Following yesterday's musings on plotting, I was thinking today about how to firm up the second story thread into a real story. See, it's been bugging me that, although the second thread exists in the story I've been trying to write, it isn't a story in itself. It was just a series of undirected scenes (unwritten) with no purpose.

Because I've been thinking back to Clarion West advice, it occurred to me to attempt a technique that Octavia Butler got us to try right back at the beginning of Clarion West 2001. Basically, what you have to do is write a single sentence summing up the story. It includes the character, the arc the story must go through (whether it's an emotional arc, a plot obstacle, whatever) and how it is resolved. I'll give an example that is similar in structure to the one that I've come up with for the story I've been working on (not exactly the same, as I don't want to give anything away about the story to those of you who might one day read it).

A boy must learn to overcome his fear of death

in order to free two trapped people.

You've got the character: the boy. You've got his obstacle: fear of death. You've got the outcome: the freeing of the trapped people.

Now, I'm not very good at doing these sentences. They're actually pretty hard. Looking at the sentence I've come up with, I would like to say how he overcomes his fear and be more clear about the resolution of the story. But it's a start, and it gives a frame to hang the story on. That's what I didn't have before, and I do now. The story may change by the end. That happens. However, I know that every scene I write must now progress that sentence in some way, and I may now be ready to write the story.