After you have done that, you can now move on to the next step, which may take you many hours to complete. But if you do everything correctly, your story will be interesting and profound. This step is called the “Research.” 

For example, if we take the idea of survival in “The World of Insects” as outlined above, we would research insects, entertainment shows, survival in extreme environments (for example, in the jungle), etc. Research your subject inside and out — read books, study references, research online, watch movies and videos, look at photos — accumulate as much relevant information as possible. 

Important: while working on this step, write down ALL the thoughts that come to mind. It may happen that the idea you have written down “just in case” results in a brilliant plot twist. Therefore, study the chosen subject, write down and keep track of everything that may be somehow useful to you in your further work. 

This step can be considered finished when you have complete confidence that you are now familiar with your chosen subject and have a full grasp of the material you will be using to create your work.

Only at this point, having fully completed the previous actions, will we approach the most exciting part — THE STORY DEVELOPMENT. 

I’d like to note here that the easiest way to see and understand the process of plot development is to take an example of developing a story for a movie script. Therefore, we will be working on The World of Insects plot to illustrate the use of the Story-Flash System.

Let’s start with some important points you need to know and use when working on any story: 

1. Step zero in developing a story — determine what you would like to tell the audience, what it is that you want to get across. In The World of Insects, for example, we could have the following message: “Never give way to despair, even if the situation seems completely hopeless.” 

2. Next: determine the effect you want to create on your audience. For example, perhaps you want to give them a good laugh, cheer them up, inspire or amaze them with the scale of events occurring on the screen, and so on. 

3. In the process of creating the story (following the steps below), write down everything that comes to mind. Do not brush any ideas off. It’s better to get rid of half your notes later than to have regrets. You don’t want to find yourself thinking, “Oh why didn’t I write down that idea, it would have come in handy now.” 

And now I would like to present to you the 21 steps of the technology of story development.

After each step there is an example based on The World of Insects story.

STEPS FOR CREATING THE STORY 

STEP 1. In a few sentences, describe the PRIMARY SITUATION, in which the main characterhas found himself and which he must successfully handle. The primary situation is what the whole story is built around. 

Imagine the hero has gotten tangled up in something. This will be the primary situation — the nucleus that will be your starting point. What is the nucleus of Back to the Future, for instance? What is its primary situation? What does Marty McFly get tangled up in? Yes, he goes back in time. And the key question now is how to get back. As you remember, he went into the past without fuel. He does not have plutonium for the time machine, which means that his chances of getting back to the future are very slim. Then his mom falls in love with him. Because of that, she cannot fall in love with Marty’s dad, and that means he may not be born at all! Now he needs to not only get back to the present, but also keep the marriage of his parents intact. And we start building everything else around this primary situation.

The first step is to concisely formulate the primary situation that includes either a conflict, danger or threat — something the hero got tangled up in. If we say that the primary situation in Back to the Future is the hero just going back in time and doing something over there,  we are not adequately describing the primary situation. 

EXAMPLE: The main character(who is a biologist) and his assistant (a woman) go into “The World of Insects” to carry out some dangerous biological research. Suddenly, they realize they’ve lost connection with the “real” world and the supporting staff of the corporation — their tracking devices and walkie-talkies are not working. Now they need to handle this situation and get out of there safe and sound. 

STEP 2. Create the MAIN CHARACTER. Here is what you need to know at this stage of your work: the character must be created based on his goals and intentions. We can say a lot about the main character’s attitudes and hobbies, but the most important thing right now is the goal he will be pursuing throughout your story. 

From here on we will be calling the main character the "protagonist." In screenwriting, the protagonist is the one who moves the story forward and makes the major decisions. This is a character for whom the audience is rooting.   

EXAMPLE: Let’s call our protagonist Steve. His main objective in this situation is to remain alive and escape with his assistant from “The World of Insects.”

STEP 5. As you work on your story, devise an emotional wound for the protagonist: what troubles him, what prevents him from being happy. This makes the character real, complex and relatable for the audience, otherwise, he will remain “hollow” and superficial. If you want to see how this technique makes your script deeper, give an emotional wound to your hero (if he has none so far). You will be surprised to see this character becoming “three-dimensional" right before your eyes.

EXAMPLE: Steve suspects his wife is having an affair.He tries to escape this harsh reality by going off into “The World of Insects” and conducting dangerous research.

STEP 6. Give the protagonist a flaw. This is something that could mess up his plans, something that could jeopardize his victory. You need to make the barriers that the hero is facing hard to overcome. This is what will make the story exciting. A flawis what is going to slow the protagonist down, push him back, not let him win. As an author, you use the hero’s flaw to keep the story going. After all, when the goal is reached, the story is over.

And here we can see one of the key features of the "Story-flash" technology at work. This feature is the skillful BALANCE of the hero’s opportunities and "anchors" (what weighs him down). How do we do that? We give the hero abilities and tools that enable him to pursue his goal: the skills that let him move faster, equipment, weapons. But at the same time, we create the emotional wound and the flaw to pull him back down. He is moving forward, and we're pushing him back. The story does not end quickly, it unfolds and evolves! Do you see now how the plots for soap operas are created?

EXAMPLE: Steve loves insects and discovers that it is difficult for him to kill them, even in self-defense.

STEP 7. Now, create the main ANTAGONIST. This is a person (or creature) who will oppose the protagonist. Create him as described in step 2.

Stan Lee, the creator of the legendary Marvel comic-books, says that the nature of conflict moves the story forward much more than its characters. That means that no matter how charismatic, handsome or super-powerful your characters are, if your story doesn’t have a strong conflict, it will not move forward. When we create the antagonist, we come very close to the conflict itself. The antihero can be likened to a wall — the protagonist is going forward but runs into the “wall.” Moreover, the wall moves towards him and pushes back. 

The protagonist and antagonist are like two fists that smash into each other. An intense conflict is born, and the story starts evolving.

I want to note here, that the protagonist’s doubts or insecurities can also function as the main antagonist, that is, it is not always another person or creature. A great example of this is the movie Inception, where the antagonist is the hero’s wife who does not actually exist in real life, she is in his subconscious. She demonstrates how thoroughly a fear or insecurity (inner barrier) can stop a person from achieving his goal.

EXAMPLE: The antagonist in our story is a guy named Michael. He turns out to be the person with whom Steve’s wife is having an affair and, unfortunately, he is also one of the owners of "The World of Insects." His mission is to get rid of Steve by any means necessary, but in such a way that his lover (i.e. Steve's wife) does not know about it. He is also the one who arranges for the tracking devices and portable radios to suddenly stop working.

STEP 10. Describe various problems, obstacles and difficulties that the antagonist could create for the main character. This step is vital, as with its help we can drag our protagonist down, that is, put up some resistance and stop them from reaching their goal so quickly. 

Thinks about it, the events in most soap operas and TV shows could be reduced to a feature-length film. But if your story has tentacles of various barriers, troubles, problems and difficulties going out in all directions, the story can go on almost ad infinitum.

I heard this pearl from Larry Kaplow (the producer of TV series House, M. D.) at one of his workshops: he said that in order to make the story juicy and exciting, you need to constantly poke the hero with a fork. Poke him all the time. Just keep poking him.

EXAMPLE: Michael can intentionally set dangerous insects against Steve and create natural disasters in the park. He also sends the search party that is looking for Steve in the wrong direction. The search party consists of people with special training who were also shrunk in size. Michael gives instructions to the leader of the search party, making them “accidentally” miss Steve and his assistant every time.

STEP 11. Develop the other characters as described in step 2. They can be divided into the protagonist’s friends and enemies. Each of them is going to make a difference in some way. By definition, friends help the hero achieve his objectives while the enemies interfere.  

EXAMPLE: Mary, Steve's wife and Michael's lover: after Steve disappears, her goal is to find him and confess. After that she will be able to marry Michael with a clear conscience. 

Steve's assistant, Julia: she has been in love with Steve for a long time, but she’s been hiding her feelings as she did not want to break up his family.While in "The World of Insects," Steve tells her what’s really been going on in his family. Julia decides she will make Steve happy no matter what. Her goals are to obtain the antibodiesto cure her daughter of a fatal illness, escape from “The World of Insects,” and marry Steve.

STEP 12. EACH STORY HAS THREE PARTS: the beginning, the middle and the end. After completing all the previous steps, describe each part of the script in a few sentences. In this step it is especially important to decide on the ending. 

Knowing exactly what the end of the story is going to be is one of the secrets to developing the WHOLE story effectively.

EXAMPLE: 

Beginning: Steve and Mary’s family life is quite dull and isn’t likely to improve. Steve is withdrawn and spends most of his time in the lab devoting himself to his scientific research. Mary has not been interested in Steve's life for a long time; his job irritates her. She starts an affair with Michael, the owner of "The World of Insects" park. He is rich and seemingly gives her everything that can make a woman happy. Steve suspects his wife is having an affair, but he does not want to confront her. After yet another fight with Mary, Steve goes to the lab and learns from his assistant Julia that her daughter is sick with a new, deadly type of flu. The only hope to save her is to get specific antibodies from a rare insect that can be found in "The World of Insects." Julia tells Steve that she is going to that dangerous place alone. Steve decides to join her.

Middle Part: While Steve and Julia are in the park, their trackers and radios suddenly stop working. They get attacked by dangerous insects, but they have no way of communicating with the park staff. Steve's wife is concerned that her husband has disappeared and asks Michael to undertake the search personally. Mary knows she is going to have Michael’s baby and decides to get a divorce and then marry Michael. However, she wants to do it only after she finds her husband and asks for his forgiveness. Meanwhile, Steve and Julia fight the insects for their lives. 

When the search party fails to find Steve and Julia, Mary decides to go into “The World of Insects" and search for Steve herself. Michael joins her as he doesn’t want her to go alone. Mary is worried, and she asks Michael a lot of questions about Steve's disappearance. Suddenly Mary sees the other side of her lover: her questions annoy him, and he shows callousness by urging Mary to stop looking for Steve. She begins to doubt her choice. Meanwhile, the search for the antibodies and fights with insects bring Steve and Julia very close, and they realize that they are made for each other. Finally, Michael and Mary find them.

End: Michael fights Steve and tries to kill him. Mary understands why Steve and Julia’s tracking devices stopped working. All the characters get attacked by the insects that were previously released by Michael to kill Steve. Julia is bitten, she is dying. There is no more antidote left as they’d used it up earlier. Suddenly, a poisonous insect bites Michael. Mary gets captured by another insect and realizes these are the last seconds of her life.Seeing that Steve is torn between her and dying Julia, she throws him her antidote and asks for forgiveness before she dies. Steve gives Julia the antidote and saves her. The rescue party arrives. Steve and Julia leave "The World of Insects" with the antibodies just in time to save the life of Julia’s daughter.

STEP 13. In step 9 we’ve examined the main conflict of the story. Now think of a few minor conflicts. 

I’ll give you a valuable tip. If you want to create a book or a script with lots of drama and emotion, create conflicts among the allies. True drama is built around conflicts of allies (or former allies), not just enemies.

Have you seen The Social Network? It’s an excellent film and a great example of screenwriting by Aaron Sorkin. It even won an Academy Award for the screenplay. Notice how there is conflict after conflict. And it’s these conflicts (among allies as well as enemies) that create engagement and excitement.

EXAMPLE: In the beginning of the story, Mary has a conflict with Steve. At the end she has a conflict with Michael. Steve and Julia are in constant confrontation with insects. You can also show the conflicts within the search party when their leader (being directed by Michael) bypasses their search target deliberately while the other team members suspect there is something fishy about it.

STEP 14. Think of several ways to make the audience dislike the antagonist. How should he act in order for that to happen?

The epic show Game of Thrones thoroughly explores the subject of justice and injustice. And it’s not a coincidence. If you want the reader to be ecstatic about your work, make sure to right a wrong in full.

And here is the rule: to bring justice, you first need to show how unjust your antagonist is. Create various kinds of injustice, but never take pity on the characters! This is a surefire way to create antagonism towards the evil in your story.

So, you have created the antihero, his goals and intentions, allies and helpers, and now let's make it CREDIBLE: create the dislike for this character by showing how unfair he is to the hero and the environment.

EXAMPLE: Michael hides the truth about what happened to Steve from Mary. He bribes the leader of the search party and puts Steve and Julia in harm’s way by creating natural disasters in the park.

STEP 15. Describe how you will punish the antagonist at the end of the story. The punishment must be powerful enough to make the audience rejoice when it happens. The better you are at making the audience dislike your antagonist (see Step 14), the happier your viewers will be when you punish him.

EXAMPLE: A dangerous insect that Michael released to get rid of Steve will unexpectedly eat Michael. 

STEP 16. Describe how you will reward the protagonist at the end of the story. What will he receive as a result of his victory? 

When creating the ending, we play with two things. The first is the defeat of the antihero (restoring the justice). And the second is a big win for the protagonist that gives the reader or viewer an explosion of positive emotions and satisfaction.

EXAMPLE: Steve will get a wonderful and caring wife. He will collect the research material he has been looking for, thus realizing his life-long dream.

STEP 17. Determine what will happen to the protagonist if he does not reach his goal. This is the THREAT that is hanging over the main character throughout the story, which gets more real and more dangerous with each page. 

There is ALWAYS a threat. Something must continuously urge the protagonist to move forward, and this threat that creates pressure will do the trick. In other words, the protagonist can’t stop and take a break. Don’t let your main character relax. This is one of the key laws of creating tension in the story.

EXAMPLE: The insects that were released by Michael close in on Steve and Julia. Our heroes run out of antidote and their chances of dying increase every minute. They are also followed by the leader of the search party who was bribed by Michael to get rid of them. Steve’s and Julia's lives, as well as the life of Julia's daughter, are at stake. The death of our heroes becomes more and more imminent. However, there is something else: if they find the antibodies and the medicine is created, the girl will be saved as well as thousands of other people in the future, thanks to this new medicine. If the antibodies are not found, the epidemic of this new deadly form of flu may claim an unprecedented number of lives. 

STEP 18. Describe how the protagonist will change. This step may not be necessary for every story or script, but the “hero’s change” is one of the secrets to invoking POWERFUL EMOTIONS in your audience and creating a lasting impression. 

To gain a better understanding of this step, recall (or watch) such films as Overboard, Pretty Woman, 16 Blocksor a masterpiece of screenwriting — The Holiday, which shows tremendous changes in several characters at once.

EXAMPLE: The change in Steve — he begins facing the difficulties and realizes that, at this point, everything is up to him. He stops “going with the flow” and tries to take control over the situation, demonstrating his courage and strength.

There is also a change in Mary – from a capricious and selfish woman, she becomes a person who saves the life of another worthy woman, even at the expense of her own.

STEP 19. Create a secondary storyline involving either the protagonist or the antagonist. This is one of the ways to give your story additional depth. 

EXAMPLE: The secondary line — Steve and Julia start a relationship. Steve understands that the true relationship between a man and a woman is based on the constant mutual assistance and sincere support in times of need.

STEP 20. Identify the person from whom the main character can learn something. That is, there should be a person (or creature) that will help our protagonist use his abilities better and overcome the obstacles more efficiently. In Star Wars we have the Jedi, in The Matrix Neo learns from Morpheus — many stories have mentors.  

EXAMPLE: Julia will provide tremendous support to Steve, she will be his inspiration and help him gain new insights.

STEP 21. Create a mysterious and exciting LEGEND (in other words, the background or context). It could be some kind of a myth, or something that happened much earlier than the current scene, but without it, the events described in the story would not be as exciting or fascinating. 

A good, strong LEGEND is one of the main secrets to having the audience completely immersed in the story. To get a better understanding of what this is all about, analyze the “legend” in such movies and TV shows as The Matrix, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Game of Thrones. All these movies have a legend. 

EXAMPLE: Before Steve ends up in "The World of Insects," he learns from a reliable source that 15 or so people disappear in "The World of Insects” every year. However, this information is not generally known as they prefer to keep it quiet. What happened to these people? Maybe they got eaten by insects and the corporation doesn’t want to advertise that? Or is there more to it than accidental deaths?

The mystery of this legend will be revealed in the second chapter. 

In the next chapter you will also learn:  

a) The technology to build your plot line 

b) The principles of creating episodes and the basics rules for making your plot seamless and integral 

By the way, the story of Steve's adventures was created in several hours while writing this chapter to provide you with some good examples. As you can see, this technology really works. See for yourself by following the above steps in the order they are given here. 

Write down all your thoughts and ideas sequentially, and in just a couple of hours you will see the story that could have taken months to “mature” magically comes to life right before your eyes.

STEP 1. In a few sentences, describe the PRIMARY SITUATIONin which the protagonist has found himself and which he must successfully handle.

STEP 2. Create the PROTAGONIST. Here is what you need to know at this stage of your work: the character must be created based on his goalsand intentions.

STEP 3. Describe the knowledge, skills and abilities of your protagonist(everything related to his ability to confront the challenges and solve problems).

STEP 4. Give the protagonist some toolsthat will help him achieve his goals (it can be a device, gadget or weapon).

STEP 5. Devise anemotional woundfor the protagonist.

STEP 6. Give the protagonist a flaw. This is something that could mess up his plans, or jeopardize his victory.

STEP 7. Now, create the main ANTAGONIST. This is a person (or creature) who will oppose the protagonist. Create him based on his goals and intentions.

STEP 8. Endow the antagonist with power.He needs to seem invincible, be unpredictable, cunning and talented. 

STEP 9. Describe why the antagonist opposes the protagonist.The main CONFLICT of the script should become very apparent in this step.

STEP 10. Describe various problems, obstacles anddifficultiesthat the antagonist could create for the main character.  

STEP 11. Develop the other characters(based on their goals and intentions). They can be divided into the protagonist’s friends and enemies.

STEP 12. EACH STORY HAS THREE PARTS: the beginning, the middle and the end.After completing all the previous steps, describe each part of the script in a few sentences.

STEP 13. Think of a few minor conflicts.

STEP 14. Think of several ways to make the audience dislike the antagonist.

STEP 15. Describe how you will punish the antagonist at the end of the story.

STEP 16. Describe how you will reward the protagonist at the end of the story.What will he receive as a result of his victory? 

STEP 17. Determine what will happen to the protagonist if he does not reach his goal. This is the threat that is hanging over the main character throughout the story, which gets more real and more dangerous with each page. 

STEP 18. Describe how the protagonist will change.

STEP 19. Create a secondary storylineinvolving either the protagonist or the antagonist.

STEP 20. Identify the person from whom the main character can learn something.

STEP 21. Create a mysterious and exciting LEGEND (in other words – the background or context). It could be some kind of a myth, or something that happened much earlier than the current scene.