In all other classes, a student learns what is taught. The student is able to apply that knowledge to new situations by applying the rules and finding the correct answer. In writing fiction, though, most rules are more like guidelines. Even more significantly, you decide the answer. You are always in control of the story, from the beginning idea until the final ending of the story. When you enter into the classroom, you leave the rules behind and create your stories with imagination and characters and plot and anything you wish.
There is also no “best” story or story idea. Just as there is no best flower, each genre and story idea and each story itself is unique. Because we are a supportive and encouraging group, we will promote each other’s ideas and stories without comparing them to our own story ideas or our own favorites.
What is a story? A story is a main character who has a goal, but must face and overcome a conflict or conflicts to achieve the goal. For illustration, we used a stick figure as the main character, a diamond as the goal, and a bear in between that the main character must work through to achieve the diamond. As examples, we considered a mountain climbers and someone running a race, as well as other ideas.
We can imagine that the goal is important to us, but it doesn’t have to be. As long as the goal is important to the main character, the story will be good. We even discussed the idea behind a story in Seinfeld, where Jerry has to choose between his girlfriend and being able to continue getting his favorite soup. Jerry decides that his goal of getting the soup is worth the sacrifice of his girlfriend.
Most importantly, a story is based on conflict. The conflict can be against something huge like a bear or a dragon, or can be internal, like the fear of heights. Without conflict, there isn’t a story.
All stories must also contain the possibility of failure. If the mountain climber succeeds, that story is inspiring. However, if the mountain climber only makes it up half the mountain before his fear of heights stops him, and he runs back down the mountain and fails, it’s still an interesting story. Unless there’s a realistic chance of failure, stories will get boring. (Which is why most romance movies become stale – we already know that the girl and guy get married at the end.)
When we finished the class, everyone was working on their first story idea. We are going to continue working on the story in the next class. If you finished your story at home, you can start a new story at the next class.