A Primer on the Story Problem and Story Question
Your novel's main conflict is the keystone bridging your inciting incident and climax.
This post was originally published on May 17, 2024. Due to an influx of new subscribers—-HOORAY and THANK YOU—I wanted to share this important info again for aspiring authors. And to those of you in the US, enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend. xoxoxo ~Ivy
Hello readers and writers! I hope you enjoyed my series of posts highlighting the authors featured at Chicago’s first Romantasy Fest held last March. I loved reading through my book haul and all of its variety. Vampires. Angels. Demons. Mages. Witches. Raek. And a LOT of romance. If you’ve had a chance to read any of the titles featured here on Romantasy Realms, let me know what you thought about them in the comments.
However, this post is going to pivot back to writing craft. Today’s topic is two-fold. First: I’m examining the story problem, a structural element that is so necessary in crafting a page-turning tale that it is often overlooked in discussion about creative writing. That leads directly into the second topic: the story question. At the heart of the story problem and story question is conflict. Clearly every story has a conflict, right?
RIGHT?
By the time your novel gets into reader’s hands, yes. However, as a developmental editor, I see stories at all stages of writing. If a writer is paying me to read their draft, it’s usually because something is not quite right, but they can’t put their finger on the issue. It’s my job to not only identify why a particular story isn’t holding up, but also devise a list of actionable solutions to take that story from draft to finished manuscript.
I begin my developmental edit by defining the major source of conflict the protagonist needs to overcome. This source of conflict, the thing that gets the protagonist involved in the story in the first place, is called the story problem. Without this key structural element, your story will lack a meaningful plot.
Examples of story problems in traditional fantasy literature include Mordor’s resurgence in the The Lord of the Rings, or the Dragon’s rebirth in The Wheel of Time. The story problem in all of Jane Austen’s romances revolves around finding a suitable spouse. In A Court of Thorns and Roses, an evil queen has enslaved the fae realm of Prythian.
Once you’ve identified the overarching story problem AND you have created a main character, it’s time to devise your story question. In a nutshell, you want the reader asking the following question in their head. “CAN the main character overcome the story problem?” Stopping to ask yourself this question before you continue writing is absolutely necessary, especially if you are a pantser. The story question is the foundation of your plot and the very reason your story exists. By combing the story problem with the protagonist, you also begin to create the specific details and drama that will keep readers turning pages. After all, the story question demands an answer. Will the main character succeed in their quest or die trying? Will the protagonist find love or die a lonely spinster? Will the realm survive or be destroyed by evil from within?
When determining your story question, keep the following points in mind:
If the story question is not specific, your readers will lose interest.
If the story question lacks stakes for the main character, your readers will lose interest.
If the story question is resolved prior to the climax, your readers will lose interest.
If we return to the examples above, it is easy to see how the story question is formulated by pivoting the protagonist against the problem. In LOTR, the story question is “Will Frodo succeed in destroying The One Ring to save Middle Earth from Mordor?” ACOTAR’s story question is “Can Feyre overcome the evil ruling Prythian in order to save the male she loves?”
Once you have identified your story problem and question, you have the necessary tools to create your inciting incident, your major plot beats in either three or five acts, and your climax. The climatic scene’s mission to answer the story question with a YES or a NO.
You would be surprised at how many draft manuscripts do not follow this tried and true advice. In order for a story to hold together, there must be a path—the plot—leading directly from the inciting incident to the climax.
No matter where you are at in your current WIP, I invite you to look at your story as an editor and reader to see if the story problem is driving the plot, or if you’ve created unrelated drama that adds conflict at the cost of cohesiveness. If you are pantsing your first draft, you may not know the story question until that discovery process of writing is over. However, by the time you move on to your first revision, you should have a precise story question that has a definite YES or NO answer. If not, your story is on a shaky foundation. My advice is to rethink the overarching conflict you wish to write about, revise your outline and or create an outline from your first draft, and rewrite the scenes to come into alignment with both the story problem and question.
Do you have any questions about the story problem or the story question? If so, let me know in the comments! I also have spots available in my coaching calendar for summer 2024. You still have a few days to take advantage of my first free coaching session if you would like to discuss your story and see if we might be a good fit. I am currently closed to new clients, but subscribe to Romantasy Realms to be one of the first folks to know about future openings!
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