Crafting your novel means putting together a literary jigsaw puzzle so readers see the picture you want them to see.
At its heart, story development is the method you use to review and analyze the core of your story and how well you’ve executed the requirements of storytelling to carry your reader through the narrative. The big picture of your story must be properly developed for reading comprehension and reader satisfaction.
When done well, a thorough developmental revision helps you nail key storytelling basics to keep your readers immersed, invested, and turning pages. Regardless of genre, tropes, and intended audiences, every novel you pick up has three things in common: structure, character, and plot.
You can tackle story development revisions on your own by looking at each of the big-picture components and understanding how they work together.
Story Structure Is Foundational
Story structure is the framework around your literary jigsaw puzzle — the order into which you organize the events in your story — whether you use the three-act structure, the hero’s journey, or something else, and every novel has a basic structure. Through structure, you lead your reader along the narrative from beginning to middle to end. Without structure, you run the risk of wandering and losing reader interest, which is exactly the thing you don’t want if you’re trying to sell stories.
Remember: Readers need you to answer the question you posed in the beginning of the story to feel completion fulfillment at the end.
- If the world is the thing you care about the most and your protagonist travels to a strange land, sees all the interesting things, and is transformed by the peculiar world, your story must be driven by place. The narrative begins when your protagonist enters the place, conflicts arise when your protagonist tries to leave, and the story ends when your protagonist either leaves or chooses to stay.
- If your story is about learning new information, it is an idea story driven by questions or a mystery. Your story begins when a character has a question, conflicts occur when they cannot answer the question, and the story ends when the protagonist finally has the answer (even if they don’t like the answer).
- A character story is centered around the transformation of the character’s role within their community and typically focuses on who your protagonist is rather than what they do. The story is driven by angst and starts with a shift in identity. Conflicts arise to keep the protagonist from changing, and the story ends when the protagonist solidifies their self-definition.
- If you’ve written a story about a life-changing event or a series of events where the narrative is driven by action, your story begins when the world has been disrupted or is otherwise in a state of disorder, conflicts keep the protagonist from restoring order, and the story ends when either a new status quo is reached or the previous status quo is restored.
Now, if you start your story with an idea but end your story with character identity development without getting around to solving the original mystery, you’ve lost your reader and have likely guaranteed yourself a not-so-great review of your work.
When planning or revising for structure, look at the flow of information. Who knows what? When do they learn (or reveal their knowledge)? Do the pace and rhythm match the flow? Does the question or situation posed at the beginning of the story get answered or resolved by the end?
A Story Can’t Exist Without Characters
In context, I’m talking about the main character or characters most important to your story. To be important, your protagonist must have three things separate from general character development (via dialogue, thought, and action and via appearances and interpretation): a want, a goal, and a need.
Your character must want something they don’t have yet, be it a promotion, a date, peace of mind, or something else. And to secure their want, the protagonist will have a goal. The goal is the thing your protagonist works toward to get the thing they want and helps create the plot of your novel.
The protagonist’s need?
The need is a handy little device you will use to hinder your protagonist’s progress toward their goal, and the need works double time as the lesson your protagonist must learn. The need is often but not always a hidden trauma or personality trait that, when addressed, repaired, or developed helps the protagonist realize their true power in whatever shape that takes for your story.
If your character wants a big raise at work, their goal may be to create an out-of-the-park presentation for investors. Their need, though, may not be cash at all but the recognition that comes from a job well done. The pursuit of accolades hinders their progress as they end up clout-chasing rather than focusing on doing good work.
If your character wants to get married, their goal may be to go on a date every day until they meet that love-at-first-sight romantic interest, the one that makes them hear wedding bells when they step into the room. The character’s need, though, may be learning to love themselves rather than seeking external validation through romance. And once your character learns to love themselves, well they may find marriage no longer holds such an appeal.
When planning or revising for structure, take a look at your characters, especially your main character. Are you able to infer from the words alone what your character wants and what they’ve set as a goal to get it? Can you glean from context what the character truly needs? How does their need hinder their progress along the way? Do they get what they want at the end? Do they get what they need?
The Plot Is Where and How Stuff Happens
The plot of your story is the sequence of events within the greater narrative, and it’s a great cause-and-consequence organization of what happens to (because of or in spite of) the character and what they do to the world, usually presented in chronological order.
Whether you’re writing a tragedy, a comedy, or another genre, every story has a plot of some kind, even if the plot feels loosey-goosey. Without a plot, there’s nothing for your character to do, nothing for them to learn, and nowhere for them to grow.
Now, you may be saying to yourself, “But Fal, I read To The Lighthouse, which has almost no plot at all. I mean, the characters literally just plan to go to a lighthouse.” You’re absolutely right. But even novels like To The Lighthouse still have a basic plot, though it is secondary to philosophical introspection, which is the real purpose of the work. But I digress…
Story plot provides the premise on which you will write your novel’s blurb, that whet-the-appetite paragraph on the back cover or inside flap. And you must deliver on the premise of the story or risk losing your readers.
So what are the basics of plot?
- Setup: a look at the state of normalcy for your protagonist, your status quo. Without knowing what “normal” looks like, readers won’t understand or care about the need for change.
- Turning point 1: the first event your protagonist encounters and the one that catapults them into the story. This will be a big change for your protagonist, something that challenges their general trajectory and forces them to move in a new direction. Make sure it’s big enough to accomplish such a feat.
- Call to action: derived from your inciting incident or turning point 1, your protagonist must make their first choice. Regardless of when it happens, the character’s choice should be an active one, something they do, rather than something done to them.
- Exploration: the rollercoaster ride of the new world after accepting the call to action, the trajectory of which is dependent upon the climax (we’ll get there in a few). If your climax is a high point, show the low. If the climax is a low point, show the high.
- Turning point 2: the midpoint of your story where your character will reach their highest or lowest point thus far, but this is usually a (big) falsification and often comes with an unexpected twist, the reveal of new information which changes the context of their journey. After all, readers still have the back half of the story to read.
- Opposing moment: Depending on the midpoint of your story, your protagonist will likely experience a dip or a peak. If your midpoint is high, bring your protagonist crashing down. If the midpoint is low, give your protagonist time to start looking up. Let your protagonist come to a conclusion based on everything they know and have learned up to this point.
- Turning point 3: your protagonist makes a second major choice, clears their head, and makes a plan for success. Now, this is typically the kind of plan that is difficult to carry out. But keep in mind, your protagonist is at a time when they have little to lose and potentially everything to gain. At this point, all information the protagonist needs to know should be revealed to them, even if they don’t quite understand how to solve the problem and build a new understanding . . . yet.
- Climax: the finale, the moment when the story crests to a close, for better or worse. This could be the protagonist’s long-awaited battle scene (hello, King Koopa) or a more personal moment of realization of a long-awaited truth (Stella, meet Groove). During the finale, your protagonist learns that big lesson borne of their need, so they can defeat the boss (or not) and return home or build a new home.
Now, your plot can be as basic as “they planned to go to a lighthouse and then they went” or as involved as Frodo’s journey to Mordor, fraught with giant spiders and sea monsters, but the plot must relate to both your protagonist’s goal and their want and ultimately lead them to what they need.
Pull Together the Big Picture
When developing your story, look at structure, character, and plot as your three basic big-picture elements, and these elements are interrelated; they make up the frame of your jigsaw puzzle. While there are a lot of other considerations, such as world building, pacing, and tone, getting the big picture right will give you the creative freedom and flexibility to experiment with the other stuff.
When planning or revising for the big picture, ask yourself:
- What is the main message or lesson you wish to share with your readers?
- What needs to happen in the beginning, middle, and end to show the message?
- How does that message inform each of the character’s experiences and related plot events?
- What methods will you use to best show the reader how the message or lesson works in real time?
If you need a little more, revisit the article on how to make sense of the self-edit for some extra nuggets.
Happy writing!
♥ Fal
P.S. Want me to cover a specific topic? Tell me about it in the comments. When I write the article, I’ll credit you for the subject matter.
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Fallon Clark is the book pal who helps you tell your story in your words and voice using editorial, coaching, writing, and project management expertise for revision assistance, one-on-one guidance, and ghostwriting for development. Her writing has been published in Flash Fiction Magazine. Check out her website, FallonClark.com, or connect with her on LinkedIn or Substack.