The Big Question

 For the next month or so, I’m publishing my workshop, including worksheets, called “The Big Question” where I’ll lead you through one method of going from a simple idea to a complete outline of your novel. Remember that you can ask me questions via the comments under each blog or by hitting reply if you get my content via my .io group.  Enjoy!

The Big Question

How to Create a Powerful Novel

from a Few Ideas and One Big Question

by

Marilynn Byerly

Have you ever read a story then felt dissatisfied by it as you put it down?  

You thought about the story's elements.  The main characters were likable enough, the story had plenty of action and conflict, the bad guy was suitably bad and powerful enough to be a challenge, and the story ended the way it should, but something was missing. 

That something is often called depth or resonance, and it's that element that turns an ordinary story into one you couldn't put down.   

How do you create a story like that?  It starts with the creation of the story.

THE THREE LEVELS OF A STORY

A story has three main levels as you create it.  

LEVEL ONE

The first level is the theme or general idea.  It is the simple statement of what the story is about on a large level.  It is the Big Question.  Just a few of these questions are: 

Can illusions about your lover destroy a relationship? (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, THE GREAT GATSBY)  

Will obsession with the past destroy the future? (DAVID COPPERFIELD, MOBY DICK, GONE WITH THE WIND) 

What should you do when society and your own sense of morality clash?  (AVATAR, DANCES WITH WOLVES)

Each question has two sides. For the three examples above, the two sides would be reality versus illusion, living emotionally in the present versus living emotionally in the past, and society/duty versus moral beliefs. 

Here are some of the Big Questions I used with my published novels.

TIME AFTER TIME:  Can illusions about your lover destroy a relationship?  Reality versus illusion

THE GAME WE PLAY: After total betrayal, can a person regain their trust?  Trust versus distrust

THE ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN: Will obsession with the past destroy the future? Living emotionally in the present versus living emotionally in the past

GUARDIAN ANGEL: What is true nobility?  The commoner prince versus the noble-born frog

A good Big Question must have strong cases on both sides to work.  

If, for example, you choose the Big Question “Is rape acceptable in a romantic relationship?” (rape versus consensual sex) you'd have a hard time making both sides equally strong because most of us in contemporary society find nothing acceptable about rape, and you probably couldn't either.