SPOOC Your Fiction

SPOOC Your Fiction!

Jump-start your fiction by crafting the two sentence core of your story. Acclaimed novelist Deborah Chester advocates this method for making sure there’s enough story to your story – by writing down the Situation, Protagonist, Objective, Opponent and Climax in a concise two-sentence format before you begin. It’s a great tool for starting a novel, getting one back on track, or even creating an effective elevator pitch.

So Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone might look  something like this:

Situation: When he finds out that someone is after the Philosopher’s stone hidden in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Protagonist: Harry Potter
Objective: vows to keep it safe.
But can he stop
Opponent: the evil Lord Voldemort
Climax: from stealing it and coming back?

We used SPOOC at the Northwest Ohio Writers Forum meeting on February 17, 2018 at the Heatherdowns branch library. I had a hard time boiling down the plot of my book, The Search for a Sipping House, into just two sentences but I managed. The SPOOC method is great if you need a really short description to pitch your novel. It also makes you think about what is really going on in your plot. If you’re a writer, give it a try and see if your book measures up!