Shoutout to the librarian who made me rewrite my first story three times

I was 14 at the downtown public library in Austin, and Mrs. Kwan handed back my fantasy story with 'needs conflict' written in red. She sat me down at a table and made me explain what my main character actually wanted. Her one question 'why does this matter to her' totally changed how I think about plot. Has anyone else had a non-writer give advice that stuck with you?

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brookethomas6d ago

I read something from Ursula K Le Guin once about how conflict doesn't have to mean people fighting, it just means something is out of balance and the character has to figure out how to fix it. That always stuck with me because Mrs. Kwan's question about "why does this matter to her" is basically the same thing. She wanted me to figure out what was wrong in the character's world that she actually cared about fixing, not just throw in a dragon for no reason. It made me realize that the best stories come from asking "what do you want and why can't you have it" rather than trying to make something exciting happen.