Learning to Write Fiction from Reading Fiction

Authors Note: I’ve been missing from Medium for a couple of weeks — rethinking priorities. But now I’m back. One of the things I did during that time was read King’s The Institute and this is what I learned:

Photo by Erick Zajac on Unsplash

This is not big news and you can read basically the same stuff in books about writing fiction, a Joseph Campbell TV show, or a Michael Hague conference. However, as I read The Institute, I had some “AHA! moments…ones, I’m sure, many writers already know.

Here’as how I sorted them out:

1. Start with an “ordinary” character — protagonist (human or animal)*or antagonist (human or animal)— living their “ordinary” life. Make the character believable, with positives and negatives.
2. Surround the protagonist with friends, companions (human or animal)* or minions (human or animal)* for protagonists.
3. The initial setting should be an ordinary world.
4. Writing classes usually call the next step: Call to Adventure or the Instigating Situation. Something happens to pull the ordinary character out of their ordinary world…a call they cannot refuse to answer.
5. The Protagonist and the Antagonist meet and recognize each other as opponents.
6. Companions and minions continue in the narrative and may switch sides.