Every story decision you make puts you on a path, and the choices for your characters will narrow as the story draws to its conclusion. Let’s say you begin a novel with a character named Richard hoping to go to outer space.

At this point, your novel could be about a number of things. Perhaps Richard falls in love and discovers that marriage is more important to him. Maybe he gets injured and puts his dreams of space exploration away. Maybe he joins the Air Force and goes to war instead. In the beginning, there are a vast number of forking paths. But as the novel progresses, it should become clearer in the reader’s mind not only what climax your protagonist must reach but how that climax will probably occur.

If you spend 200 pages following Richard through training to become an astronaut, then the reader will be expecting him to get on a rocket, or tragically fail at his quest. Crucially, this resolution is the only climax that will satisfy the audience. The climax does not have to mean fireworks, but it does have to mean a profound change, either for your protagonist or for their world. Whatever that change is, you’ve been building the whole story toward this moment. You’ve been making a promise to the reader that this conflict would eventually occur—and get resolved—and good storytelling will deliver on its promises (contracts).

In his book How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling (1987), James Frey describes the crucible effect, which is when an environment or situation becomes inescapable for your characters and forces them toward a story’s climax. This crucible usually comes about as a result of a character’s decisions, which is a result of the pressures put upon them.

Not every story will have a crucible, but most of them do. For example, in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954), what if Frodo had decided not to bring the ring to Mordor? Tolkien spends a great deal of time showing that Frodo is the only one who can carry the ring, and suggesting what might happen if he fails. All of this work creates the crucible effect for Frodo, making him (and the reader) feel that he has no choice but to reach Mordor, no matter what it might cost him.

When expanding your narrative, you’re going to need to create conflict for your protagonist. For this, you’ll need forces of antagonism that work against them. In genre writing, antagonists are usually arch-villains, but they don’t have to be people, they can be any oppositional element that thwarts your character’s main desire. In crafting this conflict, it’s helpful to remember some basic principles of antagonism.

• The stronger the forces of antagonism are, the more well-developed your character will become.

• The conflict should be tailored to your protagonist’s main desire.

• Antagonism has to increase with time, or you’ll lose the reader’s interest.

HOMEWORK

For this assignment, delve deep into your imagination using the prompts from the "Calendar of Tales" Questions. Follow the steps below:

1. Choose and respond to one of the questions listed.

2. Using your response as inspiration, write a short story of any genre that is at least 300 words in length. Use wordcounter.

3. Post your short story in the comments section before our next class (Day 1).

4. Take the time to provide a short critique on a peer's story.

5. AI-generated text will be excluded from the award (only Grammarly is allowed).

The Calendar of Tales Questions:

1. Why is January so dangerous?

2. What’s the strangest thing that ever happened to you in February?

3. What historical figure does March remind you of?

4. What’s your happiest memory of April?

5. What’s the weirdest gift you’ve ever been given in May?

6. Where would you spend a perfect June?

7. What’s the most unusual thing you have ever seen in July?

8. If August could speak, what would it say?

9. Tell me something you lost in September that meant a lot to you.

10. What mythical creature would you like to meet in October? And why?

11. What would you burn in November, if you could?

12. Who would you like to see again in December?

I will select the three best pieces, and each winning student will receive a ₩5,000 gift card. I will also select one student for the best critique or reply, who will receive a separate reward.