The document discusses the key elements that go into a good story: 1) Protagonists, who are the main characters that serve as the focus for themes and drive the story forward. 2) Antagonists, who offer opposition to the protagonists. 3) A character arc where the protagonists undergo a transformation through their experiences in the story. 4) Memorable scenes that cost the characters something and remain tattooed in the memory. 5) An inciting incident that throws the protagonists into the story. 6) An object of desire that drives the story forward and would resolve it if attained.

1. STORY LAB
Authoring your story as mission

2. Why does story matter?

3. A story is a character that wants something
and overcomes conflict to get it.
So what is a story?

4. Protagonists - The main character: one
that serves as the focus for its themes and
incidents, as well as an advocate or
champion of a cause or course of action.
What goes into a good story?

5. Antagonists - an adversary: someone who
offers opposition
What goes into a good story?

6. Character Arc - A character is what he
does. Story brings about character
transformation.
There is a general rule that characters don’t
like change. If a character doesn’t change,
the story hasn’t happened yet.
What goes into a good story?

7. Memorable Scene – A good life has
memorable scenes, and a memorable
scene is often something that costs us
something- but when paid for, it tattoos as a
memory for us to remember for years to
come.
What memorable scenes do is punctuate
the existing rise and fall of a narrative. We
have to force ourselves to create scenes.
What goes into a good
story?

8. Inciting Incident – What does your
character want? The incident is what throws
your character into their story.
The incident is how you get the character to
do something, but it is the story that
changes the character.
What goes into a good story?

9. Object of desire - the thing that if you give it
to your character the story would stop:
“Object of Desire” is the “wants something”
part of our definition of story.
What goes into a good
story?

10. Writing Question:
How do we fight the drift to give up on our
story?
Why does story matter?

11. STORY LAB
Authoring your story as mission