FREE Comics Course

Lesson 2: Good Story

or an audience to accept a , the protagonist should “deserve” what happens to them. For that, the entire needs to be driven by what they do. Everything that happens should be a direct consequence of what they do. Stories where things just happen to your character, without them being able to do anything about it, tend not to be satisfying.

Do you have a strong protagonist who is driving the storyLoading...?

For a character to be suitable, it tends to be a good idea to give him or her the following three traits:

1) The protagonist is good at something

2) They have a strong moral compass, belief in what was good or bad

3) They have the tenacity to pursue their goals

In a storyLoading..., there should also be someone who learns something. There should be someone who is changed by the experience. Otherwise, why tell this storyLoading...?

Usually, the protagonist is the person who learns the lesson. But not always! It can be a side character that learns a lesson. The protagonist is the character who drives the storyLoading... forward.

For this assignment: revisit your storyLoading..., and see that the above is the case for your storyLoading.... Do you have a strong protagonist who is driving the storyLoading...?

If you find you can't shape your storyLoading... into this mold, don't throw it away! Keep it somewhere. You might be able to break the storyLoading... at a later date. Maybe another character can be the protagonist? That sort of thing. But please do consider writing another storyLoading... for this course.

It often helps to just put a storyLoading... away for a while. Look at it after a few weeks, and you see it with a fresh pair of eyes as if it's new to you.

You can also write several short storiesLoading... first, and then consider which one you want to start to expand on.

When editing your storyLoading..., a good rule is to eliminate things, cut things out, and make it shorter. A good practice is to reduce the text by ten percent. The storyLoading... will feel tighter.

I will do this course along with you, and here is my strong protagonist.

For my storyLoading..., Jack is the protagonist, and he is good at what he does: he's good at being a cop. He naturally has a strong moral compass: crime is wrong, and he has the tenacity to pursue the goal of arresting criminals.

Linda is the one who learns the lesson that crime doesn't pay.

Next Assignment 3: Story Structure