Purpose
What do they teach us to do as writers?
Make sure to address the Who, What, Where, Why, When and How
of your story.
The Why is closely linked to Purpose. The story and its
characters must have a purpose. Often the hero and heroine’s purpose shifts during
the story, scene by scene. This shifting purpose is similar to the arc but isn’t.
An arc is change. Purpose is direction or philosophy. Humans without purpose
have a diminished life. If your character(s) start out this way they had better
come around to it or you have no story. If their purpose is faulty when
compared to societal norms, this is okay. It depends on the story the author
wants to tell. In Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe the purpose was to show us that things fall apart.
In the movie Casablanca, the purpose for both Rick and Ilsa
was to show that they didn’t amount to a hill of beans when compared to the
higher purpose of defeating Nazism.
In romances with a traditional happy ending, the purpose is to show that
the hero and heroine have each other’s love as a purpose for living. In a Christian
romance we are taught that love is the purpose for living (love thy God and neighbor).
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