Just as the first chapter should be a place of intent, pointing the reader in the direction of the novel’s main story, story itself should unfold in a way that the writer manages. What is a story and how can you write one that appeals to readers?
Writing Tip for Today: The best writers make their work look easy. Perhaps that’s why writers sometimes think their story is going to form itself through some sort of intuitive process. While there may be a few natural storytellers, most writers must learn to craft story through reading, trial and error and most of all, practice.

• Think of a story as “the formed record of a character testing conflict, told from a point of view.” The first part of the definition, “formed,” should alert you as the writer that for all the talk about characters taking over, in the end it’s up to you to form the story.
• Nearly all good fiction springs from some type of formula. Character + Want + Obstacles = Struggle is one such formula. So is the collision of opposites as in, religious devotion + sexual love =?
• Another way to think of a story is beginning, middle and end. In the beginning (aka Act One) you set-up the character, problem and obstacles. In the middle, (the long Act Two)you build up these elements and play out the conflict and in the end (a short Act Three) you pay-off the story by rewarding the reader with the resolution or how things turned out.

Try This! Insert your novel’s character, want, obstacle and outcome of the struggle into the formula. In what ways does this brief summary alert you to the shape of the story?