{"id":900,"date":"2011-08-29T01:06:32","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T06:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=900"},"modified":"2011-08-23T08:19:04","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T13:19:04","slug":"express-a-story-in-one-sentence-or-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2011\/08\/express-a-story-in-one-sentence-or-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Express a Story in One Sentence (or Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n

Here is a technique to express a story (short story or full novel) in one sentence (or two). It is from Dwight V. Swain.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have been reviewing some of the books on writing that I have read in the past decade. Good books are like that – you can review them and relearn wonderful things.<\/p>\n

Here is a good starting point for a story from Dwight V. Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer<\/em><\/a> (a 30-year-old book).<\/p>\n

What elements do you really need in a story outline? You should have:<\/p>\n

a. A focal character.<\/p>\n

b. A situation in which this character is involved.<\/p>\n

c. An objective Character seeks to attain.<\/p>\n

d. An opponent who strives against Character.<\/p>\n

e. A potential climatic disaster on which to hing the resolution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For example, (also from Swain’s book):<\/p>\n

Pursued by his boss’s amoral wife, Linda, Steve Grannis decides to seek a transfer, so that his home and career won’t be destroyed. But can he escape, when Linda swears that she’ll have him fired and ruined if he tries to leave?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is another example from a short story I am writing currently:<\/p>\n

Matt is saddled with college debt, but he has a plan to work his way out slowly. He is doing well, but can he keep to the plan or will fatigue overcome his efforts?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dwayne Phillips Here is a technique to express a story (short story or full novel) in one sentence (or two). It is from Dwight V. Swain. I have been reviewing some of the books on writing that I have read in the past decade. Good books are like that – you can review them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions\/901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}