"No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters are, make awful things happpen to them in order that the reader may see what they are made of."
--Kurt Vonnegut, Rule #6 of Creative Writing
Storytelling is the art of creating a compelling narrative to recount true or fictional events. All stories are built on three core elements: character (who the story is about), setting (when and where the story occurs), and conflict (the problem the character encounters and must resolve). A story's conflict should interrupt the everyday life of the central character (protagonist) by placing an obstacle in the way of them achieving what they want (objective). After discovering the conflict cannot be ignored or avoided (the point of no return), the protagonist must put effort into resolving the conflict and addressing any complications that occur along the way. The conflict resolves at the climax, where the protagonist either overcomes the obstacle or gives up on achieving their objective.
Every story needs to be about someone and something. The someone is the character or characters, and the something is a series of events, which is called the plot.
Recounting events that happen to someone is pretty easy—teenagers do it all the time when someone asks, “How was your day?” Like hundreds of thousands of mothers before her, my own mother asked me this question every day after I arrived home from school, and like hundreds of thousands of other kids, I told her what I did in classes and with my after school clubs.
This is called summary—an organized list of facts. That’s what my mother wanted to know, and that’s what I gave her. A list of updates on how my academic and social life at school was going.
But every now and again, I didn’t answer with a summary. I’d come home excited and say, “You’ll never guess what happened during my presentation in Ms. Starkey’s class today!” or I’d come home moody and say, “That was the worst rehearsal ever—everything went wrong!” On those days, the rest of the day wasn’t important—it was all about the one really important, out-of-the-ordinary occurrence that made me feel joyous, sad, or upset.
Recounting events that happen to someone is pretty easy—teenagers do it all the time when someone asks, “How was your day?” Like hundreds of thousands of mothers before her, my own mother asked me this question every day after I arrived home from school, and like hundreds of thousands of other kids, I told her what I did in classes and with my after school clubs.
This is called summary—an organized list of facts. That’s what my mother wanted to know, and that’s what I gave her. A list of updates on how my academic and social life at school was going.
But every now and again, I didn’t answer with a summary. I’d come home excited and say, “You’ll never guess what happened during my presentation in Ms. Starkey’s class today!” or I’d come home moody and say, “That was the worst rehearsal ever—everything went wrong!” On those days, the rest of the day wasn’t important—it was all about the one really important, out-of-the-ordinary occurrence that made me feel joyous, sad, or upset.
That isn't summary--it's story.
The difference between summary and story is conflict. In writing, a conflict is a series of events that unfold after a character is blocked from getting what they want. The “character” in that definition is usually the protagonist (the character the story action follows), but any character in a story can be involved in conflict. There can also be (and often are) several conflicts going on at once.
The definition in the prior paragraph is a little complicated, so let’s simplify it. Every character wants something, and that’s called an objective. If they reach the objective without any issue or struggle, that’s just everyday life—it’s the summary version of “How was your day?” So to have a conflict, a character must encounter an obstacle to their objective.
The definition in the prior paragraph is a little complicated, so let’s simplify it. Every character wants something, and that’s called an objective. If they reach the objective without any issue or struggle, that’s just everyday life—it’s the summary version of “How was your day?” So to have a conflict, a character must encounter an obstacle to their objective.
Objective + Obstacle = Conflict
This is how conflicts are described in writing. For example, the conflict in The Fault in Our Stars is that Hazel wants to have the life of a normal teenager but she (and her boyfriend) are dying of terminal cancer. The conflict in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor Lost is that the King of Navarre and his three buddies swear an oath to avoid women for three year to complete their studies, but a visit from the Princess of France and her squad of three beautiful ladies tempt the men to break the vow.
There are seven types of conflicts, each defined by the type of obstacle the character has to overcome. We'll explore each one, then look at how to add an engaging conflict to a story.
There are seven types of conflicts, each defined by the type of obstacle the character has to overcome. We'll explore each one, then look at how to add an engaging conflict to a story.
THE SEVEN TYPES OF CONFLICT
Character vs. CharacterThe most common story conflicts are character vs. character conflicts. These conflicts stem from two or more characters wanting the same goal that cannot be shared (Demetrius wants Hermia's hand in marriage vs. Lysander wants Hermia's hand in marriage in A Midsummer Night's Dream) or for characters having directly opposite goals (Goldfinger wants to contaminate Fort Knox vs. James Bond wants to stop him in Goldfinger). These conflicts often climax in not just the failure of one character, but often the death of a character (Erich wants to get rid of Tina vs. Tina wants to get rid of Erich climaxes in Tina winning and Erich dying in The Twilight Zone's "Living Doll").
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Character vs. GroupAnother reoccurring conflict is the character versus the group or society of characters. Sometimes this character is a lone violator of social norms (Hester Prynne wants to raise Pearl in peace vs. the town won't let her live down her adultery in The Scarlet Letter); in other works, the character is a member of a countercultural faction or warring group (Katniss Everdeen wants to overthrow the capital with the rebels vs. the capital under snow wants to crush the rebels in Mockingjay.) Either the character will dismantle and change society, leave or escape the society, or be crushed and assimilated into society.
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Character vs. SelfAnother common conflict is the character vs. self, where the character has two conflicting desires and will have to actively work against his or her own self interest. For example, John Proctor in The Crucible wants to both expose Abigail Williams' lies about being bewitched, but cannot expose her without his affair with her also being exposed-- Proctor is caught between protecting his friends and protecting his reputation. Another example is Claude Frollo's desire to cleanse Paris of gypsies vs. his secret desire for the gypsy Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Character vs. self conflicts end when an outside force puts the characters in a situation where they have to choose. For John Proctor, only after his wife's life is threatened does he sacrifice his reputation. For Frollo, Esmeralda's final rejection of him leads him to betray Esmeralda to the city guards, leading to her hanging.
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Character vs. NatureA very simple conflict is when a character or small group of characters are pitted against nature in a survival narrative. Typically, the narrative features characters that are pioneers going out into unspoiled nature, like Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild, or becoming stranded in the elements, like the boys in Lord of the Flies. Sometimes, the antagonist is not all of nature but only one animal or monster, such as the mad dog Cujo in Cujo, but make sure to pay attention to how the animals are characterized. If these animals are actual characters, with dialogue and motivation, then you are looking at character vs. character conflicts. Only when animals are acting like animals purely out of their natural drives is the conflict character vs. nature.
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Character vs. TechnologySo monsters are character vs. nature... what about aliens? Nature (and, in fantasy fiction, magic) are primeval forces that mankind has been struggling with since time immemorial. Yet aliens, robot uprisings, oppressive police-state governments, and HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey are the opposite: new, unknown threats to humanity. These are conflicts of character vs. technology. Technology is any non-natural force, whether it is human-crafted technology (as in Skynet from Terminator) or outside technology (like the ships and weapons from any alien invasion story). Sometimes the technology is like nature: not evil but just indifferent. In The Martian, Mark Watney's conflict is that he needs to be rescued from Mars before he runs out of resources vs. the limits of technology, both in the speed and durability of the rockets that can come from Earth to save him and in the spacesuits, rover, and other technologies on Mars keeping him alive.
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Character vs. Fate (Gods)In classic literature, one of the most common conflicts is a character versus their own fate, which is often enforced or written by the gods. This is the conflict in most myths, especially Greek myths (like the tragedy of Oedipus) and Biblical stories (like the Book of Job). A character versus fate is still often used in the fantasy genre when it comes to the idea of prophesy. This conflict rarely appears in modern and postmodern literature, where characters are thought to choose their own destiny; in these stories, the character versus fate has been replaced with the character versus existence.
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Character vs. ExistenceModernist literature all hinges, at least in part, on the exploration of what the meaning of one's existence and life are. For example, Frederick Henry's adventures in A Farewell to Arms question the reasons the character has for making both love and war. Postmodernism takes this a step further, claiming that, as Camus says in The Stranger, there is no point to existence and that maturity is dealing with this idea. Some texts deal with this conflict head on, as the narrator does in Cat's Cradle, while other characters break the forth wall and meet their author, like when the comic character Animal Man met his author Grant Morrison. Unlike a character vs. fate conflict, where character's are fighting a solid, written fate or active, caring god, the character vs. existence is fighting for someone to care and direct their life, yet no help or plan ever emerges.
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SETTING UP YOUR CONFLICT
Let’s say you’ve chosen a conflict for your story. Before you get into the conflict itself, you need to show how the conflict started. Think back to telling Mom the story of what happened at school and how the story might start:
“There I was, sitting in the commons like usual and eating my sandwich, and bam! Someone elbows me hard in the back and I nearly choke! I spun around, and it was Shelby Myers. She’s this cheerleader in my bio class, and I’ve maybe said two words to her all year. Anyway, I thought she just bumped me because we never talk, but she elbowed me again, on purpose. She wanted me to scoot over so she could sit by me. I couldn’t believe it!”
This example story establishes two important moments the writer needs to set up in the story: normal life and the inciting incident. Since conflicts are always a disruption of normal life, it’s important to establish that everything was “like usual” first. This could be a brief mention or take up entire chapters in a novel.
The sample story also provides the inciting incident, which is the moment the potential for conflict is introduced. The speaker was elbowed and nearly choked, and that could have led to a medical emergency or a fistfight, but instead it brought Shelby to the narrator’s attention. We don’t know what the conflict is yet, but from this introduction, it’s clear that the conflict will involve Shelby in some way.
So let’s continue the story and get to the conflict:
“So I chat with Shelby a little before she gets to why she’s sitting with me: she want to partner with me on the bio project we’re doing next week. And I’m like, ‘Don’t you usually partner up with Chaz?” who’s her idiot boyfriend. This guy is repeating bio as a senior and has been expelled for fighting, like, thirty times. And Shelby says to me, ‘Actually, I broke up with Chaz. It was… messy. But I need a new partner, and you’re so good in that class, and I’m really struggling.’
“And I know that this is a bad idea, not because I don’t like Shelby—I don’t know her that well, but I’d like to—but I know it’s a bad idea because Chaz is not going to like that I’m her project partner. But she looked so sad and worried, so I said yes.
“And then she hugged me! One of those long, happy-shoulder-wiggle hugs. And as she hugged me, I looked over her shoulder and saw Chaz outside the commons window. He was staring right at me, and I swear that if we hadn’t been separated by glass, he would have walked straight over and killed me.”
So now we have the conflict: The narrator has to work with Shelby on the project, and while this could help them build a connection with Shelby, it makes them a target for Chaz. Or, in other words…
“There I was, sitting in the commons like usual and eating my sandwich, and bam! Someone elbows me hard in the back and I nearly choke! I spun around, and it was Shelby Myers. She’s this cheerleader in my bio class, and I’ve maybe said two words to her all year. Anyway, I thought she just bumped me because we never talk, but she elbowed me again, on purpose. She wanted me to scoot over so she could sit by me. I couldn’t believe it!”
This example story establishes two important moments the writer needs to set up in the story: normal life and the inciting incident. Since conflicts are always a disruption of normal life, it’s important to establish that everything was “like usual” first. This could be a brief mention or take up entire chapters in a novel.
The sample story also provides the inciting incident, which is the moment the potential for conflict is introduced. The speaker was elbowed and nearly choked, and that could have led to a medical emergency or a fistfight, but instead it brought Shelby to the narrator’s attention. We don’t know what the conflict is yet, but from this introduction, it’s clear that the conflict will involve Shelby in some way.
So let’s continue the story and get to the conflict:
“So I chat with Shelby a little before she gets to why she’s sitting with me: she want to partner with me on the bio project we’re doing next week. And I’m like, ‘Don’t you usually partner up with Chaz?” who’s her idiot boyfriend. This guy is repeating bio as a senior and has been expelled for fighting, like, thirty times. And Shelby says to me, ‘Actually, I broke up with Chaz. It was… messy. But I need a new partner, and you’re so good in that class, and I’m really struggling.’
“And I know that this is a bad idea, not because I don’t like Shelby—I don’t know her that well, but I’d like to—but I know it’s a bad idea because Chaz is not going to like that I’m her project partner. But she looked so sad and worried, so I said yes.
“And then she hugged me! One of those long, happy-shoulder-wiggle hugs. And as she hugged me, I looked over her shoulder and saw Chaz outside the commons window. He was staring right at me, and I swear that if we hadn’t been separated by glass, he would have walked straight over and killed me.”
So now we have the conflict: The narrator has to work with Shelby on the project, and while this could help them build a connection with Shelby, it makes them a target for Chaz. Or, in other words…
The narrator wants to work closely with Shelby on bio project
vs.
Chaz will hurt the narrator if they get close to Shelby
Perhaps the most important part of this section of story is that the narrator said yes. Shelby didn’t demand they work with her; instead, knowing the potential consequences, the narrator chose to agree to Shelby’s request. By telling Shelby he’ll help her, the narrator has reached the point of no return, the moment in a story where the character can no longer avoid the conflict and return to normal life. Now that they have said yes, the narrator can’t back out of helping Shelby (and even if they did, Chaz has already seen her hug the narrator and thus has the narrator in his sights).
Establishing a clear point of no return is crucial for story logic. At some point, the reader will think, Why don’t they just walk away? The point of no return provides that answer.
Establishing a clear point of no return is crucial for story logic. At some point, the reader will think, Why don’t they just walk away? The point of no return provides that answer.
COMPLICATING YOUR CONFLICT
Good conflicts don’t just need to be set up—they need to feel important for the story to be engaging. “I was taking a test, but my pencil broke in half, so I sharpened it, and while it was hard to hold, I finished the test with my little half pencil” has a conflict, sure, but the obstacle was so small that this doesn’t feel like much of a story.
Conflicts become important when they become complicated. A complication is a new and unexpected character, event, or piece of information that makes the obstacle harder to overcome. Common story complications include:
Conflicts become important when they become complicated. A complication is a new and unexpected character, event, or piece of information that makes the obstacle harder to overcome. Common story complications include:
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THE TICKING CLOCK: The character discovers that they only have a certain amount of time to overcome the obstacle before they will automatically fail to reach their objective. THE PAIN POINT: Similar to a ticking clock, an unrelated environmental factor makes the process of overcoming the obstacle more uncomfortable for the character (AKA “turning up the heat”). THE INCREASED COST: The character discovers that failing to reach the objective or succeeding in overcoming the obstacle will result in bigger personal loss than they initially calculated. THE ADDED WEIGHT: The character discovers a new benefit to overcoming the obstacle, but in doing so, the potential fallout of failure is magnified. THE SIDE QUEST: The character discovers that they can only defeat their larger obstacle using a resource they can only get by defeating a different obstacle. THE WRONG WAY: After getting new information, the character realizes the method they were going to use to overcome the object won’t work, so they must figure out a new strategy. THE REAL TARGET: The character defeats the obstacle only to realize that there is another, larger obstacle now keeping them from reaching their objective. THE DOMINO EFFECT: The character discovers that a previous success directly created a new complication. THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN: The character realizes they will only be able to defeat the obstacle by compromising their own moral code or harm themselves/a loved one. THE DECREASED DESIRE: The character begins to question if they still want to achieve their objective when new information or a new opportunity emerges. THE COMPLETE REVERSAL: The character discovers that their initial obstacle wasn’t what they thought it was, which changes their desire and the conflict completely (AKA “The Mr. Darcy”). |
Going back to the example story with Shelby, here are potential complications:
Now, an actual story about Shelby and the science project wouldn't include all of these complications because such a complicated narrative would be very unrealistic and would thus weaken the logic of the story. However, the story would need some complications to be interesting and not like the pencil-breaking story. Short stories should have one or two story complications, and full-length narrative stories should have three to six complications.
- THE TICKING CLOCK: The teacher moves up the project deadline, so the narrator and Shelby have to spend all weekend together working on the project.
- THE PAIN POINT: While working with Shelby, the narrator discovers that she’s the most clueless person they’ve ever met, so getting the project done will take twice as long.
- THE INCREASED COST: The narrator realizes that the project is worth 25% of their grade, so it’s more than just doing well to help Shelby—they also need to do well.
- THE ADDED WEIGHT: The narrator and Shelby start flirting while working on the project—now, success on the project may also mean getting a girlfriend but failure would mean losing that chance.
- THE SIDE QUEST: The narrator needs to meet Shelby at her house, but they can’t drive, so they will have to get across town without running into Chaz.
- THE WRONG PATH: The narrator stays on high alert (with pepper spray at the ready) throughout the week, as they believe Chaz will try to physically attack them, but then they realize Chaz is not planning to hurt them but instead plans to destroy their project right before it’s turned in.
- THE REAL TARGET: Chaz tells the narrator that he’s happy to be rid of Shelby because the person the narrator really needs to watch out for is Shelby’s violent and overprotective older brother.
- THE DOMINO EFFECT: The narrator gets their tough jock friend Peter to get Chaz to back off, but now Peter’s presence is distracting the narrator and Shelby from completing the project.
- THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN: The narrator realizes the only way to get Chaz to leave them and Shelby alone is to murder him.
- THE DECREASED DESIRE: After spending a couple hours with Shelby, the narrator realizes she’s a stuck-up brat and a lazy partner
- THE COMPLETE REVERSAL: Chaz confronts the narrator, and as they talk, the narrator discovers that Chaz is a really good guy and agrees to help him win Shelby back.
Now, an actual story about Shelby and the science project wouldn't include all of these complications because such a complicated narrative would be very unrealistic and would thus weaken the logic of the story. However, the story would need some complications to be interesting and not like the pencil-breaking story. Short stories should have one or two story complications, and full-length narrative stories should have three to six complications.
SOLVING YOUR CONFLICT
Every story must end, and so must every conflict. Fortunately, the story and conflict usually end at the same time, which is the moment the protagonist achieves their objective or accepts their failure in reaching their objective. This is called the climax.
Before determining the way your story will end, you must first consider all the ways the story could logically end. Logic is important with the ending because readers do not like endings that come out of nowhere. For example, if the story about Shelby and the science fair ended with a meteor hitting the school and vaporizing the narrator, Shelby, and Chaz at the same time, the ending wouldn't feel rewarding to readers.
So how could that story's conflict--the narrator wants to work closely with Shelby on bio project vs. Chaz will hurt the narrator if they get close to Shelby--logically end? While specific endings would depend a lot on which complications were added to the story, here are the six generally reasonable outcomes:
A good story will pick one of these outcomes and drop hints to it throughout the story (this is called foreshadowing). A great story will foreshadow one ending throughout the story, then actually solve the conflict with a different ending (this is a plot twist). Plot twists can be difficult to do well because they need to make logical sense even though it's not what the reader predicts--this means that the true ending also has to be foreshadowed in ways the reader doesn't initially detect but easily find once they know the true ending. Otherwise, the reader will feel cheated by the ending because they could not have predicted it.
A common source of an unsatisfying ending is the use of deus ex machina, a plot device where a seemingly unsolvable problem is solved by the sudden and unexpected arrival of a character, object, or vital piece of information. An example of deus ex machina is the end of Tartuffe by Moliere: the villain Tartuffe has tricked Orgon to legally give him all his family's wealth and property, but a sudden decree from the King demands Tartuffe be arrested and his contracts nullified. Another infamous deus ex machina can be found at the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy when Sam and Frodo, who have no hope of reaching Mount Doom in time, are suddenly whisked away to the mountain by giant eagles.
Before determining the way your story will end, you must first consider all the ways the story could logically end. Logic is important with the ending because readers do not like endings that come out of nowhere. For example, if the story about Shelby and the science fair ended with a meteor hitting the school and vaporizing the narrator, Shelby, and Chaz at the same time, the ending wouldn't feel rewarding to readers.
So how could that story's conflict--the narrator wants to work closely with Shelby on bio project vs. Chaz will hurt the narrator if they get close to Shelby--logically end? While specific endings would depend a lot on which complications were added to the story, here are the six generally reasonable outcomes:
- PROTAGONIST WINS: After finishing the project (and getting romantically close to Shelby through it), the narrator is attacked by Chaz. However, the narrator physically overpowers Chaz and gets him to promise to leave Shelby and them alone. Shelby is happy and begins dating narrator.
- PROTAGONIST PARTIALLY WINS: After finishing the project, the narrator is attacked by Chaz, and after overpowering him, gets Chaz to promise to leave Shelby and them alone. Shelby is happy, but she tells the narrator that she only wants to be friends and be single for a while. (The opposite can also happen: Chaz succeeds in ruining the project but Shelby still wants to date the narrator)
- ANTAGONIST WINS: After barely finishing the project, the narrator is attacked by Chaz on the way to class. They are beat to a pulp and the project is destroyed. Shelby expresses her disappointment to the narrator and ends their friendship. Worse still, Shelby and the narrator get a failing grade on the project.
- THE PROTAGONIST BACKS DOWN: After working with Shelby for a while, the narrator no longer wants to get to know her better. They do the entire project on their own and tell Chaz that they don't want anything more to do with Shelby, which avoids a fight.
- THE ANTAGONIST BACKS DOWN/EVERYONE WINS: The narrator confronts Chaz and, instead of picking a fight, helps him move on from Shelby so he no longer wants to interfere with the narrator.
- EVERYONE LOSES: Chaz gets in a fight with the narrator, both get suspended, the science project never gets finished, Shelby fails bio, and she never speaks to the narrator again.
A good story will pick one of these outcomes and drop hints to it throughout the story (this is called foreshadowing). A great story will foreshadow one ending throughout the story, then actually solve the conflict with a different ending (this is a plot twist). Plot twists can be difficult to do well because they need to make logical sense even though it's not what the reader predicts--this means that the true ending also has to be foreshadowed in ways the reader doesn't initially detect but easily find once they know the true ending. Otherwise, the reader will feel cheated by the ending because they could not have predicted it.
A common source of an unsatisfying ending is the use of deus ex machina, a plot device where a seemingly unsolvable problem is solved by the sudden and unexpected arrival of a character, object, or vital piece of information. An example of deus ex machina is the end of Tartuffe by Moliere: the villain Tartuffe has tricked Orgon to legally give him all his family's wealth and property, but a sudden decree from the King demands Tartuffe be arrested and his contracts nullified. Another infamous deus ex machina can be found at the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy when Sam and Frodo, who have no hope of reaching Mount Doom in time, are suddenly whisked away to the mountain by giant eagles.
But the worst deus ex machina is "it was all a dream."
NEVER end a story by saying everything was a dream.
Since endings need proper foeshadowing to feel "earned," many writers start by determing the ending for their story and work backward to make sure the events logically set up the ending.
SUMMARY IS NOT STORY
Beginning writers tend to approach stories as a summary of a character's day. Here is a list of events of one of my student's stories (let's call her "Delia"):
- Delia wakes up
- Delia eats breakfast
- Delia gets in her car to go to the airport
- Delia flies to Arizona
- Delia gets off the plane
- Delia's luggage is lost
- Delia is picked up by her cousin Jessie
- Jesse embarrasses Delia at dinner, spilling soda on her
- Jessie takes Delia to her trash-filled trailer
- Delia has to wear Jessie's dirty clothes
- Delia and Jessie talk about family for a while
- Delia has to share a bed with Jessie and gets no sleep
- Delia makes her and Jessie eggs for breakfast
- Delia takes a shower
- Jessie drives Delia to the Grand Canyon
- Delia meets a cute guy at the Canyon, but Jessie drives him away
- Jessie burns Delia with her cigarette
- Delia calls an Uber and leaves
- Delia has lunch
- Delia gets a hotel room to stay in
- Delia's luggage sent to Jessie's house
- Airline calls Delia
- Delia takes Uber to go pick up her luggage
- Jessie calls her white trash
- Delia bawls out Jessie
- Delia goes back to the hotel
- Delia has dinner
- Delia gets a ride to the airport the next morning
- Delia flies home
Notice that this story sucks--there's simply too much in it. The conflict is between Delia and Jessie, yet there are several events that do not contribute to the main conflict whatsoever. These should be cut, even though they are logically part of normal life. Stories aren't summaries--readers don't need to see characters waking up, eating, traveling, sleeping, or using the restroom unless these events have something to do with the conflict. Summaries start at the beginning of a day; stories begin at the beginning of the conflict.
I had Delia rewrite her story, and we narrowed her story down to these events:
Notice that, since not every minute of the day is described, there are time gaps dividing the four sections of the story: Delia first meeting with Jessie and getting dinner, Delia dressing for bed in dirty clothes and not getting sleep, Delia and Jessie at the Grand Canyon, and Delia getting her luggage back. The story is stripped down to just the essential action. While this is just essential action, it is not all the essential information: in the first chunk of the story, Delia will need to explain why she came to Arizona and how her luggage was lost; in the second chunk, Delia needs to describe the trash-filled apartment; in the third part, Delia must explain how she and Jessie got from sharing a bed to the Grand Canyon; and in the final chunk, Delia needs to explain how the airline called her and told her they sent her luggage to Jessie's place. This is called prior action, and is needed for the logic of a story. Yet all of this information can be conveyed in one or two sentences--scenes and paragraphs, for a story to work, must revolve solely around conflict.
I had Delia rewrite her story, and we narrowed her story down to these events:
- Delia is picked up by her cousin Jessie
- Jesse embarrasses Delia at dinner, spilling soda on her
- Delia has to wear Jessie's dirty clothes
- Delia has to share a bed with Jessie and gets no sleep
- Delia meets a cute guy at the Canyon, but Jessie drives him away
- Jessie burns Delia with her cigarette
- Delia calls an Uber and leaves
- Delia takes Uber to go pick up her luggage
- Jessie calls her white trash
- Delia bawls out Jessie
Notice that, since not every minute of the day is described, there are time gaps dividing the four sections of the story: Delia first meeting with Jessie and getting dinner, Delia dressing for bed in dirty clothes and not getting sleep, Delia and Jessie at the Grand Canyon, and Delia getting her luggage back. The story is stripped down to just the essential action. While this is just essential action, it is not all the essential information: in the first chunk of the story, Delia will need to explain why she came to Arizona and how her luggage was lost; in the second chunk, Delia needs to describe the trash-filled apartment; in the third part, Delia must explain how she and Jessie got from sharing a bed to the Grand Canyon; and in the final chunk, Delia needs to explain how the airline called her and told her they sent her luggage to Jessie's place. This is called prior action, and is needed for the logic of a story. Yet all of this information can be conveyed in one or two sentences--scenes and paragraphs, for a story to work, must revolve solely around conflict.