by Beth K. Vogt, @bethvogt

My last blog post focused on how every novel has a Story Question that fuels your story.

Just a quick refresher:  A Story Question is the question that your characters wrestle with from the opening pages of your book and that they must answer by the end of the book. Your readers are often subconsciously wrestling with the Story Question, too. The Story Question is not easily answered with a yes or a no.

Today let’s go through the steps that help you discover your novel’s Story Question. You start by answering four questions about your book. (And yes, you can answer these questions before you’ve finished writing your story.):

• Why does your story matter to you? (If your story doesn’t matter to you, it won’t matter to your readers.)

• What is your story’s theme? (Theme = overall idea of a book. Distill it down to one word: forgiveness, honesty, trust).

• What is your hero/heroine learning about the theme?

• What do you want to say about the theme through your characters?

Here’s how I answered these questions for my just-released women’s fiction novel, Things I Never Told You:

• Why does Things I Never Told You matter to me? (And no, I didn’t have a title for my novel when I was working on the Story Question.) It matters to me because it’s about the complicated relationships between four sisters. I love writing about relationships. I have two sisters and I’ve raised three daughters.

• What is your story’s theme? (Brainstorm several possible themes and then laser in on one.) Grief. Sisters. Secrets. Forgiveness. I chose SECRETS.

• What is your hero/heroine learning about the theme? My heroine learns that choosing to keep a secret doesn’t always protect you or someone else.

• What do you want to say about the theme through your characters? Secrets can damage family relationships.

After you answer these four questions, you mull. This is the fun part. Really, it is. There’s no rushing the process. It also helps to have some writing friends brainstorm with you. Sometimes I figure out the Story Question in as little as an hour, and sometimes it takes a few days.

Ultimately, the Story Question that my characters wrestled with was: Is family always worth fighting for?

Can you see how that Story Question was derived from those four questions and the answers that centered around the topics of sisters and secrets and family relationships?

Before we reach the end of this post, let me use the classic To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee to show how every book has a Story Question. Obviously, I’m conjecturing how Harper Lee might answer these questions based on what I know about her life and this book.

• Why does your story matter to you? I’ve experienced some of the situations that my main character experienced – I grew up in that era. My father was a lawyer, my mother was absent from my life due to health issues … so I wrote about things I am familiar with.

• What is your story’s theme? Innocence, prejudice, racism, good vs. evil, courage

• What is your hero/heroine learning about the theme? What is the true definition of courage?

• What do you want to say about the theme through your characters? That doing the right thing – being courageous – is never easy – (Atticus defines bravery as doing what you know is right even when you know you’ll fail, even “before you begin,” and keep pursuing the task “no matter what.” )

Possibly Story Question for To Kill a Mockingbird: Should you continue to do the right thing even if you know you’re going to fail?

What do you think a possible Story Question could be for To Kill a Mockingbird?

Things I Never Told You by Beth K. Vogt

It’s been ten years since Payton Thatcher’s twin sister died in an accident, leaving the entire family to cope in whatever ways they could. No longer half of a pair, Payton reinvents herself as a partner in a successful party-planning business and is doing just fine—as long as she manages to hold her memories and her family at arm’s length.

But with her middle sister Jillian’s engagement, Payton’s party-planning skills are called into action. Which means working alongside her opinionated oldest sister, Johanna, who always seems ready for a fight. They can only hope that a wedding might be just the occasion to heal the resentment and jealousy that divides them . . . until a frightening diagnosis threatens Jillian’s plans and her future. As old wounds are reopened and the family faces the possibility of another tragedy, the Thatchers must decide if they will pull together or be driven further apart.

Includes discussion questions.

Beth K. Vogt is a non-fiction author and editor who said she’d never write fiction. She’s the wife of an Air Force family physician (now in solo practice) who said she’d never marry a doctor—or anyone in the military. She’s a mom of four who said she’d never have kids. Now Beth believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” Beth’s first women’s fiction novel for Tyndale House Publishers, Things I Never Told You, releases May 2018. Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. Her 2014 novel, Somebody Like You, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. A November Bride was part of the Year of Wedding Series by Zondervan. Having authored nine contemporary romance novels or novellas, Beth believes there’s more to happily-ever-after than the fairy tales tell us. An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Novel Rocket and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. She lives in Colorado with her husband Rob, who has adjusted to discussing the lives of imaginary people, and their youngest daughter, Christa, who loves to play volleyball and enjoys writing her own stories. Connect with Beth at bethvogt.com.