How To Write A Great Novel Or Movie, Pt. 2

In this post, which is the second part of a seven-part blog series, I’m going to explain how to write the second part of a great, commercially phenomenal story – which is what you need to be writing, if you desire success as a writer in the publishing or entertainment industry. These lessons are applicable to novels, screenplays, teleplays – any medium that utilizes storytelling.

The first blog post covered the beginning of your story, which I called the “hook.” This part tells you what to do next, once the reader’s hooked on your story via a uniquely interesting, emotionally provoking situation.

Next, you have to cast an “action line” to follow for the rest of the story. You catch, and keep, the reader’s attention by casting the line. The action line should be simple, clear, focused on a character’s goal, and full of conflict for her to overcome. It occupies the reader/viewer for the next few hours with non-stop entertainment.

For example:

In Divergent, Tris chooses to transfer to the Dauntless Faction, and is consumed with Dauntless Initiation, which, apart from being highly dangerous and challenging on its own, is multiplied in danger by the fact that she’s divergent, and has to keep her nature a secret.

In The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon is joined by Sophie Neveu, who tells him that not only is he the prime suspect in her grandfather’s murder, that she believes there’s a secret clue hidden in the way Sauniere arranged his dead body – a kind of treasure hunt he wants Langdon and Neveu to follow. They have to evade the French police determined to arrest Langdon, while following Sauniere’s cryptic trail of clues.

In Harry Potter: The Goblet Of Fire, Harry must make it through the Triwizard Tournament and school year alive, knowing that someone at Hogwarts is working for Voldemort, hoping to kill him.

All of the action lines above have four essential elements in common, which you should use to compose your own action lines:

* The characters have a goal that they passionately care about

* The characters’ goal has a primal motive (survival, love)

* That goal will face jeopardy and opposition

* The character’s primal motives – survival and love – are what will be challenged by the opposition they face.

In Divergent, Tris passionately cares about making it through Dauntless initiation, for both her social survival and her need for love and belonging. She faces jeopardy and opposition from the fellow Dauntless transfers, as the initiation is a competition where not everyone will make it through – and some will become faction-less. Her survival and love motives are challenged by the other initiates’ attempts to defeat – and even kill – her.

In The Da Vinci Code, Neveu was Sauniere’s granddaughter, and was estranged from him, which adds a personal context to her search along his treasure hunt (love). Langdon is suspected for murder, and Neveu considered a conspirator, so they have to run in order to survive (survival). Their treasure hunt becomes extremely dangerous, challenging their survival motives.

A side note, in case you are writing a mystery story: In short, the action lines of most commercial mystery stories can be summed up as follows: “characters risk their lives following a dangerous trail of clues.”

In Harry Potter: The Goblet Of Fire, Harry has to get through the dangerous Tournament tasks and figure out what Voldemort’s plans are (survival).

For the most part, the entire stories of each of these works follow these action lines, which are set up more or less directly after their Hooks are established.

I’ll be writing Pt.3 in the near future, which will focus on the next part of your great, commercially phenomenal story – what I call the “Charge.” It covers what happens after the action line has been cast.

As a reminder, when you design the Action Line for your story, remember this:

* The characters have a goal that they passionately care about

* The characters’ goal has a primal motive (survival, love)

* That goal will face jeopardy and opposition

* The character’s primal motives – survival and love – are what will be challenged by the opposition they face.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to share this with any other writers you feel would benefit by clicking on the Social Share buttons below.

While you’re here – why not find some marketable story ideas to use in your next project by taking my What’s Your Story Test? It’s free, 15 quick questions, and gives you a marketable story that fits your personal character for use in your writing. Take it by clicking here.

Writing A Great Story For Movies or Novels, Pt. One

In this seven-part blog series, I’m going to explain how to write a great story from beginning to end, in lessons applicable to screenplays, novels, and teleplays. Story is story, regardless of medium, and story is what I eat, sleep, and breathe as both writer and writing consultant.

This post is going to be reserved for part one of your story, the beginning – which we’ll call the Hook. I’ll explain what the essence of a great hook is, while providing some examples from popular blockbusters/bestsellers. Then, I’ll give you a template for creating your own hook, which can be used for a current story, or to come up with a totally new one that’s better than anything you’ve written yet.

Let’s begin with the hook. Put simply: a bad story has a beginning. A great story has a hook. What’s the difference?

A hook immediately gets you passionately interested in whatever is going on with the characters you meet.

In Harry Potter, a young boy grows up as a neglected orphan – only to find out he’s a wizard, that there’s a secret world of wizards, and that he’s a celebrity in the wizarding world. In The Da Vinci Code, a museum curator’s been murdered over an ancient secret, and has arranged his dead body to mimic a famous Da Vinci painting. In Divergent, a young girl must choose which faction to belong to in her future society, knowing that if she chooses wrongly, she may end up alone, miserable, and in danger as a faction-less homeless person.

Each of these three hooks is intriguing for different reasons, on the surface. But you’ll find that all three of them share these essential elements:

1) The Situation of the Story Is Uniquely Attractive

2) The Situation Is Clear, and Emotionally Provoking.

First, let’s explain how to make the situation uniquely attractive. Every one of these situations is highly creative – so much so that your first reaction is “whoa” or intrigue. They’re also very developed situations, with a lot of imagination and thought put into them.

J.K. Rowling thought of a “wizarding world” and “wizarding school” when no one else had. Dan Brown thought of a museum curator’s body being found in the shape of a Da Vinci painting. Veronica Roth thought of a world based on personality tests, and imagined what a teenager would do if she had to choose a society based on her personality.

As a writer, you have a part of your brain that imagines things that – well, put simply – no one else will imagine. This comes from your brain having an ability to combine disparate elements together in an imaginative, creative way. Boarding school and wizards, a dead body in the shape of a Da Vinci painting, a personality test determining a life-or-death social belonging…they all combine elements of the real world (boarding school, Da Vinci painting, personality tests) and a world of fantasy in the writer’s brain (a world of wizards, a conspiratorial murder of a secret society leader, a dystopian society filled with warring factions based on personality).

That’s the first part of your hook template. You make your story uniquely attractive by combining elements of the real world with a world of fantasy.  It’s reality, with a twist. How big the twist is up to you, depending on your genre. The world’s more terrifying in a horror story, more romantic in a romance story, more fantastic and wondrous in a fantasy story. Whatever the emotional effect of the genre is determines your twist.

Next, the situation has to be emotionally provoking. Harry Potter has a sense of awe, shock, and wonder. The Da Vinci Code has a sense of terror, shock, intrigue, and bizarreness. Divergent has a sense of fantasy, bizarreness, and high-stakes tension.

To find the emotionally provocative side of your hook, you have to think of how the main character is going to be affected by the beginning of the story. You understand that in whichever way you affect the main character, you can plan on the audience sharing his affectation.

In Harry Potter, we share the awe, shock, and wonder that fills Harry when he finds out he is a wizard, what the real story of his parents’ death is, and what it’s like in this Wizarding World. We’re on the journey with him, on a ride into a fantasy. Terror, shock, intrigue, and bizarreness fill Robert Langdon’s brain when he sees the museum curator, Sauniere’s, body at the beginning of the Da Vinci Code. It fills ours too. We get Tris’s dilemma in Divergent, and understand the difficulty of her decisions and her need to belong.

Why? Because we, like the characters, are human, and we all have the same basic needs, desires, and emotional experiences. Tapping into these are the keys to make your hook emotionally provoking. You put your character in an emotionally heightened state, which an audience relates to.

So, to recap, when writing the hook of your story, at the beginning:

* Give us a conflict or situation from reality, but with a twist.

* Affect the character in the story with relatable heightened emotions, which the audience will share with them.

Over the next month, I’ll be writing the rest of the posts. The next post is Pt.2, which is the “beginning of the middle of your story,” which I’m calling the “Action Line.”

While you’re here – why not find some marketable story ideas to use in your next project by taking my What’s Your Story Test? It’s free, 15 quick questions, and gives you a marketable story that fits your personal character for use in your writing. Take it by clicking here.