But when she can’t get rid of the dog, she’s forced to confront the fact that the very thing she spent her life avoiding-connection-is what makes the inevitable grief of loss endurable.” So she devises a scheme to steal a dog for an hour or two, believing that ‘getting’ a dog will reassure the people in her life (who are dog lovers) that she’s back on the path to emotional stability. “What if a woman – I’ll call her Ruby - who’s spent her whole life believing she’s successfully hedged her bets against love (of people, of things, of dogs) is on the verge of losing everything-the one person she’s felt close to, her lifelong career, and her grasp on reality? Mad with grief, she has one chance to set things right, but first she must convince those around her that she’s not suicidal. Here’s Jennie breaking down her fledgling story idea: It takes writers step by step through the process of developing a novel that will do just that, and so at every turn, we ask why. That’s what my book Story Genius is all about. We’re looking for inside intel into human nature, the better to navigate this scary, beautiful world ourselves. What readers are wired to come for is insight into what people do when push comes to shove and, most importantly, why they do it. That’s why a generally interesting idea, a dramatic plot and lovely language aren’t enough to capture the reader’s attention. So if you don’t know, specifically, what your protagonist wants and what internal misbelief stands in her way, then how on earth can you construct a plot that will force her to deal with it? That means that the internal problem pre-dates the events in the plot, often by decades. It’s about what the protagonist has to face, deal with and overcome internally in order to solve the external problem that the plot poses. Story is not about what happens on the surface, but what goes on beneath it.
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