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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47907
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47907
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

### A story is characters facing a serious problem they must struggle to solve.

That is my own definition, though it is simple enough others may have come to the same conclusion. The "plot" flows from there.

Why do they **struggle**? Because the problem isn't easy for them.

Why **must** they solve it? Because by design we make the problem "serious", meaning if it goes unsolved it is going to affect something or someone they care about a lot, whether that is because they are in love, or because they love humanity and want to save it, or because their life's work is in danger. Somehow, they will be miserable (or dead) if they don't solve it. Or if they are dead anyway, they don't want to leave misery behind them, the problem doesn't have to be solved with them surviving, as we've seen in many a cancer-reconciliation story.

In order for the audience to care about this struggle, they first have to know the characters, their strengths and weaknesses, what they care about and what they find repellent, generally before we introduce them to the problem, so the audience is not watching a total stranger (they care nothing about) dealing with an issue. We have to show our character(s) **are** the good guys before they audience will root for them.

In order to **struggle,** the characters need **obstacles** to overcome on the road to the **solution**. These obstacles cannot be easily defeated, hence "struggle".

To make the story interesting, most authors ensure a series of obstacles that result in hard failures along with moderate successes so the audience does not lose all hope, but then through these experiences the characters DO solve the problem.

The plot is the sequence of escalating **struggles** the characters must face. We can give them (when we introduce them and the setting) weaknesses that cause or contribute to the failures, and strengths that salvage something from each struggle, so they accumulate the material, knowledge or character traits or understanding they need to finally defeat the **serious problem** , the main problem of the story, and secure the better future instead of the miserable one. Or at least partially. (A tragedy is when they fail completely.)

We do generally want our characters to seem real, often the "weakness" we give them will result in a difficult choice for them. This may be a moral choice, but isn't always, many stories end with a hero risking their life (or giving it) to save someone, and IMO that is not a moral choice, just a commitment to love, even a love of strangers or humanity.

Usually the struggle demands personal growth, becoming a better person, but this is also optional. Sherlock Holmes goes through most of his stories overcoming obstacles but without any personal growth. Same for 007 and other super-heroes, they don't evolve emotionally into better people, but the stories can still be good: They overcome daunting obstacles that seem impossible.

The **_plot_** is just the series of struggles you devise for your characters to overcome.

For your introduction of the characters, which we combine with the introduction to the setting, and rules of the world (e.g. magic, advanced tech, etc), as a pragmatic thing I'd hold off on the "serious problem" and give them day-to-day struggles they'd encounter. Show their normal world, and devise normal irritations or "routine" problems they have with it, this creates tension that carries the reader through this introduction (10% to 15% of the story).

Then introduce the "serious problem," followed by a series of struggles of escalating difficulty, until the climax when the key to solving it all is revealed (or learned or decided).

Your plot is that series of struggles. If you want them to cause personal growth, build personal struggles and weaknesses into the characters and situations. Because they need to escalate (to maintain audience interest), many authors begin by concealing the true nature and extent of the serious problem, the characters instead see some manifestation of it early (an Inciting Incident) that makes the problem seem not that bad, something they can solve, but it turns out not to be so easy; thus making it easier for the author to escalate the difficulty. e.g. metaphorically speaking, we see one roach in the kitchen, kill it, then upon investigating flush a thousand more. A drip from the ceiling causes us to investigate upstairs, where we find a broken pipe in a bathroom flooding the entire floor. So the first thing the characters see is a small manifestation of an actual huge problem they were not aware of.

Original score: 1