Home: Writing for Comic Books: Chapter Two - Plot and Story Construction: Driving the Narrative

Chapter Two
Plot and Story Construction
(cont'd)

DRIVING THE NARRATIVE

As you write your story, make sure there is always a compelling reason for the audience to keep reading. There should always be an unanswered question or an unresolved dilemma that drives the narrative. I made it a point to explain that after every minor complication there needs to be falling action, but you don't want to fall into a cadence where you introduce a problem, solve it, introduce another problem, solve that problem, introduce a third problem, resolve it, and so on. It makes it easy for a reader to stop reading once you've posed the solution to the immediate question.

Think of it this way: what makes a novel a "page turner?" Generally, it's because the author ends each scene and/or chapter with a new question or unresolved action (think complication), making it difficult to put down the book.

At the beginning of your story, you might want to pose several questions. That way, as the story progresses and you answer some of the questions, there are still some left hanging. As you move along and answer some questions, the answers may pose new questions. The climax and denouement is when you answer the last of the questions or resolve all of the conflicts. If you do so prior to the climax, what's the point of the audience sticking around?

In a long story or in serial fiction, we often use subplots to help maintain reader interest. As the main plot may be in falling action, the subplot may be rising. This keep's the reader's interest piqued. As Hero Woman recovers from her most recent battle with Villain Person, Terrible Despot's plans may be coming to fruition across town. Below you will find two examples of story structure.

In a single-installment story, you want the climaxes of the main plot and the sub-plot(s) to intersect, coincide, or interrelate on some level, if not physically, then thematically. By the end of your story, all of your questions should be answered. The exception to that is if you wish to leave one or two questions that the audience has to answer for themselves. This can make for intriguing storytelling, but you should at least resolve something for them--preferably the main conflict/dilemma.

In serial/episodic fiction, each installment should have hanging questions that will cause the audience to want to come back for the next chapter. I strongly believe that every installment should resolve or reveal something; have its own beginning, middle, and end; and its own climax and denouement. Given the state of the comic book market these days, you want to give the consumers the feeling that they got something for the price of their admission.

Regardless of whether you are writing a stand alone story or a single installment of episodic fiction, your subplot's minor complications and climaxes should never overshadow the climax of your main story. The main plot must have the most intensity in terms of complications and consequences and should hold the majority of space in terms of pages.

We'll discuss structure in more detail as to how it applies to writing a comic book script in a later chapter, but before we get to that point, we should discuss what is at the heart all good stories: characters...