What Is Your Central Story Question?
Some of the most successful and complex stories can boil down to answering just one question:
Will Frodo succeed in throwing the ring into Mt. Doom and destroying Sauron forever? (The Lord of the Rings)
Will Harry defeat Voldemort and end his evil reign of terror? (Harry Potter series)
Will Francis Crawford succeed in proving that he’s not a traitor to his country, and reconciling with his family? (The Game of Kings, Dorothy Dunnett; this series also has a larger story question, which is more like “Will Francis Crawford overcome his weaknesses/traumas/identity issues and become the “man of destiny” he’s meant to become?)
Will Celie succeed in overcoming her brutal past and finding some sort of peace, freedom, and independence? (The Color Purple, Alice Walker).
What will happen to Arthur Dent now that Earth has been blown up to make way for a hyperspace bypass? (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams).
In some genres, it’s fairly simple. In mystery, it’s always “will the sleuth find the killer?”. In romance, it’s not just “will the couple get together, but how will they get together?”
Note that the examples above are not simple books. They are complex, have multiple characters and subplots, and even multiple character goals within each book or series. Identifying your Story Question does not dumb-down your story at all.
What it does, is allow you to build your story around a compelling spine. It’s the question that guides you, the author, to write your story in a way that this question is eventually answered by the end of the book (or series – note that in most series, there is also a Story Question for each book). This also propels the reader along. They have to know the answer!
The Central Story Question is often most effective when it is introduced in the first chapter – even obliquely. In Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, we don’t know the scope of the trilogy yet - or even about the question of whether she will get out of the Hunger Games alive. But we do get a powerful sense of how difficult it is to survive in this world, and the Big Question overall is survival – Will Katniss survive the games? Will she survive the ensuing war to bring down the government?
This of course all has to do with establishing the Stakes – especially the External Stakes – of your story. The reader has to know fairly early on why they are reading. What is at stake for this character, and this world?
There are many smaller questions along the way, either directly or indirectly impacting the Big Story Question. These often relate to goals the character has that lead to answering the Big Question.
There are three answers to the Big Story Question:
The positive answer, whereby the best possible outcome is achieved, evil is vanquished, the lovers live happily ever after, etc.;
The neutral answer, in which the character succeeds but is forever altered (or sacrifices themselves for the greater good);
The negative answer – a tragedy.
Which way you answer this question will often set the tone for the whole book. Therefore, it helps to know the answer to your Central Story Question before you start writing. The answer might also need to conform to particular genre or age group requirements. Romances need the lovers to get together. Mysteries need the killer to be brought to justice. With kids’ books, the lower the age group, generally speaking, the more you want a lighter touch, with things working out by the end (or at least a strong ray of hope). Teens and adults can understand and appreciate a more complex answer.
Why is this important for your story? Because if you don’t know the Question, you won’t know the Answer, and you run the risk of having a story that doesn’t go anywhere, where the reader doesn’t know the stakes (and doesn’t care). Every major plot point has to steer us toward answering this Question.
Look at your manuscript. Do you have one clear Central Story Question? Do you have two? Two or more can muddy the story as a whole. What exactly is the reader supposed to be invested in? Subplots are fine, of course, but they should be in service to the main story question.
If you are having trouble figuring out your Central Story Question, then start looking at what you are reading or watching right now. Get in the habit of asking “What is the Central Story Question here?” You will see that no matter how complex the story it can be boiled down to one major question that provides the thrust for the whole book or film (or limited series).
One last note: It has to be a question readers will care about. Sometimes that is obvious – a life-or-death situation. But it doesn’t have to be huge, it just has to matter hugely to the protagonist. They have to care, in order for the reader to care.
This exercise, done right, can clarify a vast number of issues in your manuscript. It can also help you form a strong premise, and even help with your query and synopsis.
