Story Components

Here's a quick rundown of the bits and pieces and techniques of what makes your story a story and not just a mess of notes. (again, these are transcribed from my notes).

Story - a character in a situation coping. Beginning, middle, end:

Moment of Change - a moment of shifting, of big or tiny realizations, of events that turn the story into a story. This must happen in the first scene!

Show vs. Tell - locating a couple small, sensual details you can see to describe the setting. Physical descriptions rather than plain adjectives.

"Abysmal, jaundice tinted walls, dusty clock, tired faces in tiny desks..."

Crafting significant dialog - doesn't always have to make sense. Realistically, people aren't always crystal clear or perfectly understood all the time. Characters talk, but don't necessarily hear or listen or understand. Throw in some misinterpretations, miscommunications, broken sentences, and bad grammar. Write grammar the way people talk.

Sense of Place - No 'white room syndrome'! Keep characters interacting with the scenery- bumping into chairs, picking up a coffee cup long-since drained of its life juice, checking the wall on the clock, staring at the holiday lights encircling the ceiling...

This goes hand-in-hand with Action. Make sure your characters do stuff. Mindless stuff. Every day things. Chew gum, chew the tip of a pencil. Clip your nails. Adjust your glasses...

Tension! - try to make characters dislike each other or misunderstand something. Clash- put a colourful vase in the abysmal room, or have a friend in the Bahamas call someone in Rochester in the middle of Winter. Make the sex really bad. Make things go wrong. Juxtaposition.

Image symbol / metaphor - why does the character always do/wear/eat/whatever something? Does that ring represent marriage, love, an experience, a place, a person? Is there a story behind it? What would happen if your character lost it, or dropped it into heavy traffic?

Opening/Closing lines - the hook and the drop

Tense? - 1st, 2nd, 3rd POV? Present/Past/Future tense?

Pacing - action and words in equal amounts

Scene vs. Summary - balancing important details with ones that wouldn't be missed. When should you squeeze four quick or agonizingly slow years into one paragraph?

Authorial Summation - have the author jump in if he must.

RESPONSE! - How does your character respond to things and others? How do others respond to your character? Use internal monologue and external action / dialog to tell us their response - they don't have to match. Maybe your character wants to claw the eyes out of their mother, but they give her a hug, or say "I love you, too."