Characters · Tip 14 of 82 · 4 min read
Give Your Character a Big Problem
No problem, no story! Learn how trouble makes your story exciting.
Here's a story: "Ben went to the park. He had a nice time. He went home." Was that exciting? Not really! That's because nothing went wrong. Stories need a problem. Writers call it conflict.
What kind of problems?
- Something is lost: a pet, a treasure, a friend
- Someone is in the way: a bully, a villain, a grumpy neighbour
- Nature is in the way: a storm, a flood, a giant mountain
- A problem inside: being scared, jealous, or too shy to speak up
Okay 😐
Ben went to the park and played on the swings.
Wow! 🤩
Ben went to the park to fly his new kite, but a gust of wind ripped it from his hands and dropped it at the top of the tallest oak tree, right next to a buzzing wasps' nest.
Now we want to know: will Ben get his kite back? How? Will he get stung? The problem pulls the reader forward.
Make it harder!
Here's a secret writers use: when your character tries to fix the problem, make the first try fail. Maybe Ben tries to climb the tree, but the wasps chase him down. Then he has to think of a cleverer idea. Each failure makes the ending feel more amazing.
First, Ben threw his football at the kite. It bounced off and landed in the pond. Next, he asked his big sister to help, but she was too busy on her phone. Finally, Ben had an idea. He borrowed Mrs. Patel's long window-cleaning pole...