This entry is part 3 of 13 in the series Story Genius Method - Pillar

The consequence of doing things live…

Haha so I’ve never written a blog post live before. This feels completely different than if I were writing it without you guys looking over my shoulder 🙂

In the previous two parts I went through Lisa’s method of generating a story idea. We began with the first pinprick, and landed with a thematic answer to the question “what’s the point?” So now we’re faced with developing a fleshed out what if question (or, as fleshed out as we can) that gives us a picture of the character while testing him in a way that illustrates that main point.

For me, I needed a scenario where the little boy was:

1) Justified in taking a course of action
2) Responded to his justification poorly
3) Faced serious consequences for his poor response
4) Humbled himself and made the appropriate changes to make things right.

So this is the What If I landed on:

What if a small boy is given a bow and arrow, but all of the arrows turn into pillars once they land? His village is threatened and so he builds a wall of arrows to protect it, but he’s a total jerk about it belittling all of his friends, counselors, and family for their ideas. His arrogance leads him to foolishly abandon his best friend, and be tricked by the opposing village into building a bridge that allows them to steal all of their food. In order to get their food food back he has to humble himself and listen to those he belittled to craft a plan to undo his mistake.

Do you think my What If is strong enough to build a story on? What do you like? What do you think needs improvement? Let me know in the comments!

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