May 2006: Situations and Stories (cont.)

A situation is simply a problem. We all have lots of those in our lives. A boy’s parents are about to divorce. A girl doesn’t want to babysit her younger brother. A puppy is lonely and lost.

A story starts with such a situation, but it requires someone to do something about the problem . . . or at least to attempt to do something. Notice that in each of the situations I’ve named, the main character, boy or girl or puppy, clearly wants something . . . to stop the divorce, to get out of babysitting, to find the way home. The moment you set that main character struggling to get what he wants—or at least to try to get it—you will have a story underway.

Your character doesn’t have to succeed for a story to work. Maybe the boy will discover that he can’t stop his parents’ divorce. It is, after all, unlikely that he could. Perhaps he will discover something else instead, that even if they divorce, his parents will each continue to love him and that his life will go on.

Maybe the girl will discover that her younger brother is important to her, so important that she doesn’t mind babysitting.

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