer, it is critical to have that dramatic question in mind with each story. And with these dramatic questions, come three possible answers:

1. Yes (Frodo and the Fellowship successfully destroy the ring).
2. No (Frodo and the Fellowship fail, and the evil Sauron prevails).
3. Maybe (Frodo and the Fellowship succeed, but there is ambiguity to what the definite outcome is).

Stories are about what happens next--asking that dramatic question.

So, in more detail, what do these dramatic questions look like? Here is a sequence of dramatic questions that authors would do well to keep in mind as they write.

• What is it that my character wants?
• Conscious desires v. unconscious desires
• What keeps my character from getting it? What are the obstacles?
• What will my character do/risk/attempt to get it?
• After this, everything falls to the consequences--so, what is the fallout from the choice? What are the consequences?

The dramatic question is not about the meaning of the story. The meaning can come later. Don't focus on the meaning, at first; otherwise, the story can become didactic. Your characters are no longer characters; rather, your characters become walking ideas.