Session 1.13 - Story Spine: And Every Day
THE GOAL: Nail down 10 things that define your hero's "normal life" at the beginning of the story (and that are likely to change).
Time commitment: 20 minutes

Stories are about CHANGE. Your character and their world are going to change in a bunch of different ways over the course of your story. If you can put some stakes in the ground at the beginning and end to define that change, you'll have an easier time figuring out everything that happens in between.
Sign in to Google to save your progress. Learn more
Email *
Your name:
Improv tool: Specificity
Improv Drill: Get more Specific!
Story Spine: And Every Day...
If "Once Upon a Time" gives us a sense of our character and the world they live in, AND EVERY DAY... tells us more about what their life is like—their day-to-day hopes and dreams and struggles and frustrations. These are all the things that are very likely going to change over the course of the story.

Attach this to the Moral.
Writing Goal: Nail Down 10 Things About Your Hero That are Likely to Change
Answer 10 broad questions as specifically as possible to tell us more about your main character's normal everyday life. What are the things that they're

SMALL PRINT WARNING: Some of these questions might not feel like a perfect fit for your story. Just do your best to stretch to answer them in ANY way you can, and take comfort in the fact that this is just an exercise, and anything you don't like you can abandon.
Writing Exercise 1a: How is your hero hurting or limiting themselves? (Try to keep each answer limited to two or three sentences, the shorter and more specific the better. )
Writing Exercise 3a: What is your main character irrationally afraid of or can't bring themselves to do?
Writing Exercise 4a: What is comfortable in your main characters's life right now (for better or for worse)?
Writing Exercise 5a: How is your main character hurting or annoying or failing the people around them?
Two sentences. Be specific!
Writing Exercise 6a: Who in their life is hurting or annoying or failing them?
Two sentences. Be specific!
Writing Exercise 7a: What is wrong or broken about the world they live in?
Two sentences. Try to be both brief and specific! :)
Writing Exercise 8a: How are bad people in their world getting away with bad things?
Two sentences. Be specific!
Writing Exercise 9a: How is your main character currently inadequate or incapable? What skill have they not yet mastered?
Two sentences. Be specific!
Writing Exercise 10a: How is their love life? Or other key relationship?
Writing Exercise 11a: Who is someone in their life with whom they have a problematic relationship (non-romantic)?
Writing Exercise 12a: Who is underestimating them or ignoring them (or doesn't even know they exist)?
Writing Exercise 13a: What is missing/incomplete/unfinished about them physically or in terms of their appearance?
Writing Exercise 14a: What do they not have or possess?
Writing Exercise ?a: What does your main character want (or THINK they want)? What concrete, external, hard-to-achieve goal will they be pursuing for most of the story?
(e.g. Phil wants to get out of Punxsutawney and back to his life in the city.)
Writing Exercise ?a: What does your main character actually need? What specific, internal thing are they missing that will prove the Moral of the Story when they finally get it?
(e.g. Phil needs
Writing Exercise 15: Rewrite your "And Every Day..." with as many of today's answers as you think you might like to use in your story.
(e.g. And Every Day Phil was shitty to his co-workers, sleazy with women, ungenerous to strangers, habitually single, hated Punksatawny, was jaded about his job, etc.)
Beta Tester feedback (optional)
If you have any thoughts or feedback at all about this process, please drop them here! Enthusiasm, complaints, criticisms and suggestions are all encouraged!
A copy of your responses will be emailed to the address you provided.
Submit
Clear form
Never submit passwords through Google Forms.
reCAPTCHA
PrivacyTerms
This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google. Report Abuse - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy
Google Forms