So far, we’ve talked about drama, which comes from conflict. And that conflict happens when your main character is faced with a problem.

But here’s the thing: the drama, the exciting part, doesn’t happen when she solves the problem and gets what she wants. That’s the end of the drama. The exciting part is all the stuff you write about how she is trying to solve the problem.

In our going-to-the-store story (we started talking about it here), when the clerk says ‘no’ in the third version, we could just have the main character steal the gum when he is not looking.

There. Problem solved.

There is a little bit of drama there, sure. But what we really want to read about (or watch) is the process she goes through to get to her solution.

Does she think about whether it’s really the right thing to do to steal it?

Does she worry about getting caught or arrested?

All that stuff, all the stuff she goes through before she actually solves the problem, that’s the part where your reader wants to know ‘what’s going to happen next?’

If you solve her problem too quickly, then we lose a lot of the excitement.

So slow down.

Make your character work for it. Harry could have been whisked away to Hogwarts in the first chapter of book one, which would have solved the problem he was having with his aunt and uncle.

But he wasn’t. We had to wait for it. And it was that much more exciting when Hagrid finally got there.

So slow down.

You’re a writer, Harry.

Happy writing, young writer.