1. Surprise
Emotion
Conflict
Concrete

2. Seven steps to a better story
1. Once upon a time………………………..
2. And every day………………………………
3. Until one day……………………………….
4. And because of this……………………..
5. And because of this………………………
6. Until finally…………………………………..
7. And ever since that day………………..
Brian McDonald, Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate

3. Popular story lines
• What the protagonist believes is true versus what is
actually true
• What the protagonist wants versus what the protagonist
actually has
• What the protagonist want versus what’s expected of her
• The protagonist versus herself
• The protagonist’s inner goal versus the protagonist’s
external goal
• The protagonist’s fear versus the protagonist’s goal
(external, internal, or both)
• The protagonist versus the antagonist
• The antagonist versus mercy (or the appearance thereof)
Lisa Cron, The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science
to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence