Here’s another thing to think about while you’re reading, or if you’re a writer stuck in a story or stuck trying to get a story started: Needs.
David Collins spoke at the Midwest Writers Workshop one year when I attended, and gave us this list of Needs of Youth. I’m like, “Youth? Only Youth? Anybody needs these!”
NEEDS OF YOUTH
To love and be loved
To feel secure, emotionally and physically
To belong to a family, peer group, community
To know and understand
To find beauty and order in life
To achieve, get “somewhere,” gain experience
To stretch the imagination into other worlds and break away from the usual
Now, here’s the thing: Sometimes a character has more than one of these needs that are in conflict. To feel secure AND to break away. To know something that will disrupt the community.
When you’re plotting (or following a plot), see if it doesn’t deepen things if you look beneath the obvious goals to the more basic needs that are being grasped at, threatened, sacrificed, compromised, or achieved by the plot points and action.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write the Needs on slips of paper. Mix them up. Pick out two and plot a five-point story using them.
MA
Damyanti
March 4, 2013 at 10:22pmWhat my characters want leads me to plot, at all times. Thanks for sharing these, Marian!
Marian Allen
March 5, 2013 at 6:45pmThanks for dropping by! 🙂
Beth Johnson
March 4, 2013 at 12:03pmYou know, this is a great list, and an embarrassing revelation to me. I somehow always considered the plot a separate thing – “This is what I’d like the story to be about, and these are the characters”. And yet, over all these years I’ve always found, with RP, that all the best stories really came from how the characters dealt with something that was important to them. Duh! Guess it’s clear why I’ve not written any Great American Novels! Yet. 🙂
Marian Allen
March 4, 2013 at 1:45pmLOL! Beth that GAN is just waiting for you to retire to the woods so you can give it your full attention! 🙂
Jane
March 4, 2013 at 11:49amHi. As you know, I’m adding a few bits to my book, and I’ve been thinking mightily about what all they need to do. This list is a good adjunct to what I’ve been having to think about. So, in short, I’m needing to be analytic AND creative. The good news: It looks like I’m getting there. Yay!
Marian Allen
March 4, 2013 at 1:44pmYay is right! I can’t wait to read the new version! Well, honestly, I CAN wait, because I know you’re making it EVEN BETTER, and I loved it already! 🙂
Jay Noel
March 4, 2013 at 9:42amThat’s a great list. I worked with teens a lot as an English teacher for 5 yrs, and it’s right on. But you’re right, it applies to pretty much all of us.
Marian Allen
March 4, 2013 at 1:43pmIt’s amazing to me, Jay, how much of the kids we used to be can still be seen, active and powerful, in the adults we are, no matter how old we get!