I don't have my 8 basic plot elements - does this matter?

Question: I have an idea for a story, the main characters and background characters, and I have my goal(s) but I don't have any of the other plot elements, consequence etc. Does this matter? I'm finding it hard to think if a consequence to be honest!

Answer: Of the 8 basic plot elements, the first four are the most important: Goal, Consequence, Requirements, and Forewarnings.

The value of having a consequence is that the goal can seem rather unimportant otherwise. Why pursue the goal, if not to avoid the consequence? It's the tension between goal and consequence that creates drama.

For instance, if a person's goal is to be successful, that might not matter unless they had a fear of poverty, or of disappointing their parents, or of not keeping pace with their friends. Maybe the bill collectors are knocking on their door, or there's a threat of being evicted.

If there were no consequence, why bother going through all the stress and effort of achieving the goal?

Of course, some goals are worth achieving on their own, but fear of a consequence is often a strong motivator.

Similarly, people look for love to avoid being lonely. They fight wars to save their communities from destruction. They seek enlightenment to avoid misery, solve mysteries to get resolution, etc. Consequences make the goal worth attaining.

The value of Requirements is that they provide a way to see or measure progress. How do you know if a character is getting closer to the goal or if he's just wasting his time? You know progress has been made when one or more of the requirements have been met.

Likewise, Forewarnings create urgency by providing evidence that the goal might not be reached, that the consequence may result instead. They suggest that the characters may not be on the right track.

Alternating between requirements and forewarnings creates the emotional roller coaster that keeps readers anxious to find out what happens next.

Leave out these four elements, and you risk creating a story that is emotionally flat and unengaging.

If you are having trouble coming up with a consequence for your story, one trick is to ask yourself questions like...

What would an unhappy ending for my character or the majority of characters in the story world look like?

What would their existence look like if they were to fail to achieve their goal?

In some stories, the unhappy ending might be that nothing changes -- that the unhappy situation at the start of the story simply remains in place. In other stories, things get a lot worse if the goal is not met.

Some examples:

If the goal of the story is to depose an evil king, replacing him with a good monarch, then the consequence might simply be that the evil king stays in power. (One variation on this is that if the evil king isn't deposed, they will carry out some evil plan that makes things worse.)

If the goal of the story is for the heroine to find true love, the consequence might be that she remains alone and unhappy (assuming this is her starting point). A variation is that to have the main character end up in a worse state. For instance, in the movie Arthur, the main character is given a week to find true love, otherwise he will lose his inheritance and his life will get much worse.

If the goal is to solve a mystery, the consequence may simply be that the mystery remains unsolved, denying the victim's family any sense of closure. (Or perhaps, if the murderer is left free, there is the threat of more murders happening.)

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