Win Conditions

    Win Condition: A set of circumstances in a piece of media (book, game, television show, etc.) that determines which side, if any, wins the central conflict.

    I was looking at a bunch of my novel ideas this morning, trying to figure out which one I want to work on next. In case you weren't aware or hadn't figured it out by my long absence and the lack of number updating for my current projects on the "My Books" page, my writing has pretty well stalled since the end of April, and I'm trying to kick it back into gear with something fresh.

    You see, at this point, I've been working on The Noble Thief so long that I think my brain has forgotten how to work on anything else. I've been in the revisions phase for what feels like forever, and I'm ready to set the project aside and let it rest for a while (a long, long while) while I go and explore something new.

    So I was looking at a list of ideas for a bunch of unwritten novels I've got on my flash drive, and I realized something very important: Only three of the eight ideas actually have win conditions. The other five are so incomplete that I don't even know what a victorious resolution would look like.

    Why are win conditions so important for my brain?

    In real life, win conditions determine whether or not we meet our goals. For me right now, a win condition would be landing a second job that I'd enjoy as much as I enjoy my current job, but that also pays significantly more than my current job. Another win condition will be surviving the next two semesters of college and earning my Associate degree in early childhood education.

    In stories, win conditions give the characters something to work for. Without one, the characters will eventually get to the point where they lose all hope--and don't get it back again. After all, if you have no good options, and a whole lot of really bad ones, it's hard to get up the motivation and courage to do anything.

    ...Which is a problem my characters have struggled with since the beginning of time.

    I can write the beginning of a story. I've done that a million times at this point. But at some point in every beginning, I hit the point where I realize that I need two things: a conflict, and a win condition for that conflict.

    Conflict is really hard for me! I don't like putting my characters through tough things, and I have a really hard time coming up with creative, unique tough things for them to face. When I do end up with a really good tough thing, I frequently realize that it's a little too good, and that I don't see any way for the characters to win.

    Once I hit that point, the story stalls.

    I have a ton of really great ideas! But I'm not very good at fleshing them out to the point that I can write them, especially when fleshing the story out too much before it's finished makes it feel dead to me.

    Now, if it sounds like I'm complaining... you're right, I am. But this is also a really, really good thing for me, because it means I'm figuring out my writing process.

    As far as I can tell, my brain needs four things before it will let me write a story: A compelling character who I like a lot, a conflict that will make that character's life suck for a while, a win condition for that character to work toward, and a pathway to that win condition that I can follow to form the plot.

    Those three story ideas that all have win conditions are awesome ideas! Now, the only thing they're missing before I can write them is the pathway of specific scenes and beats I need to hit to get the characters to that point.

    In The Noble Thief, that pathway is a very literal one--there are several locations I need Lyn to be at for certain beats to happen so the story can progress. She starts in a city called Tagalaran. We get a handful of beats here, and then I chase her out of Tagalaran and into the Big Scary Forest everyone is terrified to go in. She runs into trouble in the Forest, and I introduce a character to rescue her and take her to a hidden town in the Sawtooth Mountains, where more beats happen. We get a little bit of a change of heart here and Lyn becomes more self-motivated. She goes to the Isle of Kings, where we have more beats and the climax, and then a volcano erupts and she uses her power to save her people, and then we get a nice epilogue to tie things up and the story ends. Lyn's journey through the story is both a physical journey from one place to another and a spiritual journey from fleeing for her life to risking her life to save the lives of others.

    The thing that makes this sort of format write-able for me where specific-scene outlines fail is the fact that there is a lot of creative freedom in there. I know where Lyn is going, and I know the Important Things that happen while she's there, but I can develop sub-plots as I go to fill in the spaces and keep the story feeling fun and new and like I'm discovering the story just as much as the people who read it will be.

    So, for those three stories that have win conditions, all I need to do is figure out the pathway from beginning to end.

    Unfortunately, that's not an easy task, but as I'm beginning to stray from my original topic for this post, and because this post is getting decently long, I'm going to stop there and talk about creating pathways another time.

    Thanks for hanging out with me today! Good luck with your own writing!