WEP CHALLENGE FOR FEBRUARY 2022!
All You Need Is Love and Conflict
By Jamie Dorner
"I'm not a writer. A short story of at least five hundred words? It may as well be a million words!" She shook her head.
"Have you tried? I can help you, but I need you to at least try. Give me one sentence," replied Dianna's friend, the New York Time's best-selling author.
"I don't know. 'He walked through the door.' How's that?"
The author nodded. "Actually, it's good. It's a strong sentence. Can you tell me why he walked through the door? And, most importantly, can you tell me why I should care? Five hundred words is only a few minutes of my life. When I ask readers to stick around for ninety-thousand words, that's hours of their time. They need a reason to care."
She blinked several times at her friend. "Oh. I guess that makes sense."
"We want stories to matter to us. To teach us something, to move us, to relate to our experiences so we feel less alone. We're entertained most when our brains light up with a connection to the characters in some way. That's why I say it's a good sentence. Your audience has probably walked through a door before."
"Yeah. But who wants to think about that?"
"That's your job. To make the reader want to think about walking through the door. For it to be interesting. And while you're thinking about why he walked through a door, and why the reader cares, you may as well break down the rest. Who is he? What does he look like? Young, old, rich, poor, handsome, plain, long hair, bald… Is he someone who helps people in need, or does he fire people on the eve of a holiday?"
"Wow. I don't know. You really got all that from one sentence?"
The author smiled. "Oh, there's more. Walked is a good verb. But what if he crawled, marched, or skipped? Those all change the tone. And then there's the door itself. This could be a science fiction story if the door is described a certain way. Or if he's actually walking through a portal, then you can have a portal fantasy. Maybe it's a gateway to another realm. Or it's the door on the house of his true love. Or the door of his childhood home, but now his parents are dead."
"That's dark. I like the one with the door of his true love."
"Great. Did he knock first? Does he know this is the door of the house where his true love lives? Does he live there? Does he have a key? How does she feel about him?"
"And, let me guess, next you'll ask why the reader should care? Love isn't enough?"
The author winked. "You're getting the idea. The notion that all you need is love doesn't work in stories. There has to also be a conflict, some kind of event, so a character has something to overcome. Love doesn't have to be the conflict, in fact, it can be the solution. But something has to happen, and the reader has to care."
"It's that easy?'
"And it's that hard. For example, if you were a character, the conflict you're experiencing is a need to write a five-hundred-word story. My role is to inspire you with my love of the writing craft. Or my conflict is that, instead of writing my own story, I'm helping you start yours. That would make you my antagonist and this is a person-versus-person narrative. In order to achieve my goal, I have to teach you enough that you'll change from complaining about writing to actually writing. Has my love of transforming a simple sentence into a series of questions inspired you to start your story?"
She laughed. "I think so. Except I'm changing he to she. That way I can be the character and walk through your door."
FCA 645 words
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