Necessary Fiction Elements

Up until I started writing this column I never seemed to face…the blank page syndrome.  You know, where you stare at the page trying to figure out what to say, which questions to answer and so on.  Funny, but most fiction writers don’t seem to have this problem.  I’m always reminded of something comic writer, Mike Price, said about a time when he worked on a little TV show called Johnny Carson and he faced critics and wannabe critics.  His comment to them?  “Where were you when the page was blank?”

Question:  If I outline my story idea what do I need to know to get started?  Outlining seems like it would be easier than to just start writing.

Indeed, it would be easier if you are a beginning writer.  The necessary elements are: 1. You need a focal character (aka hero, heroine, main character, protagonist), 2. who is put in a situation in which this focal character has to get involved, 3. they have an objective (goal) that they seek, 4. an opponent (antagonist, bad guy) strives against the focal character to stir up the story, 5. which leads up to the black moment  and the resolution of the story.  In other words, don’t make the story easy for your focal character.  These elements are the basics that go into outlining.  Writing the story itself has many more elements that need to be applied.  You might start with a one-line description of your story idea and build from that.

Answering the above question got me to thinking of other ways to help beginning writers who have a problem trying to figure out what to do.  Let’s get down to the bare bone basics of a story.  I often use the story of Cinderella to show how to break it down to the plot and elements.  I always use the Disney version of Cinderella because nearly everyone has seen the movie or read the book.  Fairy tales use the same plots we use today.  So, break down fairy tales and you’ll learn a great deal about writing.  Find all the elements in fairy tales that make a story interesting.

Cinderella is actually three stories in one.  The main character is Cinderella, but how does the story open to set off a string of events?  By having the King pace about the palace shouting he wants grandchildren before he dies!  And how does a King get grandchildren if the stubborn Prince isn’t going to cooperate?  He figures by throwing a ball and inviting all the single women from the Kingdom his son should find one woman he could be interested in.  Well, if you remember, the Prince wants no part in finding a wife, he likes his life as a confirmed bachelor, but being the dutiful son, he would have to attend the ball against his wishes.  Then we turn our attention to Cinderella. Her story starts the day her father dies and her wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters put Cinderella to work cleaning the fireplace.  Saddened and disheartened, Cinderella sees no way out, except in her dreams.  It doesn’t hurt to have a few mice and birds as your friends, they are someone to talk to.

Then comes the invitation to the palace ball and Cinderella has a goal.  She wants to go to the ball.  The problem is she’s mistreated by a jealous stepmother.  She is told she can go to the ball if…if she finishes all her work in time and if she has something to wear.  Cinderella knows it’s impossible to do both.  This is conflict!  Enter the birds and mice that construct a gown for their dear friend.  And there is plenty of conflict in the scene with the animals trying to quietly get around the sleeping cat belonging to the ugly stepsisters to retrieve objects they’ve discarded.  Teamwork comes into play here too; the birds help where the mice can’t reach.  So while Cinderella toils at her chores the animals finish her dress.  She is truly surprised when she sees the completed dress.  Cinderella can hardly wait to hurry downstairs to show her stepmother and stepsisters her dress and declare she can go to the ball too.  Oh but that would be too easy…in a story there must be conflict.  When the stepsisters see their discarded objects on Cinderella’s gown they go nuts and rip the gown to shreds leaving Cinderella in tears knowing she can’t attend the ball.  Disaster!  Cinderella is back to square one.

Devastated, we go into the sequel to the scene, Cinderella runs to the garden and cries.  Her animal friends gather around her to comfort her.  When they look to the sky a star grows bigger and bigger until before Cinderella stands her fairy godmother.  We then go into another scene.  All looks rosy until Cinderella is told she has to be home by the stroke of midnight because everything turns back to what it originally was on the last stroke of the clock.  With a time element added, and consequences if she doesn’t heed the warning, Cinderella goes to the ball.

We’ll skip the ball because we learn about love at first sight between the Prince and Cinderella.  We know they have a good time while driving the wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters to distraction.  But at the stroke of midnight the element of disaster is on the page again.  Cinderella races from the palace and down the stairs and loses a glass slipper.  Talk about a setup toward the end.  By now you know that Cinderella has actually reached her original goal…to go to the ball, but it wouldn’t do to have an unhappy ending.  When she returns home with all her animal friends she’s feeling miserable because she had been so happy and now she was just Cinderella again. 

Ah, but the Prince, whose mind was changed about finding a wife after he met Cinderella actually has a goal now that he found the glass slipper.  His goal? To find the foot that fits in that glass slipper and he’ll find the woman he’d wooed at the ball.

Once again we skip over the foot search until they come to Cinderella’s house.  The Prince’s man who actually had to slip all those feet into the shoe probably had some pretty strong emotions when the door opened and the ugly stepsisters invited him in.  They, of course, are determined that one of them will fit that slipper.  Nothing like having confident antagonists!  But disaster looms ahead and they just don’t know it yet.  When the Prince’s man asks if there is any other woman in the house, the tormentors have to say yes.  But…they manage to break the glass slipper before Cinderella can put it on.  They think they’re on a roll! This is the final disaster of the story, which leads up to the resolution.  Cinderella takes the second glass slipper from her apron pocket and hands it to the Prince’s man.  The shoe fits perfectly.  

Now, as in every fairy tale, we have a happy ending.  The goal for the King of having grandchildren is in sight.  The Prince reached his goal and found a suitable wife, and Cinderella, although her goal was to go to the ball actually won the prize which made her simple goal a much more satisfying ending for the reader.

So, the moral of the story is…never put down fairy tales as learning tools, and never overestimate the power of something so simple.  In fairy tales, as in any fiction, there is always stated, a goal, a problem, conflict, and a black moment all put together in an interesting story.