Ask a Story 2.0 by Craig Sheehy

This session was about how to create stories that are more interesting than the cliche of a person with a problem goes somewhere, doesn't solve problem, goes to a second location, doesn't solve problem, and then goes to the 3rd location and solves the problem.  Craig has been reading tips for writing from a man named Ian Irvine.  There is a lot that goes into this, and to truly type out all of my notes would take twenty-five pages.  So instead of trying to explain the 41 ways to spice up a story, I'll just type them and if you have a question about a specific tip, please let me know.

The basic tenants of a story are to create suspense and tension in stories using a character that students can identify with.

One HUGE tip is to start our stories in the middle of the action/problem and then go back and flesh out the details.  No more "There is a boy who wants a cat."  We need to surprise our students and starting out every story the same way will get very boring very quickly.

To spice up characters, they should be:

1. Sympathetic: in trouble, underdog, vulnerable and/or deserving
2. Interesting: powerfully, naturally gifted or highly skilled, unusual, attractive, funny, or dangerous
3. Have clear goals
4. Have a strong opponent
5. Tailor the character to maximize suspense
6. Take away hero's defenses
7. Create anticipation and expectation
8. Romantic tension
9. Micro-tension
10. Rapidly changing emotions

To spice up a problem:

1. Put character or friends in danger (physical, psychological, emotional or moral)
2. Wants can be: love, friendship, escape, master a skill, discipline, art or realize a dream
3. Pose a mystery or puzzle
4. Force hero to face problem
5. Raise the stakes
6. Make it more difficult to solve
7. Shorten the deadline
8. Unusual twists and reversals: he got what he wanted, however, that made life worse for someone else

To spice up the plot:

1. Make a problem clear
2. Put the hero at a disadvantage
3. Increase the pressure
4. Create conflict with everyone and everything
5. Create inner conflicts and dilemma
6. Use of dramatic irony (the audience knows something that the character doesn't)
7. Use the unknown to create anxiety
8. Put hero in a perilous place
9. Create mysteries (find a ouija board or a voodoo doll)
10. Design puzzles
11. Leave issues unresolved for a while
12. Use reversals
13. Secrets-clues should heighten suspense
14. Use subtext-hidden agenda
15. Turn dramatic event into a question
16. Make it worse

To spice up structure:

1. Structure the beginning to create suspense
2. Tailor hero's actions to increase suspense
3. Vary fortunes
4. Sequence antagonists reactions to increase hero's troubles
5. Heighten critical scenes
6. Climax, resolution, ending
7. In editing-reflect

That's all 41 ideas.  Still here?  The main idea is to do at least one of these things to avoid our usual trap.  For example, during another session, we were acting out the dance scene in Pauvre Anne and Andrea Schweitzer (my roommate at NTPRS and buddy) had the brilliant idea to insert details about Anne's friend to infer that she was jealous of Anne and the flirting boy.  Brilliant!!  Just think about trying to get better at doing one of these and our stories will get better.