How to write a Compelling Story

How do we build a compelling story that will keep people interested? How can he make sure, that people will sit through the end of our ad, presentation or movie? Well, the answer to that is actually extremely simple in theory, but extremely hard to execute (as most things). Without a compelling plot, your audience will be disinterested and look away. So what can you do?

Ask a question - Will they end up together? is the question (almost) every romantic comedy is built upon. Plant a question in the viewer's mind, and implicitly promise the viewer that by watching, reading or hearing the rest of your story, they will get them the answer. The plot means creating a question for the viewer.

The Stronger the Question - The stronger the question the more engaged the audience will be. If the question doesn't become a burning one, it is easy to turn your story off. If you do not make your audience wonder, there are no reason for them to stick around. Also, the ending will get a bigger impact.

How to build a compelling question - Easier said than done, right? Well, here is how you can apply the story greater meaning. First, you need to break down the story into three part; ask, acceptance and answer. The Ask is the challenge your character comes up against. The Acceptance is your character, making a decision to persist and accepting to get involved in the conflict, and accept the challenge brought by the conflict. The Answer is the resolution, the conclusion, to the question you set up.

What is the Conflict

• Man vs. Man - Marvel Avengers go up against an alien army, which they have to defeat in order to save the earth.
• Man vs. Self - Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a guy who goes on a journey to start living the way he has always imagined in his head.
• Man vs. Machine - Matrix is about a man, who realizes that a computer uses human bodies as batteries and put their minds in a simulation to keep them occupied. 
• Man vs. Nature - The Day After Tomorrow, centers around a college boy and his survival through the worst possible outcome of global warming.
• Man vs. Spiritual - Three kids are lost in the woods, as they try to find The Blairwitch.
• Man vs. Society - Fight Club two men creates an underground boxing club to take down society.

Your Core Question - The stronger the core question, the more the audience will feel the story. Follow these exercises to find a question to build your plot around. The one golden rule is that the question must fit the character.

• Simple Question - Realize that a strong question does not have to be complex; it is okay to pose a simple question. Try asking questions like, what is your character worried about, what could go wrong, what competitors is he concerned about or why might this not work?
• Character Desire - Look to the character's desire. Know what he/she wants, you might pose the question, what could get in the way of reaching that dream.

25/50/25 Ratio - This ratio is how you story is build. This means that you have 25% beginning, 50% middle and 25% ending. This fits conveniently with the ask, acceptance and answer, as you might have guessed. The ask is your beginning, the acceptance is what carry us from the beginning to the middle and the answer is what carries us to the ending. What happens if your middle is too short? The audience will not be interested as they got their answer too quickly. What about too long? They most likely do not carry that much about the answer.

Summing up

• Plant a compelling question that emerge out of conflict.
• Get to know your character and their wants, and create conflict by asking questions like what could go wrong.
• Get at least three conflicts under the hood e.g. Fight Club is both the narrator's fight against himself, then Tyler Durden, and then society.
• Make one overall question like will Frodo ever get the ring to Mordor?
• Follow the 25/50/25 Ratio; Ask leads to beginning which is 25% of your story, acceptance lead to the middle which is 50% of your story, answer leads to end which is 25% of your story.

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