Case Study: When Your Concept is Also a Paradox
Some concepts can end up being too much to handle.
The more layered and complicated, the greater the upside if handled brilliantly, and the deeper the abyss when it’s not. Trouble is, some writers aren’t aware that they’re already tumbling into a black void.
Such concepts — it’s good to recognize them as such, and if you’re ready to tackle something challenging, begin the inevitable wrestling match — can be the Big Ticket story you are looking for. But like a beautiful and brilliant blind date set up with a simpleton, if you can’t keep up you’ll end up dumped after the appetizer.
This story offers a meaty proposition, with a deeply layered and conflicted hero.
But the writer is straddling the edge of the precipice between harnessing it and tumbling headfirst into the inherent paradox of it. See what you think. Let’s help this writer wrestle this one to the ground.
By the way, the courageous author of this story asked me to clarify that English is not his native language, nor is it the one he’ll use to write the novel. That said, he does a great job on that front, you’ll hardly know this to be true. He was totally up for this and is anxious to hear your thoughts. He’s already eagerly engaged in a significant revision based on my input… but it’s not to late to contribute to the process.
What to look for?
No matter how complex the concept, the benchmarks of an effective story always remain clear and consistent. Messing with those benchmarks is not the way to make the story work, even if you claim the genre of “literary” to perhaps license liberties taken with the basic physics of storytelling.
We need a hero with a problem and/or an opportunity. We need a reason to invest in it on an emotional level, something we can relate to. We need something specific to root for, as well as feel. We need conflict and tension, a confrontation between what the hero wants and does, and what opposes him or her on that path, something more than “inner demons” (which are useful when they influence that the hero DOES about the problem he/she faces… rather than simply documenting how those demons feel along the way). And most of all — because this will make us care and root — we need to understand what is at stake for both sides of confrontation.
A good story is not a documentary of a situation. A good story takes us on a journey with the hero toward resolution through confrontation, action, courage, cleverness, risk taking and the conquering of both interior and exterior antagonists.
Those are the balls that remain up in the air in this case study.
You can read it here: Conceptual Paradox Case Study.
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If you’d like your story bones dissected and held up to the (not always) harsh light of analysis, click HERE for the $95 Concept/Premise/FPP level, or HERE for the $195 Full Story Plan level.
Based on what your story is worth to you and the time and sweat you’ve put into it, it’s one of the best values available in the realm of story coaching, anywhere. References available that echo that claim.
Case Study: When Your Concept is Also a Paradox is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com
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