Story Keys are the uniquely intense and dramatic situations that a reader or viewer naturally remembers about a story.

Make a list of Story Keys ahead of time so you know what you want to excite your readers about

Example: In Gone With The Wind – The Movie one intense moment is Scarlet O’Hara’s moment of being alone when other hopes are dashed and picking up a handful of earth from Tara, symbolizing that no matter what she would hold onto Tara, her ancestral home, when all else collapses.

Example: Steven Seagal in the Movie, Above The Law, is tied to the chair and about to be tortured and he breaks out of it with superhuman effort and kills his adversary. There is a strong message from this intense moment that each and any of us can get out of a difficult situation if we focus all our strength and skills.

Life is full of problems. Make a list of Five Key Problems your main character is solving in your novel.

STORY KEYS are primal archetypal moments in drama that symbolize common, important life situations.

Here we have been talking about turning Defeat into Victory as a Story Key.

Make sure your novel or play has about twelve of them.

Make a list of possible Story Keys, Pivotal Scenes that will be memorable to the reader or viewer.

Think Big, Act Big, Be Bigger Than Life. Yet represent life with your Story Keys.

In The Writer’s Interface you will find places where suggestions about story keys are put in for developing Story Lines and Story Themes.

A Story Theme is an overarching key life context and issue dramatized. Your Story Keys are intense nodes of action and meaning along the way, the storylines, that dramatize the two or three main Story Themes.

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