What Makes a Story Go Flat? Part 1

Have you ever read a novel where the story felt flat? Probably you’ve read plenty, and if you’re like me, you didn’t even finish the book.

While there are many things that can contribute to this problem, this series is going to look at 3 of them: desire, stakes, and change.

We’re going to first look at desire. It’s the engine that drives the story.

Simply put, it is what your protagonist wants. I’m not talking something simple like “I want to figure out what to eat for dinner,” unless of course, your character has been stranded on a desert island and dinner is a matter of survival. That gets me to the core of this subject: the character must want this deeply enough to face a struggle and risks in accomplishing it.

For every novel, there is story-level and scene-level desires.

Story-Level Desire

This is the protagonist’s story arc. It must

• Be concrete, such as “I want to find my soul mate and get married.” A goal of “I want a happier life” is too vague. The reader must have a reason to root for the character to achieve this goal. That can’t happen if the goal is vague. The character’s action to achieve it unfolds throughout the story.
• Be clear to the reader in the opening pages of the story, which prompts the reader to ask “will this character achieve the goal?” The reader then actively engages in rooting for the character. If the character has no goal, the reader has no reason to root for them (and no reason to read the book).
• Have stakes attached to not achieving the desire. If there is nothing at risk in failing, there is little motivation for the character to fight for what they want, and the reader doesn’t worry about the character failing because there is no cost attached to it.

Scene-Level

This is what the protagonist wants right now in this scene. Like the story-level desire, the scene-level desire must be concrete, clear to the reader, and have stakes attached. This keeps your reader engaged in the story.

Ideally, most scene-level desires support or advance the story-level desire, but this doesn’t have to be the case for every scene. What is critical is that the scene earns its place in the story by

• advancing the plot,
• developing the characters,
• deepening relationships, or
• setting up future events.

How does your story stack up so far? Are you clear on your protagonist’s story desire? Are you certain your reader is clear?

Examine your scenes. What is the POV character’s desire in the scene? Is it concrete and clear to the reader? What are the stakes attached to it?

If desire is weak or missing from your story, it will fall flat.

Stay tuned, next time, we’ll look at stakes.