Books on writing will often refer to a common dichotomy which identifies writers as pantsers or plotters. A writer who simply starts out a story with no idea where it will go is referred to as a pantser, since they are writing by the seat of there pants. They may just start and wait for inspirations. They may create some characters and see what those characters do. They may start out with a situation and see how the situation evolves. Other writers will begin by sketching out a plot, or if they are more sophisticated, a narrative argument. They are referred to as plotters. They know how the story will end, although they may not know the exact fate of all the characters from the beginning. There is much to be said and much to be learned from the pantsers vs plotters dichotomy, though few, if any, books on writing, that I have seen, explore it in any depth. And, I would say, respectfully and with some reservation, that this dichotomy is somewhat naive. It is probably useful in writing workshops or academic classes in fiction writing as it allows prospective writers to orient themselves in the complex world of writing talents. But, it does not tell you what you need to do if you want to learn how to write, nor does it tell you what to do if you want to improve your writing.
I would like to offer a Teleological approach to writing stories in which the story is designed. I need to define a couple of terms here in order to make this a little more clear. First, we understand things teleologically when we understand them in terms of their purposes. For example, the purpose of your heart is to pump blood throughout your body. This explains why you have a heart. But, it does not explain how your heart achieves this. Second, design is the process by which we construct a solution to specific problem or to satisfy a specific purpose. So a teleological approach to writing stories would begin by defining the purpose of the story and then design a story that satisfies that purpose. I will go into design more deeply in the next post. But, this is enough to get us started with story design.
When we begin with story design, we begin by defining the purpose for which the story is being written. And, to keep things simple, we will assume that the purpose of the story involves some sort of impact upon the reader. That may seem obvious. But it is conceivable that a writer may write a story to satisfy a purpose of the writer. For example, one might write a story so that the writer can understand something a little better. Or the writer may write a story for some therapeutic purpose such as learning to see a parent as a person rather than a monster. Or the writer may want to write a story so that he or she can feel good about their self for having written a story. These are all legitimate purposes. But they are beyond the scope of what we are addressing here.The story design process would be very similar for other story purposes. But, it simplifies explaining it if we focus on the impact on the reader.
I am going to simplify the impact on the reader as well into two categories. Either the writer wishes to entertain the reader or the writer wants to provide the reader with an opportunity for personal growth. Here we are going to focus on the later. There is nothing wrong with entertaining the reader. In fact, the reader may not get to the end of a story that is not entertaining in some way. But, for the purposes of this post, we want to change the reader in some way. And that change, to narrow things down a bit more, will be in their comprehension of an ethical problem of some kind. Again, this same reasoning could apply to any number of reader impacts and the basic teleological structure would not change. But the details would and we need details if I am going to provide an example.
Since I am currently focusing on Possible Worlds, let us consider an emerging technology which allows you to read the minds of other people and the question is whether or not there should be any restrictions on its use. I could provide some plausibility arguments here but, for the sake of space, I am just going to ask you to accept the premise. We have a spectrum that ranges from banning the technology completely to allowing its use without restrictions. Along that spectrum are any number of more nuanced positions such as only the government should be allowed to use it or only the government should be banned from using it. Perhaps it is a phone app and individuals can allow or disallow others to read their minds. If you have any creativity at all, you should be able to come up with plenty of additional options.
Next, let us assume that we have some concerns about this technology and we want to make others aware of those concerns. So, we decide to write a story to explore those concerns. What is our concern? Perhaps we feel that there are potential downsides to unrestricted use of the technology. What are those downsides and how can we explore them in a story? Perhaps we feel that there are potential upsides that skeptics need to be aware of. What are those upsides and how can we explore them in a story? Perhaps, we feel that it is a mixed bag and want to explore difficult trade offs in a story. These are basically the options for exploring this Possible World, although there are endless, more nuanced, possibilities.
Once we figure out the point of the story, we can ask some simple questions about it. Where might this story occur (setting)? What kind of people might encounter these upsides or downsides or both (characters)? How might the circumstances that reveal the main points come about (plot)? In the case of point of view, do you want the narrator to be more objective (omniscient) or personally involved (first person). You can sketch out the entire story in a hierarchical chart where the problem you are trying to solve is at the top of the chart and each of the elements in this paragraph are below it. Then we can ask - how do each of the sub-elements contribute to the solution of the problem? You can tinker with the chart elements until you have the story design you are looking for. Then all you need to do is write the story. I don't mean to minimize the work involved in writing. But the work of writing is reduced by working out the design to determine the structure rather than by having it emerge through rewrites.
