I’m a writer blog

Guidelines for writing Poems, Stories and Tales

Investing in the ‘wrong’ character, is it a problem with the story?

Asked by: Brandon Benedict

How does a character affect the story?

Characters serve as the driving force in your story. Your characters create and push your plot forward. Readers can experience the world that you’ve created through your characters, both from the way that your characters interact with their environment and the way that your characters view their environment.

What are some problems that can happen in a story?

These are six of the story conflicts possible in your book:

  • What are story conflicts? …
  • The 6 types of conflict:
  • Person against person. …
  • Person against nature. …
  • Person against self. …
  • Person against society. …
  • Person against the supernatural. …
  • Person against technology.

Why do characters matter in stories?

Because no matter how unique and compelling the story is, your reader simply won’t care if they’re not on board with your protagonist. As Mary Kole says, it’s important your reader fanatically love (or, sure, love to hate) your main characters. There must be passion, emotion, strong interest there.

What causes the problem in a story?

What Is Conflict? In literature and film, conflict is a clash between two opposing forces that creates the narrative thread for a story. Conflict occurs when the main character struggles with either an external conflict or an internal conflict.

What is an unreliable character?

In literature, an unreliable narrator is a character who tells a story with a lack of credibility.

Why is it important to know the character and the authors life as well?

Character building is integral to an author’s story. Whether fiction or nonfiction, the better you know and understand your characters and the way they act, the better it’ll translate in your manuscript and that’s the best thing you can do for your readers.

Does a story have to have a problem?

With a story problem, characters have goals to overcome the problem and “win.” They win the love interest, they beat the villain, they earn the promotion, etc. That story structure requires conflict because without it, the story would be over—with the character succeeding in their goal—before it even got started.

What is the main source of conflict for the main characters?

Conflict is most visible between two or more characters, usually a protagonist and an antagonist/enemy/villain, but can occur in many different forms. A character may as easily find himself or herself in conflict with a natural force, such as an animal or a weather event, like a hurricane.

What is the problem of a story that the protagonist must face?

In literature, a conflict is a literary device characterized by a struggle between two opposing forces. Conflict provides crucial tension in any story and is used to drive the narrative forward.

How do you create character problems?

Put your character in a situation that requires at least one of those challenging choices. Better yet, make them choose between the two hardest things, and make them struggle through it. In a short story or novel, the hardest thing is likely near the climax, and it might even be the crisis.

What does a problem mean in a story?

A problem in a story is a conflict that affects the characters or causes big disasters but is usually solved at the end.



How do you identify a problem in a story?

In order to identify the problem and solution structure in a text, the reader needs to look for signal words and phrases such as:

  1. Problem.
  2. The dilemma is.
  3. Issue.
  4. To solve this.
  5. To address this.
  6. Solution.
  7. Challenges.
  8. Proposed solution.

What is a problem and solution in a story?


Problem and solution. We know that a story needs to have characters setting events problem and a solution in this video we're going to focus on problem.