I’m trying something new for the next few posts: I’ll define a My Book Therapy term (the What) and then explain the importance of the term (the Why).

Simple enough, wouldn’t you say?

Let’s begin.

What:  Story Question (Those of you who participated in the Monday night Bleacher chat that I taught will understand the motivation for this article!)

The Story Question asks “what if?” It also asks a question of the heart or mind – the great “what if?”

Why:  As I said during the Bleacher chat, if you hang around me long enough, and you’re working on a novel, I will ask you what your Story Question is. Why? The Story Question drives your entire novel. Consequently, the Story Question should be woven through every scene, every chapter of your book.

Think of the Story Question like gasoline for your car – it keeps your story moving. If you lose sight of your Story Question, your writing loses focus. You run out of gas, so to speak, and find yourself at a writing dead end.

For my debut novel, Wish You Were Here, my Story Question was:

• What if a woman kisses her fiancé’s brother five days before the wedding? (Remember: Story Question asks “what if?”)
• I then reworked my Story Question to: Can the wrong kiss lead to Mr. Right?
• Delving into the spiritual truth of my Story Question took me to this question: Can God redeem our mistakes? While I never used that question to pitch my story, I knew it was driving the spiritual thread of my novel.

How can you develop the Story Question for you work-in-progress (WIP)? Ask these questions:

1. Why does your story matter to you? (If your story doesn’t matter to you, it won’t matter to your readers.)
2. What is your story’s theme? (Theme = overall idea of a book. Distill it down to one word: forgiveness, honesty, trust.)
3. What is your hero/heroine learning about the theme?
4. What do you want to say about the theme through your characters?

Once you’ve determined your Story Question, write it out and post it over your computer so you see it when you’re writing. That way, you never lose sight of what you’re aiming for as an author: Using your characters to answer your Story Question.

MBT’s Skills Coach, Beth K. Vogt provides her readers with a happily ever after woven through with humor, reality, and God’s lavish grace. Her debut novel, Wish You Were Here, will be published in May 2012 by Howard Books. She’s also written Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood after 35 for Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) International and is a consulting editor for their magazine, MomSense, and a bimonthly columnist for MOMSnext, an e-zine for moms of school-age children.