Want to write a great story?

Use these ten questions to get ideas for any

kind of story, whether you’re going for classic literary, romance, or
action adventure. Let’s see where your story leads you!

1. DOES YOUR STORY TAKE PLACE IN 6. WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER

TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS? Of the AFRAID OF? Your character’s biggest
nine bestselling novels of all time, all fear is your story’s secret weapon.
nine are set in two different worlds. Don’t run from it, write about it.

Think Harry Potter’s Muggle vs. 7. DOES YOUR CHARACTER COME

Wizarding world. Or A Tale of Two INTO AN UNEXPECTED FORTUNE?
Cities’ stable London and Not all fortunes are good. Sometimes
revolutionary Paris.
discovering a fortune will destroy
2. DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE you.

SCARS? We all have scars. To be a 8. DOES YOUR CHARACTER BUMP

writer, Stephen King says, “the only INTO HIS OR HER SOULMATE?
requirement is the ability to Literally, bump into. In film, this is
remember every scar.” Tap into your called the “meet cute,” when the
own scars to unlock the scars in your hero bumps into the heroine in the
characters.
hallway, knocking her books to the
floor, and forcing them into
3. DOES YOUR STORY INVOLVE
conversation.

DEATH? Good writers don’t turn

away from death, which is, after all,
the universal human experience.
Instead, they look it directly into its
dark face and describe what they see
on the page.
only to be delayed by something
4. IS YOUR MAIN CHARACTER AN
ORPHAN? Think for a moment about
9. IS YOUR CHARACTER ON A
JOURNEY? Is that journey
interrupted by disaster? Who hasn’t
been longing to get to a destination
unexpected? This is the plot of
Gravity, The Odyssey, and even Lord
of the Rings.

all great stories about orphans in

literature and film. Orphans are 10. DOES YOUR CHARACTER RUN INTO
uniquely vulnerable and thus have THE PATH OF A MONSTER?
the most potential for growth.
Monsters, whether people who do
monstrous things or scaly beasts or
5. ARE THERE GHOSTS? What do Edgar
natural disasters, always reveal
Allen Poe, Ron Weasley, King Saul
what’s inside a person. Let your
from the Bible, Odysseus, and
character fall into the path of a
Ebeneezer Scrooge have in common?
monster and see how they handle
They all saw ghosts! Everyone
themselves.
wonders about the afterlife. Have fun
with it!

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