Developing a Story

Teacher RJ
Story Telling
We can all be great storytellers. It’s in
our nature to enjoy a good story and feel
compelled to share our own. But when
students sit down at their keyboards, or
start to put pen to paper, it’s easy to
freeze up. Why is writing something
down so much harder than chatting up
a friend?
 Five Elements of
a Story

Plot Setting Character/s Point Conflict

of View
Plot
The plot is the events or actions that drive your story — it describes the “what” of your
tale. The plot lets the reader know what’s happening, describes the problems your
characters are trying to solve, and gives the details on how they attempt to solve them.
Setting
The setting of your story is both the physical location and point in time in which your
plot takes place. For some stories (like the fantasy novels mentioned above) setting is a
huge part of the story. You can build a whole new world with its own languages and
creatures. In this case, the setting almost acts as its own character in your tale.
Characters
The characters are the people, animals, beings, or personified objects driving your
story. A story can have many characters or just one main character as the focus.

Protagonist - "good guy" of the story, the one the reader is rooting for.
Antagonist - this doesn’t mean they have to be ‘evil’ or the ‘bad guy’, but the
antagonist is often pushing the conflict onto our protagonist.
Point of View
First Person Point of View
A story told in the first person is most often told from the point of view of the
protagonist. Our protagonist narrator will speak using first person pronouns (I, we, me,
etc).

Second Person Point of View

The reader is addressed directly and may even become a character of sorts in your story.
This point of view is written using second person pronouns (you, your, etc).

Third Person Point of View

In this kind of story, the reader is a bystander, observing the actions of the characters as
told by an ‘outside narrator’. This POV used third person pronouns (he, she, they, etc).
But how much we learn as a reader depends on which style of narrator you choose.
Conflict
Character vs Self
In this type of conflict, your main character must overcome something within themselves to
achieve their goal. These internal conflicts may look like a doubt, fear, or grudge. It’s whatever is
holding them back from their desires.

Character vs Character
In a character vs character conflict, someone is standing in our protagonist’s way. This is a very
common conflict type in superhero tales. There’s a ‘bad guy’ our main characters must defeat
before the story ends.

Character vs Nature
Character vs nature conflicts pit our characters against some kind of natural force. It could be a
natural disaster (tornado, hurricane, wildfire, avalanche) or any other kind of survival tale. Many
post-apocalyptic stories involve both character vs nature and character vs character conflicts.

Character vs Society
The protagonist feels like they are at odds with the whole world. This can often be broken down
into character vs character to get a strong emotional pull (such as a kid at odd with their parents)
but the themes are much bigger than any one person.