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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Lisa Cron
Do you know why your protagonist wants what he wants? What does achieving his goal mean to him, specifically?
What specific goal does his desire catapult him toward? Beware of simply shoving him into a generic “bad situation” just to see what he will do. Remember, achieving his goal must fulfill a longstanding need or desire—and force him to face a deep-seated fear in the process.
What does achieving her external goal mean to her?
is her internal goal at odds with her external goal?
Does your protagonist’s goal force her to face a specific longstanding problem or fear?
Stories often begin at just that moment, as one of the protagonist’s long-held beliefs is about to be called into question. Sometimes that belief is what stands between her and something she really wants. Sometimes it’s what’s keeping her from doing the right thing. Sometimes it’s what she has to confront to get out of a bad situation before it’s too late.
The events relentlessly cajole and coax her to reexamine her past, which often looks—and feels—very different in retrospect.
The best place to start is by pinpointing the moment long before, when she first fell prey to the inner issue that’s been skewing her worldview ever since.
when writing your protagonist’s bio, the goal is to pinpoint two things: the event in his past that knocked his worldview out of alignment, triggering the internal issue that keeps him from achieving his goal; and the inception of his desire for the goal itself.
write short bios for every major character,
because it’s specific, the reader figures that chances are it’s something she’ll try to overcome
It can’t be the same place by coincidence—that is, because the plot needs it to happen. What we’re looking for is a story reason that pulls them to the same place, at the same time.
standing on the shore of “before,” staring into the distance, trying to make out the shape of “after.” The story will chart the path in between.
you do need to know what the protagonist will have to learn along the way—that is, what her “aha!” moment will be.
Do you know why your story begins when it does? What clock has started ticking? What is forcing your protagonist to take action, whether she wants to or not?
Have you uncovered the roots of your protagonist’s specific fears and desires? Do you know what her inner issue is? Can you trace it all back to specific events in her past? Do you know how her inner issue then thwarted her desire right up to the moment the story begins?
characters need to react to everything that happens for a specific reason we can grasp in the moment.
the story isn’t in what happens; it’s in how your characters react to it.
the battle between fear and desire.
One way to tell if what the protagonist wants in the beginning is her genuine goal is to ask yourself: will she have to face her biggest fear, and so resolve her inner issue, to achieve said goal? If the answer is no, then guess what—it’s a false goal.
the protagonist is only as strong as the antagonist forces her to be.
it’s difficult to maintain suspense in the face of a foregone conclusion. Even a smidgeon of “maybe” goes a very long way.
Withholding Information Very Often Robs the Story of What Really Hooks Readers
There must have been a pattern of specific “hints” or “tells” along the way, alerting us that all was not as it seems, which the new twist now illuminates and explains. 2. These “hints” and “tells” need to stand out (and make sense) in their own right before the reveal.
What does holding back this information gain me, story-wise? How does it make the story better?
more often than not it’s the very information the writer’s withholding that would make us care.
Have you established the “versus” so that the reader is aware of the specific rock and hard place the protagonist is wedged between? Can we anticipate how he will have to change in order to get what he wants?
Does the conflict force the protagonist to take action, whether it’s to rationalize it away or actually change? Imagine what you would want to avoid if you were your protagonist—and then make her face it.
To create a story the reader will care about, the narrative must follow an emotional cause-and-effect trajectory from the outset.
sure each individual scene effectively uses its specific “action, reaction, decision” to evoke maximum tension and to up the odds.
Does this scene impart a crucial piece of information, without which some future scene won’t make sense? • Does it have a clear cause the reader can see (even if the “real reason” it happened will be revealed later)? • Does it provide insight into why the characters acted as they did? • Does it raise the reader’s expectation of specific, imminent action?
If I cut it out, would anything that happens afterward change?
Does everything in your story’s cause-and-effect trajectory revolve around the protagonist’s quest (the story question)?
Are your story’s external events (the plot) spurred by the protagonist’s evolving internal cause-and-effect trajectory?
When your protagonist makes a decision, is it always clear how she arrived at it, especially when she’s changing her mind about something?
Unlike physical pain, embarrassment says something about you—it means that you not only made a mistake, but that you were found out.
It also tends to be the thing that best spurs growth.
Information is currency. It has to be earned. No one gives it away for free—and everything has a price.
the more the protagonist wants to keep mum, the more the story will try to make her sing. And one more thing: don’t keep her secret a secret from us—let the reader in.
Our delight comes from knowing what the protagonist is holding back and why; we revel in the tension between what she’s saying and what we know she’s really thinking.
in a story, characters who lie are the ones who catch our interest.
make sure your villain has a good side.
Just as the protagonist needs a flaw, so the antagonist needs a positive trait.
it’s your job to dismantle all the places where your protagonist seeks sanctuary and to actively force him out into the cold.
Have you exposed your protagonist’s deepest secrets and most guarded flaws?
there must be a consequence to everything that happens. Ideally, it’s a consequence that forces your protagonist to take an action she’d really rather not.
Does everything your protagonist does to make the situation better actually make it worse?
a setup is a piece of information the reader needs well in advance of the payoff so the payoff will be believable.
there needs to be a credible story reason for it to come up at that moment so it’s not a total giveaway, in neon, that you’re Trying to Tell Us Something.
every subplot, every flashback, must in some way affect the story question—that is, the protagonist’s quest and the inner struggle it incites for her—in a way the reader can see in the moment.
