Great stories don’t happen by accident, they come from a thoughtfully developed process. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but a few key principles can help you develop your story to be both compelling and memorable.
To start, identify the hot spot that holds potential for conflict or emotion. This may be an image, conversation or event. Then, choose a working title that reflects the tone you’re going for (eg “Goodfellas” or “Untitled Gangster Drama”).
Next, map out progressive complications, or “what if” scenarios that lead to your protagonist’s climax moment. During this stage, it’s good to get outside feedback from a trusted group of writers. Their feedback can help catch any flaws in your logic, weak passages or mischaracterizations that you might have overlooked.
Lastly, build your protagonist’s reaction to the climax scene so that it carries emotional weight. This is where all of the trials you’ve placed your hero through throughout your rising action come to a head. It’s here that you can show how your hero has evolved over the course of the story – for better or worse.
Journalists report on developing stories by monitoring events as they unfold, providing real-time updates to engage their audiences. This type of journalism is challenging because the nature of developing news means that information can change quickly and inaccurate reporting can spread. To minimize this risk, journalists should prioritize source verification and collaborate with other news outlets to ensure accuracy.