My CFT post Story Analysis - Why Bother? looks at why story analysis works and why it is useful for writers. But how do your characters work out if things are working the way they should be?
Usually your characters take a while to work out when things are going wrong (and this is particularly true if someone is a traitor to a group of characters. It takes time to figure out something is not right and then deduce who the guilty party is).
I suppose it is a reflection of human nature that characters often have to realise something is wrong (as opposed to knowing things are going well). But therein lies the drama and conflict and without all of that, there is no story.
Interesting lines of thought to follow for stories are when characters are put in situation where they are in a different culture and have to adjust their thinking. How easy is it for them to do that? Do they manage to blend in with their new surroundings or do they stick out?
But there you have a character who has to got to work out how things work in their new environment. Also work out what the consequences are for if/when your character gets this wrong. Is the new situation they're in welcoming to strangers or not? Increase the tensions and the pressures on your characters to get this right to ratchett up the stakes the character has to "play for" to achieve whatever goal has been set as the story aim.
Usually your characters take a while to work out when things are going wrong (and this is particularly true if someone is a traitor to a group of characters. It takes time to figure out something is not right and then deduce who the guilty party is).
I suppose it is a reflection of human nature that characters often have to realise something is wrong (as opposed to knowing things are going well). But therein lies the drama and conflict and without all of that, there is no story.
Interesting lines of thought to follow for stories are when characters are put in situation where they are in a different culture and have to adjust their thinking. How easy is it for them to do that? Do they manage to blend in with their new surroundings or do they stick out?
But there you have a character who has to got to work out how things work in their new environment. Also work out what the consequences are for if/when your character gets this wrong. Is the new situation they're in welcoming to strangers or not? Increase the tensions and the pressures on your characters to get this right to ratchett up the stakes the character has to "play for" to achieve whatever goal has been set as the story aim.
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