A story is about how someone grapples with a problem they can’t avoid, and how they change in the process—Lisa Cron.
Every fiction story starts with a protagonist, the central viewpoint character the story revolves around. We’ll call her “Prot.” Prot has to be motivated to do something—a goal—or there is no reason for the story. To achieve the story goal, Prot has to overcome opposition, usually in the form of an antagonist—we’ll call him “Ant”—or obstacles Ant puts in the way. This creates conflict, the fuel of fiction, the fire that sets a story alight.
So Prot’s goal is fundamental to a story. Where does Prot’s goal come from? It could be something Prot wants or needs, or at least think she needs.
Often it begins in childhood, Prot’s backstory, something that drives her toward a desire or away from a fear. Has she always wanted to be a ballerina, singer, or movie star? Or to own a business? Win the Olympics? Fly a stealth fighter? Be the first female President? These and many others are positive goals that will supply plenty of built-in conflict along the way.
What if her goal is not as lofty, say to simply have a husband and raise children? Many a romance novel—and not just a few comedies—have been constructed using similar goals.
Or she could have a negative goal. What if she’s terrified of the ocean, but lives by the sea? Perhaps public speaking petrifies her, but she has to give the valedictory address at her graduation?
Overcoming fears, as well as other goals, are often thrust upon Prot. Perhaps she’s happy with the way things are going, but something comes along to disrupt the status quo. Her goal would be to set things right again. Or, to go back to Prot’s terror of the ocean, perhaps she sees a boat overturn and has to rescue the survivors.
So far we’re talking about story goals. But to drive a story and make it compelling, Prot (or whichever viewpoint character) has to have a goal IN EACH SCENE. James Scott Bell calls it the LOCK method: Lead (viewpoint character), Object (goal), Conflict, Knockout (resolution, preferably a setback, the worse for Prot, the better for your story). Prot has a scene goal, deals with conflict to reach it, culminating in a setback that forces Prot to seek another way and, hence, set a new goal which propels her into the next scene.
Conflict often erupts when Prot tries to achieve the goal in the scene and Ant throws challenges in the way. Fist fight, argument, or otherwise, their clash will likely go back and forth, first one winning, then the other. Like the swing of a metronome, these back-and-forths are known as Beats. There can be as many or as few beats as necessary, and are important in building up conflict in a scene.
We can build up conflict within Prot not only by increasing her risk, but also by making the outcome more important—raising the Stakes. Stakes are simply emotional concerns and/or interests in the object or outcome. They can be public stakes that threaten humanity or the world, such as a spreading contagion or a nuclear threat. Or they can be much more personal, like a threat to her family or the loss of love.
As an example of raising the stakes, let’s go back to the seaside, where a Prot who is terrified of the ocean sees a boat overturn, perhaps a sailboat. She watches the survivors tumble into the blue water and knows, frightened as she is, she has to hop in a nearby rowboat and paddle out to them. From the rowboat she sees one of the survivors, tossing up and down in the waves, is smaller than the rest, no bigger than a football—a baby. The stakes just went up, and she yanks even harder on the oars to get there. Then she hears her mother’s voice calling on her to rescue—her baby brother! Up go the stakes again. Her hands, blistered and bleeding from pulling on the oars, reach for her baby brother just in time to . . . see him disappear under the waves.
Raising the stakes simply means making it matter more.
Prot, your protagonist, needs to be motivated to achieve an overall, STORY GOAL. To achieve the story goal, steps, in the form of scenes, taken along the way need to have their own SCENE GOALS. Conflict arises as Prot tries to reach the scene goals, usually in a back-and-forth known as a BEAT. Prot’s motivation hinges on the STAKES, and increases as the stakes rise.
