Making Story Problems Relevant

Most stories are about characters solving problems. Sometimes they're explicit (the detective must find the murderer before he/she kills again) and sometimes implied (the former lovers must learn to forgive their respective past actions if they are to love again). They might be small problems (your sisters are socially embarrassing) or big problems (the baddie's going to blow up the world unless you find the detonator), but what they have to be is relevant to the readership.

Think of books aimed at the youngest children. They're about problems like bed time, and the arrival of new siblings. A little bit older and the problems are about going to school or losing teeth. A bit older, and the problems shift to friendship groups and independence. Teenagers' problems are around things like peer-group pressure and sexuality. The problems are relevant to their readership - not many teenagers are worrying about paying their mortgage, not many pre-schoolers are thinking about their exams.

It's the same with adult fiction: the problems need to be relevant to the readership. Joanna Trollope's The Rector's Wife, featuring a middle-class heroine who took a job stacking supermarket shelves to make some money, became a best seller in a recession. The Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella became popular in a time when the economy was booming, and spending £1000s on shopping was fine. It seems out of date in these more austere times - I expect there are many books in the pipeline where redundancy and financial problems are central issue.

And of course there's the fantasy element, so the James Bond books featuring foreign travel and the high life were written at a time of austerity when travel abroad was expensive and difficult, and I can't help but suspect that the popularity of the Twilight series in part is down to the sexual pressures on teenage girls and young women today.

Problems don't have to be directly relevant - for example, not many of us live in a stratified society with limited life choices as depicted in Jane Austen's novels, but most of us still live with a limited social circle where we hope to make a good choice of a partner.

The more relevant the problem, the wider the readership. Most people aren't going to be interested in how I'm solving some structural problems in my current novel so I haven't said anything to my friends and family about it, but I have written about them on this blog as I think solutions to writing problems may interest my readership here.

Think about the problems your characters are solving in your writing, and work out how relevant they are to your readership. And if they're not that relevant, then now's the time to make them so.

Problem Scenes

I've been struggling with a scene recently.  Writing it was awful; I sighed and huffed and puffed and thought about other careers I could do and was it too late to train as a brain surgeon or something.  In the end I followed my own advice and jumped to the next scene.

Oh, what a difference.  Suddenly the little birds sang in the trees and the sun shone through the window and my fingers flew across the keyboard.  Writing was easy!  Writing was the best job in the world!  Yippee!

Afterwards I thought about it.  Why had there been such a difference?  

My problem was, there wasn't a problem.  By which I mean, the viewpoint character didn't have a problem to solve.  Scenes normally flow between action and reaction scenes, and this was a reaction scene, but there was nothing else.  All the viewpoint character was doing was thinking about what had happened in the past.  There was nothing that moved the scene on.  

So, what should I have added?  The magic word here is change.  Something had to change.  It doesn't have to be big.  The character could have been given a piece of information and had to change as a result - whether it was her global world view or what she was doing on Saturday night was irrelevant.  Without change we don't move forwards, and writing is about moving forwards.  

NEW!!! I've finally got round to organising some course dates....

How to WRITE a Novel: London 3rd May/Birmingham 7th May/

Exeter 21st May

How to SELL a Novel: London 24th May/Exeter 4th June/

Bath 3rd July Details are on my website

Problem : Solution : Problem

If you're stuck with your plot try this: think of it in terms of problems and solutions.  

Take Cinderella, for example.  She wants to go to the ball, but doesn't have any kit - that's her problem.  The solution?  The Fairy Godmother provides it.  But - and this is the clever bit - the solution comes with a problem attached.  So, the kit's going to vanish at midnight - Problem.  

Cinders goes to the ball, falls in love so forgets about the time - Problem.  Solution - she runs away, before telling the Prince how to find her  - Problem. 

The Prince wants to find her - Problem - but all there is is the slipper - Solution - but who does it fit? - Problem - get everybody to try it on - Solution - but the ugly sisters keep Cinders away - Problem - until she pushes herself forward/Buttons pushes her forward and tries it on - Solution.  

In real life we have problems, and our solutions usually sort them out for us.  I want to avoid X (problem) so I cross the road (solution).  However, in fiction, our solutions can't work out.  I cross the road (solution) and get run over (problem). Try looking at your story line.  If too many of your solutions work for your characters, then it's not going to be a compelling read.  

Problems in Synopses

Each of the following extracts were taken from three real synopses, but I've doctored them a bit to protect the guilty (of whom I was one...).

Q: Can you spot the common problem?

1.

One blazing hot July, fourteen year old Jane and her recently widowed mother move into a new house and Jane falls instantly for the boy next door, John. But he's nineteen and a student at Oxford, and takes no more notice of her than he does the family's pet dog. After taking her GCSEs Jane wants to go to university but her mother is ill and Jane needs to find a job instead. She begins work as shop assistant in a department store, hoping to be accepted onto the management trainee scheme.

2.

Bored and restless, Isabel takes a part-time job with Patrick Sherwin, who has recently moved into the area, living and working in a cottage belonging to his sister Mary. Almost to her surprise she starts having an affair with Patrick, who says that he does not want any commitment which she agrees to.

3.

Sophie meets John, a stand-up comedian and together they tour the working men’s clubs of Northern England. John reacts to paternity in a major way and decides that he must bring up their five children, Megan, Morag, Michael, Sandy and Mandy, away from the dangers of the Big Wen. Sophie agrees to leave her job as marketing manager and the family move to the West Country where they hope to find paradise.

A: They've all got time slips, all of which were quite genuine and unnoticed by the authors.

1. There's an implied gap between 14 year old Jane's arrival, and her taking her GCSEs. Unless she's utterly brilliant that would be two years later, at sixteen. So what's been going on in the mean time?

2. This was from my first draft and it always makes me laugh (now). 'Almost to her surprise she starts having an affair...' So, she was walking down the street when - whoosh - she's having an affair? Like she slipped in something dodgy on the pavement. Again, there's an implied time lapse.

3. Two time slips here. Firstly, when did she produce those five children? Secondly, she was touring the working men's clubs a few sentences ago, so how and when did she manage to become a marketing manager?

None of the authors spotted the time slips, but when you read them it jars. So, ask someone else to check your synopsis before you let it go out.