Author: Dave Pettitt

I live on the edge of miles of undeveloped woods. My acreage has black spruce and tamarack forests bordering peat bogs, gardens and a lot of lawn!

I am a steward of a small part of an Environmentally Significant Area where red stripe garter snakes hunt leopard frogs near rare wild orchids.

This kind of land is called an ECOTONE. I think of it as the place where worlds interesect.

A few years ago, we decided to build a lamp post and bench in the middle of the woods to symbolize our place between wilderness and civilization. Fans of C.S. Lewis will understand!

It is an in-between zone, where forests meet grasslands, peatbogs meet pastures, and humans meet wilderness.

https://twitter.com/exsm3989/status/1424800635640172545

An acreage can be a lot of work, but watching generations of wildlife thrive where I live is something I truly appreciate every single day.

How do you plan a simple story?

Be it a meme, infographic, TikTok, tweet, or an Instagram story, there is a map a creator can take to make an idea a story.

An idea is just the beginning. It can be the message the author wants to tell, or it may just be a character or event.

Educational Tutorials’ YouTube video “How to Write a Great Short Story – The 8-Point Story Arc” shows us how we can map out a story.

https://twitter.com/exsm3989/status/1421158910803673093

STASIS

The characters and setting are introduced.  Here the reader learns who the story is about and where the story takes place.

All stories have a beginning, middle, and end. 

TRIGGER

To move from stasis, there is a trigger.  This is an event beyond the protagonist’s control that gets the story moving.  It can be a good thing, like falling in love. Negative events, like a murder, can also start a chain of events.

QUEST

The events that take place due to the trigger take the form of a quest.  The character that fell in love is trying to woo their love, or maybe they need to solve a murder.  The quest can be one event, or many events that build on previous events.

SURPRISE

The quest usually ends in a twist, or surprise.  The result is unexpected to the protagonist, but logical to the reader.

The surprise that awaits the protagonist in their quest leads to them making a critical choice.  The choice made reveals the character of the protagonist. 

CRITICAL CHOICE

How the protagonist handles the choice builds tension, leading to the climax of the story. 

CLIMAX

The climax is the highest point of tension in the story.  The protagonists world has changed as a result of their choice.

REVERSAL

The logical result of the climax and critical choice is the reversal.  This is the change that happens to the setting and characters.

RESOLUTION

Once the dust settles, we have resolution.  The characters have crossed the finish line, and reached a new level of stasis.  Life lessons have been learned, and the story has end.