Emotion is the principal vehicle for storytelling, and we only feel the story through the experience of the protagonist: we feel what they feel, and if we don’t know what they’re feeling then we don’t feel anything at all (except, perhaps, bored). Thus, the reader must always know how the characters or feeling. Lets look at how we achieve this.
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Jen may hate her job marketing sanitary products but it lets her keep control, keep control over her relationship with lawyer Robert, keep an eye on her younger sister Lydia who lost a leg in the accident that killed both her parents, and keep her life in spreadsheet perfect order so that she has time to follow her true passion: craft brewing. An unexpected proposal, followed by an even more unexpected kiss, throws her order into chaos and forces her to ask: how is it that she really wants to live?
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Radu Morare, an author and American expat of Romanian origins whose business failed during the financial crisis, winds up working as a security guard on the French stock market room: a blue-collar worker surrounded by investment bankers in a reality entirely detached from our own. From a spiritual awakening in a stuck elevator to faeces deposited on a superior’s desk, Radu witnesses the bizarre behaviour of those who believe themselves masters of the French economy, and his enquiring mind drives him to demand: why?
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I’ve described how from the beginning of our story until the very end our character is trapped in a cycle or wanting something, being presented by an obstacle that prevents them getting what they want, taking an action that risks something important to them, and then either succeeding or failing depending on how they handle their flaws.
In the last exercise we worked on writing the impact of failure to achieve what they want (they can make progress, by the by – the should make some sort of progress – but ultimate success has to wait until the last pages of the book). So how do we get from their to the next cycle of want/obstacle/action?
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So, we have a conflict (want vs obstacle), an action (driven by a flaw or an attempt to overcome a flaw), and now we need a resolution.
The principal purpose of the resolution is to show the emotional consequences of the character’s flaws being challenged. Remember, a flaw is essentially a harmful world view – and learning that the world is not the way you think it is can easily be one of the most painful things you will ever experience.
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