Whose Story Is This? · P2P Author Business Harbor

Whose Story Is This?

We're going to combine writing craft with a little bit of woo-woo in this post. So buckle up!

When creating my upcoming course on story analysis, one of the first questions we ask when doing character analysis is: Whose Story is This?

Don't mix this up with POV. A Prayer for Owen Meany is definitely Owen's story, but not a single chapter is told from Owen's POV. We are shown his story from someone else's perspective. This allows the author (John Irving) to hide some of what Owen knows. That allows for a surprise ending, a twist that you don't see coming, but that was inevitable.

But I digress. We first want to know whose story this is. Who, not what, is this story about. Die Hard is about John McClane, Lethal Weapon is about Martin Riggs (along with his partner, but the first movie at least is Martin's story.

Think of your favorite stories. Who are they about? Hunger Games - Katniss. Harry Potter -duh. Go ahead, name a few.

Then look at your own stories. Who are they about? Are they told from the POV of that character, or someone else? When you identify whose story this is, whose misbeliefs and struggles are at the core, the plot begins to fall into place.

But when it comes to your writing career/journey, it is your story. You are the center. It is, despite what your spouse may say, all about you (at least in this area. Put your dish in the dishwasher for god's sake). So what story do you want to tell? What will your journey look like?

Because everything in life is about story. That's it. Everything else is just - well, part of the plot.

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Whose Story Is This?