March 2007: Struggle (cont.)

When we say the word struggle we think of action, of someone doing something. And that’s the way I think of a story, as someone struggling to do something, change something, be something. It is that struggle that makes your story come alive. It makes it active and interesting.

Here’s an example. In my novel Runt, the main character, the wolf pup Runt, has a problem. He is the smallest of the litter. He has even been given the undignified name Runt by his father, because his father is convinced he will never survive in the wolves’ hard world. What does Runt want? He wants to please his father. He wants to prove himself to his father.

Runt tries various ways to impress his father, following the hunters when he and the other pups are left behind, standing up to a porcupine that leaves him with a muzzle full of quills, being brave enough to accept help from humans, and on and on, but none of his actions bring his father’s approval. In fact, they each make his father less pleased with him.

There is an antagonist in this story, too, someone who makes Runt’s problems harder. The antagonist is Bider, a wolf who is trying to take Runt’s father’s place at the head of the pack.