Obstacle Course

Human beings are wired for stories. Not all stories are equal, however, and those that interest the brain are the ones where there is something happening. We are all storytellers. Every day we tell stories. Some are very boring stories. Let’s imagine that Paul was asked what he did last Tuesday. Paul says ‘Well, I went to the bank to sort out my loan and then I went shopping and after that I had go and pick up a prescription….’ It’s a narrative, albeit an uninteresting one.

Let’s re-write that narrative to say, ‘Well, I went to the bank to sort my loan out and I was standing in line and suddenly there was this almighty bang!’

There are a few reasons why the second version of what happened on Tuesday is more interesting. Firstly, there is the element of surprise. In version 1 it would be no surprise to learn that Paul’s loan was sorted out because that’s what banks do. It is a surprise, however, when a masked gunman enters the bank. So, writers need to think about what is not expected to happen as well as what is. It doesn’t need to be as dramatic as the above example, but something has to come out of somewhere to upset the balance.

Secondly, upsetting the balance means change. Some people thrive on change, but most people don’t. Most films and novels deal with change to some degree. A protagonist faces the challenges that are thrown out and undergoes trials and tribulations until something is resolved. This resolution doesn’t necessarily have to have a happy ending. It can have an unhappy ending or an ending where no one is really sure about how anyone feels after the turmoil and the change that has resulted. It has to be interesting, however.

This brings me to obstacle.

Writers need to give their protagonists an obstacle that prevents the protagonist from getting what they want. Give your protagonist a wish, or a happy life, or great relationship or whatever.

Then take it away.

Perhaps they never had what they wanted in the first place and that’s all right as well as long as they go through some sort of journey to get to it. If they had it, and then it was taken away, they need to go through some sort of epiphany to get back on track again. It may not be in the same form. It doesn’t matter. Overcoming the obstacle is the journey that the character goes through in order to bring about this change.

Don’t leave the obstacle too late in your story. Make sure that the reader has something to invest in and that they care about what is in the way of the character getting what he or she wants. They have to care as much as you do. Set up the tension and conflict earlier rather than later. If you are writing a short story then of course you need to set up the dilemma quite quickly unless you are keeping back most of the information for a twist at the end.

So, give your protagonist an obstacle. Put something in the way of them getting what they want. Build that wall and then let them tear it down. Give them an obstacle course and see how they negotiate the challenges that face them.

Even in a bank.