“Only one thing matters,” he says. Then his voice trails off into that I’m already halfway into the Other Place so you better stay close tone. I’ve heard it so many time before and know something interesting is about to happen.
So I bite.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“The question. The question.” I can hear him pacing on the other end, talking as much with his hands as he is with his mouth. “The story question. Will he? No, no…will she…will she sacrifice everything for love?”
We’re talking through the germ of a new story idea, the essence of what I’m learning is the overriding aim of a story: The Question of Questions, the thread upon which every good story hangs. “Will he ________?”
Will she live to escape the killer and see her husband again? Will he elude the people chasing him long enough to find out who he really is? Will she save the world?
Every story needs an overriding question that must be answered. Without it the reader has no reason to turn the pages. No reason at all. The Question is tension. The Question is the carrot that keeps you going. The Question is the point. The Question is the story.
But here’s something else: every chapter has a question that leads to other questions. That’s called suspense. It sounds crazy, but that’s why you keep reading. You have to know the answers that will ultimately lead you to the Big One that matters at the big reveal.
Yes, the Question is all-important. Are you writing something right now? What is the overriding story Question that your readers must. have. answered? Are you reading a novel right now? Can you identify the story Question?
“Will she…?”
[...] second, because the point he makes in his talk is the same one I tried to get at in a post I wrote last week. And that is, mystery is better than knowledge. Questions make stories. We want to know, but the [...]
12.08.2009, 6:36 amWell….I can’t wait to read this story, that’s for sure.
16.08.2009, 11:00 pm