Welcome to Flight School:
Our third and final mini-class unveiled a key structural secrets behind stories that grip readers versus those that fall flat.
1. You Don't Have One Antagonist—You Have Nine
Most writers focus on the obvious villain but Robert McKee's model in Story shows us nine distinct antagonistic forces working against your protagonist:
Inner conflicts: Body, emotions, mind
Personal conflicts: Lovers, friends, family
Extra-personal conflicts: Physical environment, social institutions, individuals in society
When Lori described her character—a woman who discovers her husband killed her best friend but must choose between loyalty to the dead friend or protecting her son from his father's legacy—she was mapping these multiple antagonistic forces. The husband isn't just the external threat; Edie's own thoughts including her deep maternal instincts, social expectations, and family loyalty create layers of resistance.
2. Core Values Drive Everything (And It's Probably Not What You Think)
Every protagonist has one core value that determines their choices under pressure. Justice, truth, loyalty, maturity, freedom and so on. And, these aren't arbitrary themes but the structural DNA of the human experience and thus all story.
Conrad's medieval midwife story operates on justice: fair treatment evolves into injustice (different standards for men and women) and finally tyranny (unchangeable gender-based restrictions). Mary's WWII boy searching for his father likely centers on maturity—the journey from childish impulsiveness to adult understanding.
The revelation here is that your core value often emerges through writing, not planning. Like plot, it reveals itself through your character's consistent choices across scenes.
3. "Negation of Negation" Creates Unforgettable Stories
The greatest stories don't just move from positive to negative—they go to "negation of negation," which McKee describes as "bad on top of bad." Think of it emotionally, not mathematically, or think of a a toddler's epic meltdown where everything feels catastrophically awful and you get a deeper understanding of what this term means.
The Negation of Negation separates memorable literature from forgettable books. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (a stunning read for writers with eyes to see) doesn't just show slavery but reveals how Cora enslaved her own mind, believing she's ugly and worthless until a moment of love shows her that "they cannot enslave the mind"—only she can do that to herself.
Most writers, educated in systems that do not teach these broader topics, stop at the contradictory value but the best writers understand readers crave the catharsis that comes from witnessing a character emerge from the deepest possible darkness.
Why These Tools Matter
With my own book Blackbird, I had that "I'm working so hard but going nowhere" feeling but now I’ve just finished my first novel and do not feel that way anymore.
I finally understand my protagonist's core value, I get plot, I get structure, theme, character and all the other little pieces that make a great book and I can map my way through to the ending. At last.
I write about my frustrations and how I finally mapped the problems in Blackbird. Here is that post breaking down what I discovered about my own story when I learned these tools (after wasting three years in my very expensive MFA). Yes, even a New York Times bestseller can feel structurally "wrong" to its author. My book succeeded despite structural timing issues because I leaned on my natural strengths (reportorial voice, child's perspective) but it could have been so much better with a deeper understanding the underlying architecture I’m teaching now in this class and in the Bones of Storytelling that begins September 30th.
This is ten weeks of intensive study combining the depth of a master's degree with practical application to your manuscript.
Learn a concrete framework that transforms "working hard and going nowhere" into confident, purposeful writing that gets you across the finish line.
Early registration includes:
10 comprehensive video lessons
10 Weekly 2-hour live debriefs for collaborative manuscript development (recorded so if you miss one or two, that’s fine).
Complete handout library covering everything from theme to structure to plot to character to antagonistic forces
Stop hoping your story will somehow work. Start knowing why it does. Watch the first class for free, here, to see how this works and get into class now. We have room for you. Paid subscribers, check the footer of this email and you get 20% off.
Thank you for being with me, enjoy this video of the final mini class and I hope to see you in this life altering class, Bones of Storytelling.
Jennifer 🐦⬛
