Questions in Storytelling
Hey everyone! Sunny D here with another writing post. This is one I actually thought of yesterday while I was tutoring someone, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. You know when you try something new and then it works so well you just have to talk about it? Yeah. Welcome to this post.
My plotting and planning process tends to be fairly linear. I'm used to planning in terms of events and occurrences and going from there in terms of everything else I need. With this process, I often get the "what," but not the "why."
Plotting with questions takes this concept and flips it on its head. I actually started thinking about it not too long ago during a tutoring session, so I figured Iâd talk about it here!
Why are questions in storytelling important?
At the core of the concept, we use questions in our storytelling to keep readers reading. One of the biggest things youâll hear in terms of writing advice is that you always want to keep your readers guessing whatâs next. However, this often leads to cheap thrills and twists that donât quite make sense.Â
Questions in storytelling are important in a bit of a weird way. By the time a question comes to its natural answer, the readers should already have the tools and the information they need to answer it on their own. And, uh, this is tough to do without directly giving the answer! Planning a story around these questions kind of takes out those in-between moments.
How can I plan a story with questions?
There are a few different ways! The two main ways I tend to plan with questions revolve around the what and the why - it just depends on the answers you need. For the purpose of this post, letâs say the story culminates in Margaret killing Jimmy over a debt problem. We can take two different perspectives to planning this scenario with questions.
What does Margaret do to resolve her debt problem?
This is the what or the how type of question. What does Margaret do; how does she solve her problem? This kind of question is the kind of route for writers who know the motivation for an action, but not the action itself. We know what Margaret wants, but not how she gets it.
This type of question aligns most closely with the normal outline plan we use, and it establishes the plot as it moves along. It builds forward.
Margaret kills Jimmy. Why?
This is the why question. We know what Margaret does, but we donât yet have her motivation. In asking this question, we donât know what Margaret is hoping to achieve in killing Jimmy. We have an action, but not a motivation.
These questions lead to a backwards-planning scenario. The story builds as we navigate through it, and it leads to our ability to give readers clues to Margaretâs motivation before itâs said outright. The other type of planning gives clues as to what Margaret might do, while this type builds to why.
What if I have multiple questions?
Here, we navigate into the territory of multiple plots and subplots. I say, do it the way youâd normally plan! Things in a story are meant to tangle and interact; thatâs just how they work.
This is something Iâm still learning about myself, but itâs really serving me well. New methods of planning always help me bring back that spark for writing, and this is one of them! I definitely recommend giving it a try if youâre looking to experiment or learn something new!
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