{"id":1323,"date":"2016-11-15T12:22:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T20:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2017-01-03T19:49:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T03:49:03","slug":"the-collective-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/the-collective-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Stories with a “Collective” Goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Melanie Anne Phillips<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is excerpted from my book, 50 Sure-Fire Storytelling Tricks!<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In it, you’ll learn how some goals are not one thing\u00a0everyone is after, but one kind<\/em> of thing.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

\"collective-goal\"Some novice writers become so wrapped up in interesting events and bits of action that they forget to have a central unifying goal that gives purpose to all the other events that take place.\u00a0 This creates a plot without a core.<\/p>\n

But determining your story’s goal can be difficult, especially if your story is character oriented, and not really about a Grand Quest.<\/p>\n

For example, in the movie “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” all the characters are struggling with their relationships and not working toward an apparent common purpose.\u00a0 There is a goal, however, and it is to find happiness in a relationship.<\/p>\n

This type of goal is called a “Collective Goal” since it is not about trying to achieve the same thing, but the same KIND of thing.<\/p>\n

So don’t try to force some external, singular purpose on your story if it isn’t appropriate.\u00a0 But do find the common purpose in which all your characters share a critical interest.<\/p>\n

Need personalized story development\u00a0help?<\/em><\/h2>\n

Click below to learn about my story consulting service:<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Melanie Anne Phillips This article is excerpted from my book, 50 Sure-Fire Storytelling Tricks! In it, you’ll learn how some goals are not one thing\u00a0everyone is after, but one kind of thing. ******* Some novice writers become so wrapped up in interesting events and bits of action that they forget to have a central […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storyweaver-software"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p36xpN-ll","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1775,"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions\/1775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storymind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}