Skip to content
One of the most important questions you must answer in your story is one many people never ask:
How did we get here?
And it’s as valid to ask when you’re starting your story so you know exactly the story you need to write to have the ending you want…
…as it is when you’re just starting your entire story itself.
Everyone starts from somewhere, and that somewhere is what defines who they are, what they think and how they see the world.
So if you don’t know that…
…you’re really going to be leaving your story to chance…
…and making the entire process a lot harder for yourself than it could be.
I won’t lie. Some people enjoy that part. Some people “just write” whatever they have in their head, and they leave it to the editing phase to figure out what it really means and to stitch it into something coherent and worth experiencing.
But, in fairness…
…that’s a bit like setting up the film crew in random locations around the city…
…shooting for a month…
…and trying to stitch together a story out of whatever they captured.
That’s not how movies or shows are made—for good reason.
And it’s not the most effective way to write a great story either.
A great story starts at the end—at least generally speaking. That doesn’t mean you have to be exact and can’t tweak or change things.
But it does mean you need to make some decisions.
What will your world look like at the end?
Why was your journey important?
Who are the characters now?
All these are pretty fundamental to helping you craft a great story, because each one of those questions sets up a sequence of dozens – maybe hundreds – of questions that must be answered if you’re going to write a story that makes the ending both inevitable and earned.
Even if you’re starting at the beginning, the same questions apply. In fact, those same questions can help you determine exactly where the beginning of your story is supposed to be.
And the less clarity you have on the answer…
…and the less consistently you can answer it…
…the more likely you will be to write yourself into a corner—hours, days, weeks or even months from now.
One of the biggest problems I see in the stories I experience is the writers failing to answer those questions in sufficient detail.
Because at some point…normally when you least expect it…
…their story suddenly breaks.
They reach for the plot armor.
There’s a mysterious savior from out of the blue.
And you’re expected to just swallow it and move on.
But, as an audience, you don’t. And you can’t—unless the story is pretty crap to begin with and you’ve already gotten to the point where you’re picking apart the plot…the characters…and the inconsistencies in their world.
You’ve done this.
I’ve done this.
But do you want *your* audience to do this?
I don’t think so—and neither do I.
That’s why I gave you the simple rules of the Breakthrough Scene in the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™ instantly available to you right here:
Because 9 times outta 10…
…I bet it’s going to come down to that one simple question.
To unlocking the soul of your story,
ast
—
Andrew S. Townley
Creator of the Perpetual Story System™